MERGE TO GYRENE. 431 between the ante in this temple; and the walls of the aedes must have been continued from the angle till they reached the jambs of the doorways. If the statue of the deity looked towards the west (as recommended by Vitruvius, chap, v.) * it must have been placed in the pronaos, and not in the cella, to have been seen through the doorway from without ; for the wall which divides the cella from the pronaos continued too far across the interior to have allowed of any door in the centre of it, opening from one of these to the other, (as will appear by the plan ;) and it would be absurd to look for a com -munication between them in any other part of the wall. Under this disposition, had the statue been in the cella, and its face turned towards the west, it must have looked against the wall in question ; and could not have been seen at all from the western front of the temple f. From the portions of Doric entablature which we per-(those of the pycnostyle and systyle dimensions are intended) unless they separate and walk in ranks. The view of the entrance, and of the statues themselves, is also obstructed when the columns are placed so little apart; and the ambulatory, whose width is govenied by the interval between the columns, is inconvenient from its being so narrow.” — Wilkins’s Vitruvius, vol. i. p. 11, 12.

* “ The temples of the gods ought to be so placed that the statue, which has its station in the cella, should, if there be nothing to interfere with such a disposition, face the west; in order that those who come to make oblations and offer sacrifices may face the east, when their view is directed towards the statue : and those who come to impose upon themselves the performance of vows, may have the temple and the east immediately before them. Thus the statues they regal'd will appear as if rising from the east and looking down upon the suppliants.” — (Wilkins’s Vitruvius, vol. i. p. 79.)

■f The most ancient position of temples appears to have been east and west, with the entrance, or frontispiece, towards the west ; and the statue of the deity looking towards the same point ; so that they who worshipped should have their faces turned towards the rising sun. The contrary aspect was, however, adopted at an early period, and appears to have been universal in later ages whenever local causes did not interfere with such an arrangement.