Edmund Stewart, Assistant Professor in Ancient Greek History presso l’Università di Nottingham, sul sito Antigone analizza le caratteristiche architettoniche dei templi greci, seguendo lo schema di un esercizio che è solito proporre ai suoi studenti: Cosa vi serve per costruire un tempio?

If, like me, you have ever wondered what goes into building a Greek temple, then fear not: I here present a list of everything you will need. Admittedly, when compared with the wonders made possible by Roman concrete or a mediaeval gothic arch, the hundreds of temples scattered across the Greek world may perhaps look a bit small. Yet they are certainly elegant, sometimes with a slender beauty typical of the Ionic order, or else the sturdy grandeur of the Doric. And, when examined closely, the process of building one may quickly become worryingly complex.

Steward ripercorre passo passo tutti i passaggi necessari per la costruzione di un tempio: dalla nomina dell’architetto da parte dell’assemblea cittadina, al reperimento dei fondi, alle modalità di pagamento delle maestranze, alla scelta e al trasporto dei materiali e delle attrezzature e così via.

In calce all’articolo qualche suggerimento di lettura per approfondire l’argomento:

This article is informed by an ongoing research project on Skilled Labour and Professions in Classical Athens. Some of this work is already published in the volume edited by E. Stewart, E. Harris, and D. Lewis, Skilled Labour and Professionalism in Ancient Greece and Rome (Cambridge UP, 2020). See in particular the essays by Harris, Lewis, Hochscheid and Linder. Other possible suggestions for reading include A. Burford, Craftsmen in Greek and Roman Society (Thames & Hudson, London, 1972), or more recently C. Feyel, Les Artisans dans les sanctuaires grecs aux époques classique et hellénistique à travers la documentation financière en Grèce (École française d’Athènes, Athens, 2006).