The Tower of the Winds, also known by other names, is an octagonal Pentelicmarble tower in the Roman Agora in Athens, named after the eight large reliefs of wind gods around its top. Its date is uncertain, but was completed by about 50 BC, at the latest, as it was mentioned by Varro in his De re Rustica of about 37 BC.[1] It is "one of the very small number of buildings from classical antiquity that still stands virtually intact", as it has been continuously occupied for a series of different functions.[2]
Formerly topped by a wind vane, it is the only surviving horologium or clock tower from classical antiquity.[3] It also housed a large water clock and incorporated sundials placed prominently on its exterior faces; "citizens were thus able by using this building to orient themselves in space and time. Architecture, sculpture and the new science were perfectly integrated".[4]
According to A. W. Lawrence, "the originality of this building is exceptional, and of a character out of keeping with Hellenistic architecture as we know it ... the design is obviously Greek, both in the severity of decorative treatment and in the antiquated method of roofing. The contrast with work of the Roman Empire is extraordinary, considering the date", which is long after the Roman conquest of Greece.[5]
Names
Relief of Notus, a hot summer wind often bringing rain. He has light clothing and carries an upturned amphora
The English name Tower of the Winds—personified on the building as the Anemoi—is ultimately a calque of the ancient Greek name Pýrgos tōn Anémōn (Πύργος των Ανέμων). It has also been known as the Horologium in Latin, the term used by Varro, or Horologion (Ancient Greek: Ὡρολόγιον, Hōrológion), from hṓra (ὥρα, "time period, hour") lógos (λόγος, "writing, recording") + -ion (-ιον), together usually meaning a sundial, clepsydra, or other timekeeping device but here used to describe the location housing them.
It is now known in Greek as the "Winds" (Greek: Αέρηδες, Aérides) and as the "Clock of Cyrrestes" (Greek: Ωρολόγιο του Κυρρήστου, Orológio tou Kyrrístou).
Design
Reliefs of Zephyrus and Skiron; three of the sundials are in the sun
Raised on three steps, the Tower of the Winds is 12 metres (39ft) tall and has a diameter of about 8 metres (26ft). In antiquity, Vitruvius tells us it was topped by a bronze statue of a Triton, holding a rod that acted as a weather vane indicating the wind direction; this has completely disappeared.[6][7] The frieze has reliefs, rather over life-size, of the eight wind deities—Boreas (N), Kaikias (NE), Apeliotes (E), Eurus (SE), Notus (S), Livas (SW), Zephyrus (W), and Skiron (NW)—there are eight sundials.[8] A cornice above is decorated with lions' heads in relief, functioning as water spouts.
Inside, there is a single large room. From ancient mentions by Varro and Vitruvius, it seems that time was measured by a water clock, driven by water coming down from the Acropolis. There are holes and channels in the floor relating to this, but the mechanism, presumably of metal and wood, has gone. Research has shown that the considerable height of the tower was motivated by the intention to place the sundials and the wind-vane at a height visible from the Agora, effectively making it an early example of a clocktower.[9]
Capital of the porch columns. Stuart and Revell, 1762
It had two porches with pediments, supported by two Corinthian columns at the front, now disassembled, though the lower parts of three columns remain in place. At least as they are now, they have no bases, unusual in the Corinthian. There also seem to be the earliest use of small versions of formal columns for porches, later a very common feature.[10] The roofs of the porches probably used wood, the only parts of the building to do so, and eventually collapsed. Parts of the stone pediment of one may be seen set up beside the tower.[11]
These columns had capitals of a design now sometimes known as "Tower of the Winds Corinthian", a "late variant form" lacking the volutes ordinarily found in Corinthian capitals.[12] The capital on the roof, which supported the Triton weather-vane, used the same form; the broken lower part of this remains in place. None of these have survived complete, but there are enough fragments to make a confident reconstruction. There is a single row of acanthus leaves at the bottom of the capital, with a row of "tall, narrow leaves" behind.[13] These cling tightly to the swelling shaft, and are sometimes described as "lotus" leaves, as well as the vague "water-leaves" and palm leaves; their similarity to leaf forms on many ancient Egyptian capitals has been remarked on.[14] The form is found in smaller columns, both ancient and modern. The porch of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Queen Street, Edinburgh, has four examples, but conventional Corinthian capitals are used elsewhere in the building.
