ARCHITECTURE. 20 
neck, and others of the same length at the foot, the remainder of the shafi 
being left plain (pl. 19, fig. 2). Columns of this description, when first met 
with, were considered unfinished, but after they had been observed on monu- 
ments under circumstances which absolutely excluded the idea of an un- 
finished column, the opinion was established that they were purposely so 
formed, and these columns were called mantled columns. The introduction of 
human figures as supports of the entablature, instead of columns, was made 
at a later period, in order to convey the idea of the submission of the nations 
conquered by the Greeks, namely, the inhabitants of Caria and Persia. 
Hence the figures which represent females are called Caryatides (jig. 31), 
while the male figures are denominated Persians (jig. 80), and when naked 
Telamons. Buildings constructed with figures instead of columns are styled 
stalagmatic. In all the foregoing kinds of columns, which belong to the 
Doric order, the base of the column neither projects, nor is it moulded or 
decorated at all, the column standing immediately upon the ground (p/. 20, 
jig. 8). 
The second kind of Grecian capital is the lonic (pl. 7, fig. 22). It is 
more chaste and elegant than the former, and different accounts are given 
of its origin. Some think that as the capital is the head of the column, the 
volutes on both sides of the echinus are intended to represent the ringlets of 
an Ionian maiden; while others are of opinion, that some builder having 
casually placed a piece of bark between the echinus and the abacus, which 
upon drying became curled into a pleasing shape, this addition was after- 
wards imitated in stone (pl. 21, jig. 4). The profile (pl. 7, fig. 24) shows 
how the two volutes are connected by a kind of cushion; the echinus is 
small, and decorated with serpents’ eggs (pl. 19, jig. 7). Columns of a very 
rich and elaborated character have a decorated neck below the volutes 
called hypotrachelium (pl. 19, fig. 6, a, b, and pl. 7, fig. 24). The Ionic 
column, being more slender than the Doric, always has a base. 
The third class of Grecian capitals isthe Corinthian. It is said, that Calli- 
machus, a sculptor of Corinth, on observing some acanthus leaves which had 
grown up round a basket that had been left upon a grave, and had bent over 
after reaching the top (pl. 7, jig. 5), was so delighted with the beauty of the 
picture that he imitated it in stone for a capital, which became the prototype 
of the Corinthian capital. Egyptian monuments, however, show capitals 
so similar in shape to the Corinthian, and certainly much older, that it is 
probable that the Greeks did not invent what they found ready at hand to 
imitate; the more so as they brought most of their information from Egypt in 
colonizing their country. The Corinthian capital admits of a great variety of 
decoration (pl. 19, jigs. 9-13), and there are scarcely two buildings of that 
order without some difference in the capitals. 
The base of the Corinthian order is the same as that of the Ionic, but the 
column itself is more slender. The top of the shaft is always smaller in 
diameter than its lower part. In some cases the reduction is effected in a 
straight line from the base to the cap. Optical considerations have, however, 
led to the better plan of either giving to the lower part of the shaft, up to 
about one third of the height, an uniform diameter, the reduction then 
25 
