Temple of Zeus Sosipolis from Magnesia on the Maeander

In the last decades of the third century BC, a set of twoaisled porticoes was constructed around the marketplace (agora) in Magnesia. The new agora adjoined the west side of the sanctuary of Artemis, but the agora as a whole was oriented to the regular street grid on which Magnesia was refounded around 400 BC. In the southern half of the agora was a small temple of Zeus Sosipolis, built on a podium measuring 7.38 x 15.82 m. The western façade of the temple has been fully reconstructed in the museum using some of the original architectural elements. A plaster cast of an acroterial base from the back of the temple has been set over the left corner of the front pediment in order to show off its inscription, which records that a priest of the Demos named Theophilos dedicated the acroterion. After German archaeologists excavated the temple, the ruins fell prey to theft; and today, the podium has been engulfed by the flood of sediment carried by the nearby Lethaios River. The temple consisted of a deep, square vestibule (pronaos) that opened to the west across four Ionic columns; a likewise square cella; and a small opisthodomos with two columns standing between the side walls (inantis) facing east. The opisthodomos was secured with abronze grating in a later period. A colossal cult image of Zeus enthroned was so large as to nearly burst the small cella that contained it. In the division of objects found in the excavations, the marble torso of the statue also came to Berlin; finished in two parts, it is now on show in the “Greekcourtyard” of the Neues Museum […].