To the rear a "turret" held the water for the clock; only part of this has survived. The main roof is essentially original (exceptionally rare in an ancient building), with 24 triangular stone slabs, carved on the outside to look like tiles;[15] here rows of modern standard rounded roof tiles now cover the joins. Inside eight very small columns, less than four feet high but with richly carved shafts, stand at each corner of the octagon, on a circular cornice, running up to a circular architrave.[16]
Functionality
View in 2021. The acropolis rises behind. The fragments of a porch are set up to the right, between the visitors, and the remains of the Roman aqueduct are at far right
Andronicus of Cyrrhus, the designer, seems to have written a book on the winds. A passage in Vitruvius's chapter on town planning in his On Architecture (De architectura) seems to be based on this missing book. The emphasis is on planning street orientations to maximize the benefits, and minimize the harms, from the various winds.[17]
The London Vitruvius, the oldest surviving manuscript, includes only one of the original illustrations, a rather crudely drawn octagonal wind rose in the margin. This was written in Germany in about 800 to 825, probably at the abbey of Saint Pantaleon, Cologne.[18]
Although often described as a clocktower, it is not clear if, or how, the readings on the water clock inside could be communicated to people outside the building; it may have been necessary to go inside. The sundials on each face are individually customised to allow for the very differing times of the day that they were in direct sunlight. There was a further sundial on the turret at the back; the further parts of the lines can still be seen.[19]
The bronze gnomons (shadow-creating rods) had disappeared, but the holes for them remained, and modern replacements have been fitted. The straight lines engraved in the stone, from which the hours were taken, were originally painted and would have stood out more clearly. The ancient Greeks divided the day, when it was light, into twelve equal "hours" regardless of the time of year. The east and west faces only have four lines each, for the hours that face was in sunlight, whereas the south facing one has eight.[20]
Inside: Floor of tower showing channels and holes for the water driving the mechanism
The turret at the back was a water tank, fed from a spring on the Athens acropolis above. A valve mechanism allowed water to flow into the clock mechanism via a channel cut in the floor; it may also have branched into two other channels to the side. The central mechanism was surrounded by circular railings, fitted into depressions in the floor that remain. It was apparently possible to walk around the clock and see it from all angles. There have been various attempts to reconstruct on paper how the clock worked, but this remains uncertain.[21]
It may have been an astronomical clock, showing a calendar, and the movements of the major star groups. The Antikythera mechanism, the only ancient Greek clock mechanism to partially survive, found in a shipwreck, is of this type. The roof has traces of blue paint, and may have depicted the sky in some way, even been some form of planetarium; there were no windows in the original building. it is carved differently from the outside, to give a smooth shallow dome.[22]
Later, the water supply was converted from underground pipes to a small aqueduct, the last section of which partially remains next to the tower. The large, slightly curving, channel in the floor leading from the turret tank to the central hole may also have been added at this point.[23]
Remains of the turret tank
The sundial lines below Libs, on the SW face; two of the modern gnomons can be seen
A different example of the "Tower of the Winds" form of the Corinthian order
The Greeks had long had various theories on the number of classical compass winds, but eight was by this period the usual number. The anemoi were named and regarded as minor deities. The large reliefs characterize each wind in terms of the things they carry, and often spill out from containers, the warmth of their clothing, and to some extent their physiques and expressions. All have large wings and are male, but of differing ages.[24] These representations of the winds are the largest known from antiquity.[25] They were originally painted, and had various extra elements in other materials, probably bronze.[26] Their names are carved above them; these are now hard to read from the ground, with the modern metal restraining cable passing through them.
In the table the prints are illustrations from the first volume of The Antiquities of Athens (London, 1762), and the start of the descriptions of the winds are given. The tower was one of only five ancient Greek buildings given a full treatment in this work. It had been surveyed and drawn by James "Athenian" Stuart and Nicholas Revett on an expedition in 1751–54, and the engravings were by James Basire (later the master of William Blake) back in London. These clearly tidy up the worn reliefs, but were also recorded when they had over 250 years less exposure to weather than today.
Eurus, the south east wind; which at Athens is sultry and gloomy, and brings much rain
South-east
Cloak
History
Watercolour, 1810s; the porch on this side is almost buried
According to Vitruvius and Varro, the astronomerAndronicus of Cyrrhus designed the Tower of the Winds.[32] But very little is known about his life, not even whether he came from the Cyrrhus in Macedonia or the larger Seleucid city (named after it) on the Euphrates.[33] From the style of the sculptures the tower is usually dated around 50 BC,[34] not long before Varro and Vitruvius mention it. An alternative possibility is that it was part of the generosity of Attalus III of Pergamon (d. 131 BC) who built the Stoa of Attalus in the city. This would place it earlier than the rest of the Roman forum,[35] and explain how such an expensive build was financed.
