Greece - Table of Contents ................................. Architecture Around the World
Tower
of the Winds
Roman Agora,
Athens, Greece
Agora (pron. AG or
a): A place of
congregation, especially an ancient Greek marketplace
Tower of the Winds, also called Horologium, Greek Horologion (“Timepiece”), building in Athens erected about 100–50 BC by Andronicus of Cyrrhus for measuring time.
Still standing, it is an octagonal marble structure 42 feet (12.8 m) high and 26 feet (7.9 m) in diameter.
Each of the building’s eight sides faces a point of the compass and is decorated with a frieze of figures in relief representing the winds that blow from that direction; below, on the sides facing the sun, are the lines of a sundial.
The Horologium was surmounted by a weather vane in the form of a bronze Triton and contained a water clock (clepsydra) to record the time when the sun was not shining. The Greeks invented the weather vane; the Romans used them in the belief that the wind’s direction could foretell the future.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica (online December 2018)
Except where noted, photos taken November 2018
Tower of the Winds
2001 photo
Note broken weather vane
Terra cotta tile roof ... Lion head gargoyles
Center frieze: Kaikias - the Northeast wind - holds a shield full of hailstones ... Note Parthenon in upper left
2001 photo
Frieze: Euros - the Southeast wind - A bearded male whose cloak billows in the wind
Frieze: Euros - the Southeast wind - A bearded male whose cloak billows in the wind ... Note the physical deterioration
Frieze: Apeliotes – the East wind - A young male whose cloak is filled with fruit and grain
Frieze: Notos - the South wind - He is emptying an amphora of water
Frieze: Zephyros - the West wind - cloak is filled with flowers
Frieze: Zephyros - the West wind - cloak is filled with flowers
Frieze: Skiron - the Northwest wind - Northwest - bearded male in a tunic and cloal holding an overturned metal vase which has spilt hot coals
Frieze: Lips - the Southwest wind - He is holding the stern of a ship