They called them houses, not temples, built for cult statues of deities, not to host religious ceremonies, which were always conducted outdoors.
Architectural elements were painted painted bright red, blue, and gold on a white base of stone or stucco. Animals and humans were painted in their natural colors.
The Erechtheion, dedicated to the legendary hero Erichthonius, has the porch of the caryatids, built to hide a giant beam after the building had to be reduced in size because of the Peloponnesian war. Large draped maidens replace the usual columns; they bear the roof on their heads.
Classical Greek temples differed from the archaic temples in following rules for sizes and proportions. The diameter of the base of the columns determined their height, the spacing between them and the overall size of the structure. Naos, pronaos, opisthodomos, and peristasis. Crepidoma, columns in one of three orders— Doric, Ionic, or Corinthian— capital, architrave, frieze, sima, and tympanon.
Temples