394 



GREEK ARCHITECTURE 



Fig. 3. 



imported from Egypt, so the Ionic seems to have 

 originated from the influence of Assyrian art. 

 The discoveries of Layartl and others have shown 

 that many of the characteristic ornaments of the 

 style were in common use in Assyrian architecture. 

 The volutes of the capitals are particularly in- 

 dicative of an eastern origin, the scroll heing an 

 ornament of very frequent occurrence in all eastern 

 art. The finest examples of the Ionic style remain- 

 ing in Greece are the temples of Wingless Victory 

 (Nike Apteros) ami the Erechtheum at Athens, 

 built about 450-420 B.C. In the Ionian and other 

 colonies of Asia Minor also many fine specimens of 

 this style were erected. The celebrated Temple of 

 Diana at Ephesus was of the Ionic order. It was 

 the largest temple we know of up to its time, 

 being 425 feet long by 220 feet wide. The site 

 was discovered and excavated by Mr Wood in 1869- 

 74. The Ionic is a graceful and elegant style, but 

 not so pure and severe as the Doric. The latter 

 is distinguished by simple and beautiful outline, 

 enriched with the most perfect sculpture ; the 

 former trusts rather to ornamental carving for its 

 effect. This love of ela- 

 borate ornament is an 

 indication of the eastern 

 influence under which the 

 style originated, and the 

 mouldings and many of 

 the ornaments are found 

 to be borrowed from those 

 of Assyrian architecture, 

 only refined and simplified by the Greeks. The 

 honeysuckle ornament (fig. 3), so commonly used 

 both in Assyrian and Ionic architecture, is a good 

 example of the improvement effected by the Greeks 

 on the original type. In the Ionic as well as 

 in the Doric, we find the most perfect execution 

 and workmanship, the spirals, entasis, &c. being 

 all drawn and cut with the greatest possible 

 exactness. 



Corinthian. This style was the latest intro- 

 duced, and combines to some extent the charac- 

 teristics of both the preceding. It unites and blends 

 together the Egyptian and Assyrian elements, the 

 cap being probably derived from the bell -shaped 

 capitals of the former country, ornamented with 

 the carved leaves and spirals of the East. This 

 order was first used about the time of Alexander 

 the Great, the earliest example extant being the 

 Choragic Monument of Lysicrates ( 335 B. c. ). 

 There are also the Temple of the Winds and 

 that of Zeus Olympios at Athens, the latter being 

 one of the largest and finest examples of the style. 

 The Corinthian is the most florid of the Greek 

 styles, and although invented by the Greeks, it 

 was not brought into use till after the power of 

 the republics, to which we owe the finest works of 

 Greek art, had begun to wane. This style, from 

 its richness and splendour, became afterwards the 

 greatest favourite with the Romans, in whose 

 hands Greek art spread over the whole empire. 



Caryatides. Besides the above styles, which 

 constitute the Greek orders of classic writers, the 

 Greeks also used Caryatides (q.v. ), or 

 female figures, in place of columns, as 

 in the Erechtheum; and Telamones or 

 giants, as at Agrigentum. These were 

 probably derived from the figures used 

 by the Egyptians in their architecture, 

 but the latter never used them as 

 columns ; they always placed them as 

 statues in front of the columns. 



Greek temples are technically classed 

 and designated by the mode in which the columns 

 of the porticoes are arranged. The cell, or temple 

 proper, is a square chamber contained within four 

 walls ; the simplest form of portico is called distyle 



Fig. 4. 



in antis (fig. 4), the two side- walls being con- 

 tinued past the end -wall, and terminated with 

 antze, or pilasters, with two columns between. 

 When the portico has four columns between the 

 antse, it is called tetrastyle. The temples have 

 generally the same arrangement at both ends. 

 In front of both ends of the plan distyle in antis 

 (fig. 5), there is frequently placed a 

 range of six columns, and from the 

 flank: columns a row is continued 

 along both sides, thus forming a con- 

 tinuous portico all round the edifice. 

 Such an arrangement is called perip- 

 teral, and the temple is designated 

 hexastyle and peripteral. This was a 

 common arrangement. The Parthe- 

 non is an exception to the general 

 rule : it has a hexastyle portico at 

 each end of the cell, in front of which 

 is placed an octastyle portico, and 

 seventeen columns at each side. The 

 great temple at Agrigentum had 

 seven columns at each end, and four- 



Fig. 5. 



teen at each side, and was peculiar in having the 

 space between the columns all round filled up with 

 a wall. The reason probably was that the space 

 between the columns was too great to be spanned 

 by architraves in single stones. The wall was 

 pierced with windows. 



Considerable doubt has existed as to the mode 

 adopted by the Greeks for lighting the interior of 

 their temples ; that suggested by Mr Fergusson 

 seems the most probable, as being similar to the 

 plan used by the Egyptians and Assyrians. The 

 interior had generally a double row of columns, 

 one over the other, dividing the width into three 

 spans. This arrangement still exists in the Temple 

 of Neptune at Psestum. Fergusson supposes that 

 the light was introduced by countersinking a part 

 of the roof, so as to admit the light between the 

 pillars of the upper range, thus forming a kind of 

 clerestory, as shown on the annexed section of the 



Fig. 6. 



Parthenon (fig. 6). Windows, however, were also 

 used, as in the temple at Agrigentum and in the 

 Erechtheum. 



The theatres of the Greeks formed another very 

 important class of works ; they consisted of semi- 

 circular rows of seats cut in the rock, or partly 

 built ( see ATHENS ). Remains of these structures 

 are found in all the countries inhabited by the 

 Greeks, and were frequently of great size that at 

 Dramyssus being 443 feet across. The proscenia 

 were the parts on which architectural design was 

 chiefly displayed ; but these have unfortunately all 

 perished. 



None of the palaces or domestic edifices of the 

 Greeks remain to us ; we are thus totally deprived 

 of a very interesting chapter in the history of 

 domestic architecture, for it is highly probable that 

 the houses of Greece, although not so splendid 



