Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In Greek architecture, an open vestibule within the portico at the end behind the cella in most ancient peripteral or dipteral temples, corresponding to the pronaos at the principal end, into which opens the main entrance. Also called epinaos and posticum.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun In Greek architecture, a porch at the rear of a temple, set against the blank back wall of the cella.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The word οπισθόδομος does not occur in the inscription, and we cannot tell whether the western half of the building was called opisthodomos in the sixth century or not.

    The American Journal of Archaeology, 1893-1 Various

  • Last, column drums of the opisthodomos, the monument's back chamber, were damaged by a fire during the Roman period and are being consolidated in situ.

    Acropolis Update 1998

  • Consolidation of a column in the Parthenon's opisthodomos (rear chamber) (Spencer P.M. Harrington) [LARGERIMAGE]

    Acropolis Update 1998

  • Polias, and, passing into the Pandroseion, lay down (δυσα εις το πανδρόσειον ... κατέκειτο), can hardly have gone into the temple alongside of the Erechtheion, because there was no means of passing from the cella of that temple into the opisthodomos, and in order to reach the Pandroseion the dog would have had to come out from the temple by the door by which he entered it.

    The American Journal of Archaeology, 1893-1 Various

  • The opisthodomos, which was injured by fire at some time not definitely ascertained (but probably not very far from the date of the fire in the Erechtheion), was the opisthodomos of the Parthenon.

    The American Journal of Archaeology, 1893-1 Various

  • The most celebrated example of such ornamentation was the box of Kypselos, in the opisthodomos of the temple of Hera at Olympia.

    Museum of Antiquity A Description of Ancient Life

  • Since the discovery of the pre-Persian temple, however, Dörpfeld maintains that the opisthodomos κατ εξοχήν was the entire western portion of that temple, consisting of three rooms besides the porch (though he does not expressly include the porch).

    The American Journal of Archaeology, 1893-1 Various

  • It cannot be identical with the νεώς ό Έκατόμπεδος nor with the opisthodomos, for the three appellations occur at the same date evidently designating three different places.

    The American Journal of Archaeology, 1893-1 Various

  • Page 11 regard this (with Lolling) as the opisthodomos where the treasure was kept.

    The American Journal of Archaeology, 1893-1 Various

  • Until the completion of the Parthenon, the opisthodomos of the pre-Persian temple might properly be

    The American Journal of Archaeology, 1893-1 Various

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