The remains of painted decoration in Greek temples are very scarce and scattered across the Greek world. All belong to the category of grand public temples. This means that no coherent and multifaceted discussion of the original practice of temple decorations (except for sculptured and architectural decoration), is possible. I therefore briefly present the instances known to me.

The oldest example of painted decoration in Greek sanctuaries is the Temple of Poseidon in Isthmia, dating to the first half of the seventh century BC. The excavator Oscar Broneer found fragments of thin layers of plaster on which he distinguished partial representations of warriors and a big horse and meanders. They belonged to the figural decoration of the interior of the naos, where they occupied the middle and upper zones. The brick wall on the lower side had a revetment in the shape of stucco relief imitating limestone blocks, giving the impression that the temple was built out of costly limestone.

A predecessor to the 560-550 Temple of Poseidon in Corinth was found during the American excavations in the 1970s. The cella of this building, similar to that at Isthmia, must have been decorated with murals since the excavator Henry S. Robinson reports poros blocks bearing remains of stucco layers. He recognises “rectangular panels of solid color (dark red or black) separated by narrow bands of light buff color.” Existing traces of “decorative patterns” are insufficient to allow a reconstruction or interpretation.

Brigitte Freyer-Schauenburg published a limestone block from the Hekatompedos II in the Sanctuary of Samos (fig. 1-2). On this block, part of a large orthostate, one can see three male heads turned in profile to the left with arrowheads in front of them. These figures are incised on the surface. Freyer-Schaunburg suggested that these are preparatory drawings for paintings and this explanation appears highly plausible. Her idea was followed up by Koch, who argued that the drawings give a good idea of monumental paintings in temples. Stylistically the figures can be dated to the second quarter of the seventh century. The bizarre paintings in the pastas of the sanctuary in Phlyai (see Chapter 1) can be explained in the same way.