Southeast Temple

It was thus the last of several "itinerant temples," relocated from the Attic countryside to the Athenian Agora in the Imperial period.

It was heavily damaged during the Herulian Sack of Athens in 267 AD and then spoliated to build the post-Herulian fortification wall.

[1] The temple is located in the southeastern corner of the Athenian Agora, at the foot of the Acropolis' north slope, on the west side of the Panathenaic Way, just past the Library of Pantainos.

[3] The foundation of the pronaos consisted of re-used conglomerate blocks set in trenches cut deep into the bedrock, which are 1.50-1.70 metres thick.

The lower parts of these walls survive; they are made of re-used poros blocks, sealed with low quality gray mortar.

[1] No remains of the superstructure were found in situ, but a set of Ionic fragments, fit the measurements of the foundations.

[notes 1] There are fifteen column drums, one complete Ionic capital, twelve fragments from further capitals, a fragment from a column base, a block from the geison, part of crowning moulding of the cornice, and a tiny part of the moulding from the epistyle.

[10] The column drums are labelled with mason's marks (Γ, Θ, Λ, Ν, Π, Σ, Τ, Ω), which were used to correctly reassemble the blocks in the Agora.

[17] The cult statue was a colossal female figure in a peplos, made from Pentelic marble, which would have been nearly four metres tall.

[19] The statue found in the Southeast Temple may have been the model for the Capitoline Demeter, but it is possible that both sculptures are copies of a lost original.

[21] The foundations in the Agora were uncovered in excavations undertaken by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.

The foundations were uncovered as part of work undertaken in the southeast corner of the Agora between February and August 1959, which was managed by Dorothy Burr Thompson.