Philippeion
Sign in to saveThe Philippeion () in the Altis of Olympia was a tholos made of in limestone and marble. Originally, it contained chryselephantine (ivory and gold) statues of the family of Philip II, including himself, his son Alexander the Great, one of his wives Olympias, his father Amyntas III, and his mother Eurydice I. It was made by the Athenian sculptor Leochares as a memorial celebrating Philip's victory at the battle of Chaeronea (338 BC). It was the only structure inside the Altis dedicated to human beings rather than gods.
Key facts
- Building.name
- Philippeion
- Building.native_name
- Φιλίππειον
- Building.native_name_lang
- GR
- Building.image
- The Philippeion in Ancient Olympia on October 14, 2020.jpg
- Building.caption
- The ruins of the Philippeion in 2020
- Building.location_town
- Olympia
- Building.location_country
- Greece
- Building.architect
- Leochares
- Building.building_type
- Tholos
- Building.architectural_style
- Ancient Greek architecture
via Wikipedia infobox
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Encyclopedic overview
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- Description
- Notes
- References
- External links
The Philippeion () in the Altis of Olympia was a tholos made of in limestone and marble. Originally, it contained chryselephantine (ivory and gold) statues of the family of Philip II, including himself, his son Alexander the Great, one of his wives Olympias, his father Amyntas III, and his mother Eurydice I. It was made by the Athenian sculptor Leochares as a memorial celebrating Philip's victory at the battle of Chaeronea (338 BC). It was the only structure inside the Altis dedicated to human beings rather than gods.
== Description == thumb|Floor plan The temple consisted of an outer colonnade of Ionic order with 18 columns. Inside it had nine engaged columns of the lavishly designed Corinthian order. It had a diameter of 15 metres. The naos contained two windows, much like Hera II at Paestum. It had a carved marble roof which was decorated with a bronze poppy head on top.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Philippeion” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
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