348 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



architects. Its form seems to have been too unpretending, too inapt 

 for elaborate ornamentation, for their use. Their own awakened taste, 

 or the influence of Greek architecture, already past the summit of its 

 perfection,* prompted them to select that expansive form of capital 

 which afforded the widest play for the fancy and genius of the 

 sculptor. 



It is hardly practicable to attempt to arrange the columns of this 

 order into sub-groups, for although their capitals, as will be shown, 

 are easily divided into groups, the differences of the latter seem to 

 have had little or no influence on the other members. The only 

 genera, therefore, which will be recognized will be based on a rough 

 chronological division. 



Plinth. — Very little need be added here to what was said of the 

 plinth in Order L, except that, while in early periods it is usually 

 similar to the plinth of the bundle columns and is amenable to the 

 same interpretation, in later times it begins to discard the bevelled 

 edge it had at first, and ultimately becomes a cylindrical drum to raise 

 the column from the floor.f It thereby asserts its own individuality, 

 shakes off its symbolic union with the ground, and by assuming verti- 

 cal outlines proceeds to subserve the increased lightness- of the shaft. 



The plinth here is smaller than in Order I., the diameter in terms of the 

 greatest shaft-diameter being about 1.50 in the early, and from 1.15 to 1.25 in 

 the late examples. 



The height of the plinth is almost as variable as before, ranging from .028 to 

 about .050 of the height of the whole column. 



Shaft. — Without much doubt the shaft of these columns was origi- 

 nally shaped much like that of the second variety of papyrus columns 

 in Order I., attaining its greatest diameter some little distance above 

 the plinth ; $ but in later forms the base of the shaft is no longer cut 

 in, but descends sheer to the plinth with the abruptness of a palm 

 column. § Whether cut in or straight, the foot of the shaft is decorated 

 with sheaths of various form and collocation, as before described. 



* The period of foieign dominance, which I have called for convenience the 

 Ptolemaic, began in 332 b. c. 



t See Description, i. 6, et scepe. 



\ The most magnificent example of the typical form of this order is found 

 in the great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak, and is figured in one of the accompany- 

 ing cuts. The lowest diameter of this example is but .92 of the greatest, and 

 the interval between the two is about .07 of the shaft-height. This set of col- 

 umns, by the way, is the highest in Egypt, measuring 20.36 m. (66 It. 9.6 in.) 

 from floor to architrave. 



§ Compare Description, i. 18, with the cut in the next section but one 



