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Astrology is the art of predicting events on earth as well as human character and disposition from the movements of the planets and fixed stars. Medieval astrology encompassed both general concepts of celestial influence, and the technical art of making predictions with horoscopes, symbolic maps of the heavens at particular moments and places constructed from astronomical information. The scientific foundations of the art were developed in ancient Greece, largely lost in early medieval Europe and recovered by the Latin West from Arabic sources in the 12th and 13th centuries. Late medieval astrological images were successfully Christianized and were adapted to particular contexts, acquired local meanings and changed over time.

Astrology developed into a scientific branch of learning in ancient Greece, but because of the opposition of the Church Fathers it was transmitted to early medieval Europe in only fragmentary form in technically unsophisticated textbooks and popular divinatory genres. Literary and scientific texts provided more general ideas about the nature and attributes of the planets which were influential on later iconography. The first significant astrological images appear in 11th-century illustrated astronomical texts (e.g. London, BL, Cotton MS. Tiberius BV), which were acquired and produced by monasteries to aid with time-keeping and the construction of the Christian calendar....

[Branchidainow Didim.]

Ancient Greek oracular sanctuary on the west coast of Asia Minor (now Turkey), which flourished from the 7th century bc to the 2nd century ad (see fig.). The site is on an exposed peninsula 75 m above sea level, c. 20 km south of Miletos.

Didyma was originally a spring sanctuary of the indigenous Carians (Herodotus: I.clvii.3), antedating the Ionian colonization of the coast in the 11th–10th century bc (Pausanius: VII.ii.6). The mythological founder of the oracle was the shepherd Branchos, who received the gift of prophecy from Apollo (Konon: xxxiii; Strabo: IX.iii.9). Dedications were made by the Egyptian pharaoh Necho II in 608 bc (Herodotus: II.clix.3) and by the Lydian king Croesus in the earlier 6th century bc (Herodotus: I.xcii.2); during the 6th century bc, under the ‘Branchidai’ dynasty of priests, Didyma became the most important oracular sanctuary in East Greece, and was linked to Miletos by a Sacred Way 6 m wide and ...

(fl ?late 3rd century bc–early 2nd).

Greek architect. He may have been the Prienian and son of Harpalos who is referred to in an inscription from Priene as having dedicated the plan of a building (?temple) constructed by him (see Hiller von Gaertringen, pp. 143–4, no. 207). Like his predecessor Pytheos and his probable contemporary Arkesios, Hermogenes considered the Doric order inappropriate for temples (Vitruvius IV.iii.1), and he changed to Ionic the Doric design proposed for a temple of Dionysos, possibly the one at Teos. He wrote descriptive and theoretical treatises, frequently cited by Vitruvius, to whom his later reputation is largely due, on two of his most important works: the Temple of Artemis at Magnesia on the Maeander (begun late 3rd century bc; Vitruvius III.ii.6; VII.Preface 12) and the Temple of Dionysos at Teos (c. 200 bc: restored in Roman times). The former was pseudodipteral, a type of temple plan probably systematized, rather than invented, by Hermogenes; the latter employed the eustyle scheme for Ionic peristyles, which he developed (Vitruvius III.iii.6–9). He may also have designed the entire Sanctuary of Artemis at Magnesia, as well as the agora, and perhaps the early ...

(fl 5th century bc).

Greek city planner. He designed the plan of the new port of Athens at Peiraeus immediately after the end of the Persian wars (480/479 bc). More than thirty years later (444/443 bc) he took a leading part, together with philosophers and other experts, in the foundation of the ideal city of Thourion. Although he is attributed with the rebuilding of his home town of Miletos, which was begun immediately after 479 bc, this is doubtful.

The ‘division’ of Peiraeus mentioned by Aristotle (Politics, 1267b) apparently referred not only to a grid system of streets and to the ‘Hippodamian Agora’ that was connected with it, but also to a sophisticated overall plan, in which the functional uniform dwellings were an important constituent; the practical private houses of the city are expressly mentioned in connection with the ‘Hippodamian principle’ (Politics, 1330b). Moreover, a scholion to Aristophanes (...

[Gr. ‘underground’]. The term was used by Herodotus, for example, to refer to the underground tomb chambers of Egypt as well as the sapping tunnels of Persian siege craft. As a specifically architectural term, it can be used for the underground rooms or cellars of buildings, such as the Hypogeum of Hal Saflieni (c. 3000 bc) at Malta (anc. Pawla). Rules for their construction were given by Vitruvius (On Architecture VI.viii), but there is no single type or use for these structures. Vitruvius’ instructions can be applied equally to the extensive cryptoportici that run underneath some colonnades, particularly those of Roman fora, for example at Arles (Anc. Arelate; see Arles §1, (i)) or Thessaloniki. The function of these is uncertain, although they were ventilated and lit through openings cut into the steps of the colonnade above; they may well have been general storerooms.

