During the eighteenth century when Paestum was being researched by archaeologists, the temple on the site was thought to be dedicated to the goddess Ceres, the goddess of corn. Only later was  it learned the temple was dedicated to Athena. There is a pronaos and naos, but no adyton or opisthodomos. The temple departs from other traditional Doric temples in that the naos is approached from the eastern end by a deep pronaos with eight Ionic columns (four at the façade, two at the flanks, and two others attached to the antae walls), while the exterior columns were Doric in style. Other than the temple in Assos, the temple of Athena may have been one of the first to display two architectural orders co-existing in a single building. A small number of other temple designers adapted the stylistic trend, the temple at Bassae, for example, incorporated all three ancient orders in its design.