A Note on the Temple of Zeus at Cyrene and its Re-Erection
During the course of work in Cyrenaica extending over the 1950s and 1960s I was asked by the late Richard Goodchild, then Controller of Antiquities, to note and comment on any architectural features which I felt to have special significance. In this way, across the years, I handed over to him various short notes with drawings of miscellaneous items that I had observed. Of one such observation a copy has come to hand recently among old papers.While working with the Michigan Expedition to Apollonia (1965–68) I visited the late Professor Stucchi's project for re-erecting the remains of the Temple of Zeus at Cyrene, begun in 1967. During the visit I was interested to observe the detailing of a triglyph block from the peristyle entablature. This seemed to conflict with, or rather to add somewhat to the then accepted building history of the temple — i.e. a (late) Archaic Greek Temple overthrown during the Jewish Revolt and subsequently refurbished minus the peristyle.Work on Professor Stucchi's project is not yet completed; and although he published both progress reports and some discussion of the findings, he has not, to my knowledge, given us a detailed account of the evidence for the history of the building; so perhaps my note made in 1968 remains of interest. I have left the argument as it stood, but some updating material has been added to the footnotes.G.R.H.W.Avignon, December 1993.