Turkish Kadiridervishes perform their religious rituals in the building in April 1805.
From a cross on an inside wall, and traces of paintings, the building was probably used as a martyrium for an apostle,[37] church or baptistry in late antiquity.[38] By the time of Ottoman rule it was buried up to half its height, and traces of this can be observed in the interior, where Turkish inscriptions may be found on the walls. It was fully excavated in the 19th century by the Archaeological Society of Athens.[citation needed] The idea that there was an Athens Mevlevi Convent or its ritual hall in the Tower and that the other buildings belonging to the Convent were located around it is incorrect. The Tower, which was converted into a Qadirî tekke sometime between 1749 and 1751, was used by Qadirî dervishes to perform their religious rituals for 70 years between 1751 and 1821, and was evacuated after the Greek revolt of 1821.[39]
The building became better known outside Greece from 1762, when a description and several careful measured engraved illustrations were published in London in the first volume of The Antiquities of Athens. The tower was one of only five ancient Greek buildings given a full treatment in this important work. It had been surveyed by James "Athenian" Stuart and Nicholas Revett on an expedition in 1751–54. When it was seen by them the dervishes operated on a wooden floor built above the rubble of the ancient floor level, which Stuart and Revett were allowed to remove temporarily. They had cut out a mihrab in the wall, which starts just above the lower cornice,[40] slightly above the level of their wooden floor.
By this point depictions and early photographs show that the surrounding ground level had risen by several feet, and entry was by a sort of trench around part of the building. In the later 19th and 20th centuries the surrounding area was cleared of modern buildings and excavated, restoring the original ground level around most of the building.
The Athens Ephorate of Antiquities performed restoration work, cleaning and conserving the structure, between 2014 and 2016.[41]
Elevation - Stuart & Revett, 1762, The Antiquities of Athens
Plan - Stuart & Revett, 1762
Inside: Roof of tower
General view of the tower, from Stuart & Revett's The Antiquities of Athens, illustration drawn in 1751, with added hand-colouring
By far the most famous ancient octagonal building was the Pharos of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, which partly survived long enough to be described by Islamic writers. This began with a square plan, but had an octagonal middle section below a final circular one. The octagonal middle would have been considerably larger than the Athens tower, and the tower must have suggested the Pharos to ancient visitors.[42] The Pharos was also decorated with statues of Tritons, usually shown at the top of the octagonal section on coins, and perhaps one on each of the eight sides, but it is not known whether it showed interest in the winds, or had sundials, a weather-vane or a clock.
The Pharos dates to the 3rd century BC, perhaps around 270 BC,[43] as does a much smaller mausoleum further along the coast at Abusir, which seems to be a scaled down version, as it also rises through square, octagonal and round sections, though with very different proportions between the heights of the sections.
St Pancras Church (1822) designed by William Inwood and his son Henry William Inwood, located in Euston, London. This is a unique Greek-revival church, that features two sets of Caryatids and a tower that was based on the classical Tower of the Winds.
The "Four Winds" brick chimney of the former hydraulic power station beside Glasgow Harbour at Prince's Dock, Glasgow, designed by Burnet, Son and Campbell and built in 1894 for the Clyde Navigation Trust.
The Temple of the Winds at West Wycombe Park in Buckinghamshire, dating from the late 18th century.
Andronicus of Cyrrhus or Andronicus Cyrrhestes was a Macedonian astronomer best known for designing the Tower of the Winds in Roman Athens.
The Lighthouse of Alexandria, sometimes called the Pharos of Alexandria, was a lighthouse built by the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus. It has been estimated to have been at least 100 metres (330 ft) in overall height. One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, for many centuries it was one of the tallest man-made structures in the world.
Vitruvius was a Roman architect and engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work titled De architectura. As the only treatise on architecture to survive from antiquity, it has been regarded since the Renaissance as the first book on architectural theory, as well as a major source on the canon of classical architecture. It is not clear to what extent his contemporaries regarded his book as original or important.
The Corinthian order is the last developed and most ornate of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order, which was the earliest, followed by the Ionic order. In Ancient Greek architecture, the Corinthian order follows the Ionic in almost all respects, other than the capitals of the columns, though this changed in Roman architecture.
