By the second half of the 5th century B.C. it had become common practice at Athens to marry Ionic and Doric style in one and the same building. The first example of this is the building known as the Theseum. It was originally thought that this was the temple dedicated to Theseus by Cimon. Later research showed that it was more likely the temple of Hephaestus at Colonos-in-the Agora mentioned by ancient writers - that is to say, a temple of Hephaestus and Athena. Some scholars have suggested identifying it with the temple of Artemis Euclea.

This building, the Hephaesteum, is the best-preserved classical temple in metropolitan Greece. It was built entirely of marble, except for the base platform (of limestone) and the roof (of clay tiles over a wooden frame). Small-scale optical corrections were employed to make it look more impressive from the Agora. Indeed its overall plan was probably designed with this specially in mind. The same subtleties of architectural measurement that we saw for the Parthenon also occur in the Hephaesteum, and to a much greater extent. This has been explained in various ways. Some scholars think the Parthenon came first, others that it followed the Hephaesteum. What is certain is that the work started in 449 or thereabouts. Building had probably been interrupted even before the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, because of the high costs of Pericles' programme for the Acropolis. In any case, it was not until between 421 and 415 B.C. that the cult statues of Hephaestus and Athena were finally dedicated.
The temple was designed to a ground plan (typical for the Doric style) of six by thirteen columns, with a base platform of 13.7 metres by 31.8 metres. The pronaos and opisthodomos both had two columns in antis. The only relief carvings are on all the metope-panels of the short sides and on the two end metope-panels of the long sides. There is a relief frieze running all the way round the architrave of the pronaos; a second frieze in the opisthodomos is confined to the space between the antae. The temple's interior was clearly influenced by the architecture of the Parthenon: this section was probably completed in the course of the Peloponnesian war. And like the Parthenon, the Hephaesteum had a two-storey interior colonnade (ditone colonnade) in the shape of the Greek letter pi.


A further temple of the same period is the temple of Poseidon at Sunium, a marble building of the Doric order. Building is reckoned to have begun in 440 B.C. or thereabouts, and to have finished at some time during the Peloponnesian war. Its similarities with the Hephaesteum have persuaded many experts that the two buildings were designed by the same architect, who may also, some scholars think, have been responsible for the temple of Nemesis at Rhamnus and the temple of Ares at Acharnae. The second of these was transplanted to the Agora in Roman times.

In building the new temple of Poseidon, the remnants of the old one on the same site were used freely. The new temple had a frieze all the way round the architrave of the pteron, and not just round the architrave of the entrance-hall. It had carvings on the pediment (though not on the metope-panels). The corner ornaments had palmettes and spirals. Like the Hephaesteum, the temple of Poseidon had six by thirteen columns (the other dimensions of the two are also comparable), but taller and more slender. Site seems decisively to have influenced design: the temple stood on the summit of a headland and was intended to be most conspicuous from seaward.


Building at Rhamnus began in the mid-5th century. The new temple is thought to have replaced an older one destroyed by the Persians. The installation of its cult statue and finials can be dated to 420 B.C. or so. The temple was of local marble (except for the finials which were of Pentelic marble). It had a Doric pteron of six by twelve columns. These were left unfinished - they lack their fluting. The metope-panels and the frieze round the cella did not have pictorial carvings either.


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