Chemical, optical, and X-ray data are presented for pyroxenes from a representative selection of chondrites. The Mg-Fe pyroxenes originally crystallized above 1000-1200 °C as the protoenstatite-protohypersthene polymorph, and inverted on cooling to the polysynthetically twinned clinoenstatite-clinohypersthene polymorph. In most chondrites the latter became converted to orthopyroxene during recrystallization at temperatures ranging up to 900 to 950 °C. The contents of certain minor elements changed during the clino-ortho inversion. Ancestral protoenstatiteprotohypersthene may have been slightly non-stoichiometric. Accessory Ca-rich pyroxenes are discussed briefly.