As he was now drawing near, at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the multitude said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” —Luke 19:37–40

1. Introduction

On a low hill above the northwestern corner of the ancient agora of Athens, humbler and less conspicuous than the majestic Parthenon, sits the most well-preserved surviving piece of classical architecture in modern Greece: the Hephaisteion, a fifth-century BC temple to the god of fire. Its vertiginous and perpendicular lines, the graceful spaces of light which its angles cut and disclose, are a remarkable and singularly fortunate testimony to the architectural and aesthetic genius of the Greeks.

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