Erechtheum

Temple in Athens, Greece, situated to the north of the Parthenon on the Acropolis. Completed about 405 BC, it was built of marble on sloping ground. It is asymmetrical in design, with porches projecting at different heights from two sides. The small porch on the south side, known as the ‘caryatid porch’, is unusual in that it has columns of draped female sculptured figures (‘caryatids’) supporting a flat roof.

The porch on the north side is on lower ground and has large Ionic order columns. The temple contained a shrine of Athena Polias, an altar of Poseidon and Erechtheus, one of Zeus Hypatos, one of Butes, and one of Hephaestus.

The temple was called after Erechtheus, a legendary king of Athens, to whom part of it was dedicated. It was built on the site of an earlier temple destroyed by the Persians 480; rebuilding started between 431 and 421 BC but was not completed until 407. Seriously damaged by fire soon afterwards, it was repaired in the early years of the 4th century BC and the western end was reconstructed in the late 1st century AD.