Andron_B

This temple-like building with two Ionic columns on the front was in fact believed to be a temple before the excavations, which began in 1948. Since it had a plan identical to the most well-preserved building at the site, A. Laumonier in 1936 called them Temple A and Temple B. When it was discovered in 1948 that both buildings, according to the inscriptions on them, were andrones (dining halls), they were simply renamed Andron A and Andron B, which is unfortunate, since Andron B is the older building and Andron A is the later one.

According to the inscription above the entrance, Andron B was erected by Maussollos (377-352 BC). The name of the building, andron, means “men’s room”, which was a Greek word used for dining rooms. This indicates that the building was to serve for ritual dining after the sacrifice at the altar of the god. The front of the building was all built of marble.

Restored front of Andron B.

(T. Thieme and F. Löfvenburg)

The antae, or side-wall ends, were built of large marble blocks, some of which were used for important official inscriptions in the 3rd century BC. These blocks, and the richly sculpted capital which crowned the southern anta, are now placed in front of the building, facing south. Between the antae there were two Ionic columns. The base of one of them is still standing in its original position. Many column drums and an Ionic column capital, carrying a lotus-and-palmette pattern on its side, can also be seen in front of the building. The marble beam (the architrave) above the columns, consisted of large blocks, which carried an almost completely preserved inscription:

MAYΣΣOΛΛOΣ EKATOMNΩ ANEΘHKE TON ANΔPΩNA KAI TA ENEONTA ΔII ΛAMBPAYNΔΩI

Maussollos, son of Hekatomnos, gave the andron and what is inside to Zeus Lambraundos

Only the front was of marble, whereas the external walls were built in local gneiss, in all probability carrying a white plaster coating. Also the inner walls were coated with plaster, at least above the lowest wall courses. The windows appear to have had marble frames and wooden shutters.

Column capital of Andron B (1949).

These blocks are now placed in the open space in front of the building, facing south. Above the architrave there was a frieze of triglyphs and metopes, and a geison or cornice followed above. Many such blocks are placed in front of the building and to the south-east. A one-meter-high sculpture of a sphinx (a sitting lion with wings and a human male head) found in Andron C, was probably one of originally two sphinxes placed on the front corners of the roof. It is now exhibited in the Bodrum Museum.

Marble architrave block of Andron B, inscribed with the name of Maussollos.

Since the date of the building is obviously not later than the year 353/352 BC (when Maussollos died), it is surprising to find that columns and antae of the Ionic architectural order (with the typical spiral volute column capital) were combined already at this date with an entablature of the Doric order (with its typical architrave, triglyph frieze, and geison). Otherwise such a mixture between the orders was against current rules in architecture before the Hellenistic period (3rd-1st centuries BC).

The Sphinx when discovered in 1953.

Behind the front, which is 11.63 meters wide, there was a porch, and a large doorway leading into an almost square main room (9.91 x 11.08 m), where about 20 dining couches were lining the side and back walls. At the back of the room, there is a rectangular niche, about 4.8 meters long and 1.5 meters deep, placed about 2 meters above the floor.

In all probability, one or more statues were standing in this niche. Because of the size of the niche, there may have been three statues, the god Zeus in the middle, and the ruling couple, Maussollos and his sister and wife Artemisia, on the sides. In the southern wall of the building and in the wall on each side of the entrance there were large windows that gave light and air to those who participated in the sacred banquets.

Isometric perspective of Andron B.

(T. Thieme)

8.Andron B 9.Andron C 10. South Bath 11.Terrace House 12.The Well-house and its Terrace wall 13.East Stoa 14.Well-house Stoa