A fine copper engraved view of the 'Temple of Hephaestus' at Athens. With a partial view of the town in the background, from the rare German edition of 'The Antiquities of Athens' by Stuart and Revett, published in Darmstatt 1829/30.
The Temple of Hephaestus or Hephaisteion (also "Hephesteum"; Ancient Greek: ?fa?ste???, Greek: ?a?? ?fa?st??) or earlier as the Theseion (also "Theseum"; Ancient Greek: T?se???, Greek: T?se??), is a well-preserved Greek temple; it remains standing largely intact.
It is a Doric peripteral temple, and is located at the northwest side of the Agora of Athens, on top of the Agoraios Kolonos hill. From the 7th century until 1834, it served as the Greek Orthodox church of Saint George Akamates. The building's condition has been maintained due to its history of varied use.
Hephaestus was the patron god of metalworking, craftsmanship, and fire. There were numerous potters' workshops and metal-working shops in the vicinity of the temple, as befits the temple's honoree. Archaeological evidence suggests that there was no earlier building on the site except for a small sanctuary that was burned during the Second Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC.
The name Theseion or Temple of Theseus was attributed to the monument under the assumption it housed the remains of the Athenian hero Theseus, brought back to the city from the island of Skyros by Kimon in 475 BC, but refuted after inscriptions from within the temple associated it firmly with Hephaestus.

James Stuart and Nicholas Revett, are best known for their central role in pioneering Neoclassicism, and were British architects who traveled in Greece from 1751 to 1754 to record and measure the ancient ruins, particularly those of the Acropolis in Athens.
They published their findings in 'The Antiquities of Athens', the first volume of which appeared in 1762.
In England, Revett and Stuart prepared their work for publication and found subscribers for The Antiquities of Athens. The project was intended to consist of four volumes, although a supplementary volume also appeared. The illustrations include 368 etched and engraved plates, plans, and maps drawn at scale.
Although their French rival Julien-David Le Roy published his book about ancient Greek monuments 'Les Ruines des plus beaux bâtiments de la Grèce' before 'The Antiquities of Athens', the accuracy of Revett and Stuart's work gives their survey a claim to be the first of its kind in studies of ancient Greece; for example, Revett and Stuart were the first Europeans to describe the existence of ancient Greek polychromy.

The first volume, in which the authors are described as "painters and architects", appeared in 1762/3. Revett gave up his interest in the project after the first volume, but Stuart continued to be involved until his death in 1788. The fourth volume appeared in 1816, the year the Elgin Marbles were acquired by the British government.