The First Doric Temple in Sicily, Its Builder, and IG XIV 1

Abstract:Based on visualizations created from a new 3D model, this article reexamines IG XIV 1, the famous dedication carved on the topmost riser on the krepis of the temple of Apollo at Syracuse. The revised text presented here describes a poietes, Kleosthenes or Kleosimenes, who created equipment for the installation of the columns that rose above it. The new reading undermines the prevailing interpretation that IG XIV 1 primarily concerns financial oversight. A review of similar Archaic-period dedicatory inscriptions for buildings and sculpture, as well as the technological relationships between early Doric architecture and Aegean monumental sculpture, suggests that the text instead celebrates the construction of the gigantic colonnades around the temple.