Antefix

The Antefix (from the Latin antefixus ) or forehead brick is a figurative or ornamental ornate clay or stone tiles.

The Antefix was fitted with Roman, Etruscan and Greek temples and secular buildings at the lowest position of the tile eaves and thus locked the front opening of the covering tile. Normally, the Antefix was worked for this purpose at the rear of in the form of tiles and painted multicolored ornate on the face side.

Antefixes occur on the long sides usually then when in architecture no lateral Sima was used ( Parthenon ) on the narrow sides are to be found with gable box is open only during the Etruscan temple. In the Greek area Antefixes preferably one manufactured from marble in the form of a palmette, figurative examples are relatively rare. In ancient Italian territory, however, dominate the variations of tone, especially terracotta. The design choice here is many and varied, were both heads of mythical creatures or gods ( Medusa, maenad Silenus and Juno ), as well as the carcasses of animals (lions, deer ) represented and hybrid creatures ( centaurs ).