noun
definition
A dome, or domed building; a cupola.
definition
A dome-shaped tomb from the Mycenaean period of Ancient Greece.
Examples of tholos in a Sentence
Curtius places the original Prytaneum south of the Acropolis in the Old Agora, speaks of a second identical with the Tholos in the Cerameicus, and regards that of Pausanius as a building of Roman times (Stadtgeschichte, p. 302).
Wachsmuth holds the former view and regards the Tholos as merely a dining-room for the Prytaneis in the old democratic period.
The Tholos at Epidaurus, built by Polycleitus (c. 400 B.C.), and the Tholos at Olympia, known as the Philippeion, are the most remarkable examples, and in both cases were covered with a sloping roof and not with a dome.
The chief buildings are grouped together, and include temples of Asclepius and Artemis, the Tholos, and the Abaton, or portico where the patients slept.
The Tholos lay to the south-west of the temple of Asclepius; it must, when perfect, have been one of the most beautiful buildings in Greece; the exquisite carving of its mouldings is only equalled by that of the Erechtheum at Athens.
There is no evidence for the statement sometimes made that there was a well or spring below the Tholos.
North of the Tholos is the long portico described in inscriptions as the Abaton; it is on two different levels, and the lower or western portion of it had two storeys, of which the upper one was on a level with the ground in the eastern portion.
Hence the frequent confusion with the Tholos which was near the council chamber and was the residence of the Prytaneis (see below) of the council.