Underground chambers were also used for cult purposes, often oracular. Small underground crypt chambers existed in temples, such as that of ...

Site on Mt Latmos in Caria (now in south-west Turkey), 15 km north of Mylasa (now Milas). A sanctuary there flourished c. 600 bc–c. ad 400. Swedish excavations began in 1948 under A. W. Persson, and finds from the site are now in the Archaeological Museum, Izmir, and Bodrum Museum. After a modest beginning in the 6th century bc, the sanctuary had its greatest building period under the Hekatomnids, who made it the main sanctuary of Caria and gave it a completely new layout on a series of terraces. Mausolos (reg 377–352 bc) erected a large in antis banqueting building, ‘Andron B’ (w. 11.76 m). Its marble front had two Ionic columns carrying a Doric entablature, an early example of mixed orders in the front of a sacred building. Unusually, the frieze had four metopes to each intercolumniation. A male bearded sphinx (Bodrum Mus.) was probably a corner acroterion. At the back of the cella was a large niche (4.77 m wide, 1.35 m deep and ...

(b Kilmarnock, Aug 18, 1835; d Edinburgh, July 3, 1900).

Scottish soldier, archaeologist, diplomat and collector of Iranian art. He was educated at Glasgow University, and in 1855 he obtained a commission in the Royal Engineers. The following year he joined the expedition of Charles Newton to Halikarnassos, which resulted in the discovery of the Mausoleum and the acquisition of its sculptures for the British Museum. In 1860 with E. A. Porcher, Murdoch Smith formed at his own expense an expedition to Cyrene in Libya. From this expedition he returned with Greek sculptures and inscriptions (London, BM). In 1863 he was selected for service on the Iranian section of a proposed telegraph line from Britain to India, and in 1865 he became its director in Tehran, holding that post for the next 20 years. He initiated his collecting activities for the South Kensington (later Victoria and Albert) Museum in 1873 when he offered his services as an agent. From 1873 to 1885...

(fl c. 370–c. 330 bc).

Greek architect who worked in Asia Minor. Vitruvius (On Architecture I.i.12–15, VII.Pref.12) cited the Commentaries by Pytheos on his most famous works, the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos (see Halikarnassos §2) and the Temple of Athena Polias at Priene; Pytheos has also been credited with the original design for the altar of Athena at Priene. He may have produced new town plans for Halikarnassos and Priene, including, at Priene, provision for the sanctuary of Zeus east of the agora, and he may be Pliny the elder’s ‘Pythis’, the designer of the quadriga on top of the Mausoleum (Natural History XXVI.iv.31). He apparently incorporated a traditionally Doric opisthodomos and acanthus-scroll sima in the Temple of Athena at Priene, setting a precedent for later Ionic temples such as the new Temple of Artemis at Ephesos. The Priene temple evidently inspired some features of the new Temple of Zeus (c....

Greek, 19th – 20th century, male.

Born 16 February 1852, in Istanbul, Turkey; died 2 October 1909, in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Painter, watercolourist, draughtsman. Genre scenes, portraits, local figures, architectural subjects, interiors with figures, animals.

Theodoros Rallis (Théodore Jacques Ralli) studied in Paris under Gérôme and Lecomte du Nouy and at the École des Beaux-Arts. He travelled widely in the Middle East and North Africa, finding many sources of inspiration. He exhibited first in 1875 at the Paris Salon, and subsequently at the Salon des Artistes Français, of which he was a member. He received an honourable mention in 1885 and a silver medal in 1889 for the Exposition Universelle, and served as a member of the jury for the 1900 Exposition Universelle. He also exhibited at the Royal Academy in London from 1879. He was made a Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur in 1901....

[now Izmir]

Greek and Roman site at the head of the Gulf of Smyrna in Ionia, now western Turkey. The earlier site, c. 4 km to the north, has significant Archaic architectural remains; when it became too small it was refounded, reputedly in 334 bc by Alexander the Great.

J. M. Cook

Old Smyrna (now Bayraklı Tepe) occupied what originally seems to have been a peninsula. It was inhabited in prehistoric times, but Greek settlers may not have arrived before 1000 bc. Foundations of houses have been excavated (1948–51 by E. Akurgal (Ankara U.) and J. M. Cook (Brit. Sch., Athens); 1966– by E. Akurgal), the earliest dating from c. 900 bc, followed by levels of densely packed small houses, mainly with curved walls, of the 8th century bc. In the earlier 7th century bc the city began to take on a regular plan with streets on a north–south axis, and, since this seems to have coincided with a spread of population on to the mainland, some form of deliberate urban planning may be assumed. The larger, well-built houses, some at least two-storey, had mud-brick walls on stone socles of up to 1 m high and flat roofs. By the later ...