The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan, and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite order. Of the three classical canonic orders, the Corinthian order has the narrowest columns, followed by the Ionic order, with the Doric order having the widest columns.
Greek Revival architecture was a style that began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe, the United States, and Canada, as well as in Greece itself following its independence in 1821. It revived many aspects of the forms and styles of ancient Greek architecture, in particular the Greek temple. A product of Hellenism, Greek Revival architecture is looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture, which was drawn from Roman architecture. The term was first used by Charles Robert Cockerell in a lecture he gave as an architecture professor at the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1842.
A water clock or clepsydra is a timepiece by which time is measured by the regulated flow of liquid into or out from a vessel, and where the amount of liquid can then be measured.
Ctesibius or Ktesibios or Tesibius was a Greek inventor and mathematician in Alexandria, Ptolemaic Egypt. Very little is known of Ctesibius' life, but his inventions were well known in his lifetime. He was likely the first head of the Museum of Alexandria. He wrote the first treatises on the science of compressed air and its uses in pumps. This, in combination with his work On pneumatics on the elasticity of air, earned him the title of "father of pneumatics." None of his written work has survived, including his Memorabilia, a compilation of his research that was cited by Athenaeus. Ctesibius' most commonly known invention today is a pipe organ (hydraulis), a predecessor of the modern church organ.
A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word vane comes from the Old English word fana, meaning "flag".
Clock towers are a specific type of structure that house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another building. Some other buildings also have clock faces on their exterior but these structures serve other main functions.
De architectura is a treatise on architecture written by the Roman architect and military engineer Marcus Vitruvius Pollio and dedicated to his patron, the emperor Caesar Augustus, as a guide for building projects. As the only treatise on architecture to survive from antiquity, it has been regarded since the Renaissance as the first known book on architectural theory, as well as a major source on the canon of classical architecture.
The Arch of Hadrian, most commonly known in Greek as Hadrian's Gate, is a monumental gateway resembling—in some respects—a Roman triumphal arch. It spanned an ancient road from the center of Athens, Greece, to the complex of structures on the eastern side of the city that included the Temple of Olympian Zeus.
An anemoscope is a device designed to show the direction of the wind, or to indicate a change of wind direction. The name is usually applied to an apparatus consisting of a wind vane above, connecting to a building below by some kind of coupling, and with a dial or index with pointers to show the direction and changes of the wind.
Nicholas Revett (1720–1804) was a British architect. Revett is best known for his work with James "Athenian" Stuart documenting the ruins of ancient Athens. He is sometimes described as an amateur architect, but he played an important role in the revival of Greek architecture.
James "Athenian" Stuart was a Scottish archaeologist, architect and artist, best known for his central role in pioneering Neoclassicism.
The Dugald Stewart Monument is a memorial to the Scottish philosopher Dugald Stewart (1753–1828). It is situated on Calton Hill overlooking the city of Edinburgh and was designed by Scottish architect William Henry Playfair.
Ancient Greek technology developed during the 5th century BC, continuing up to and including the Roman period, and beyond. Inventions that are credited to the ancient Greeks include the gear, screw, rotary mills, bronze casting techniques, water clock, water organ, the torsion catapult, the use of steam to operate some experimental machines and toys, and a chart to find prime numbers. Many of these inventions occurred late in the Greek period, often inspired by the need to improve weapons and tactics in war. However, peaceful uses are shown by their early development of the watermill, a device which pointed to further exploitation on a large scale under the Romans. They developed surveying and mathematics to an advanced state, and many of their technical advances were published by philosophers, like Archimedes and Heron.
The Daniel S. Schanck Observatory is an historical astronomical observatory on the Queens Campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States. It is located on George Street near the corner with Hamilton Street, opposite the parking lot adjacent to Kirkpatrick Chapel, and to the northeast of Old Queens and Geology Hall.
A tholos, in Latin tholus, is a form of building that was widely used in the classical world. It is a round structure with a circular wall and a roof, usually built upon a couple of steps, and often with a ring of columns supporting a conical or domed roof.
Onians, John, Art and Thought in the Hellenistic Age: Greek World View, 350-5 BC, 1979, Thames & Hudson, ISBN0500272646
Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew in Rome and the Colonial City: Rethinking the Grid, 2022, eds. Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, Sofia Greaves, Oxbow Books, ISBN 9781789257823, google books
Webb, Pamela A. (2017). "The Tower of the Winds in Athens: Greeks, Romans, Christians, and Muslims; Two Millennia of Continual Use". Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society. 270. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society Press.
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