GREEK ARCHITECTURE—Continued:ARCHAIC PERIOD, THE TRANSITION

<< GREEK ARCHITECTURE:GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS, THE DORIC

ROMAN ARCHITECTURE:LAND AND PEOPLE, GREEK INFLUENCE >>

CHAPTER VII.

GREEK ARCHITECTURE--Continued.

BOOKS RECOMMENDED: Same as for Chapter VI. Also, Bacon and Clarke, Investigations

at Assos. Espouy, Fragments d'architecture antique. Harrison and Verrall, Mythology

and Monuments of Ancient Athens. Hitorff et Zanth, Recueil des Monuments de Ségeste

et Sélinonte. Magne, Le Parthénon. Koldewey and Puchstein, Die griechischen Tempel

in Unteritalien und Sicilien. Waldstein, The Argive Heræum.

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT. The history of Greek architecture, subsequent to the

Heroic or Primitive Age, may be divided into periods as follows:

The ARCHAIC; from 650 to 500 B.C.

The TRANSITIONAL; from 500 to 460 B.C., or to the revival of prosperity after the

Persian wars.

The PERICLEAN; from 460 to 400 B.C.

The FLORID or ALEXANDRIAN; from 400 to 300 B.C.

The DECADENT; 300 to 100 B.C.

The ROMAN; 100 B.C. to 200 A.D.

These dates are, of course, somewhat arbitrary; it is impossible to set exact bounds

to style-periods, which must inevitably overlap at certain points, but the dates, as

given above, will assist in distinguishing the successive phases of the history.

ARCHAIC PERIOD. The archaic period is characterized by the exclusive use of the

Doric order, which appears in the earliest monuments complete in all its parts, but

heavy in its proportions and coarse in its execution. The oldest known temples of this

period are the Apollo Temple at Corinth (650 B.C.?), and the Northern Temple on

the acropolis at Selinus in Sicily (cir. 610590 B.C.). They are both of a coarse

limestone covered with stucco. The columns are low and massive (4⅓ to 4⅔

diameters in height), widely spaced, and carry a very high entablature. The triglyphs

still appear around the cella wall under the pteroma ceiling, an illogical detail

destined to disappear in later buildings. Other temples at Selinus date from the

middle or latter part of the sixth century; they have higher columns and finer profiles

than those just mentioned. The great Temple of Zeus at Selinus was the earliest of

five colossal Greek temples of very nearly identical dimensions; it measured 360 feet

by 167 feet in plan, but was never completed. During the second half of the sixth

century important Doric temples were built at Pæstum in South Italy, and

Agrigentum in Sicily; the somewhat primitive temple at Assos in Asia Minor, with

uncouth carvings of centaurs and monsters on its architrave, belongs to this same

period. The Temple of Zeus at Agrigentum (Fig. 33) is another singular and

exceptional design, and was the second of the five colossal temples mentioned above.

The pteroma was entirely enclosed by walls with engaged columns showing

externally, and was of extraordinary width. The walls of the narrow cella were

interrupted by heavy piers supporting atlantes, or applied statues under the ceiling.

There seem to have been windows between these figures, but it is not clear whence

they borrowed their light, unless it was admitted by the omission of the metopes

between the external triglyphs.

FIG. 33.--TEMPLE OF ZEUS. AGRIGENTUM.

THE TRANSITION. During the transitional period there was a marked improvement

in the proportions, detail, and workmanship of the temples. The cella was made

broader, the columns more slender, the entablature lighter. The triglyphs disappeared

from the cella wall, and sculpture of a higher order enhanced the architectural effect.

The profiles of the mouldings and especially of the capitals became more subtle and

refined in their curves, while the development of the Ionic order in important

monuments in Asia Minor was preparing the way for the splendors of the Periclean

age. Three temples especially deserve notice: the Athena Temple on the island of

Ægina, the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, and the so-called Theseum--perhaps a

temple of Heracles--in Athens. They belong to the period 470450 B.C.; they are all

hexastyle and peripteral, and without triglyphs on the cella wall. Of the three the

second in the list is interesting as the scene of those rites which preceded and

accompanied the Panhellenic Olympian games, and as the central feature of the Altis,

the most complete temple-group and enclosure among all Greek remains. It was built

of a coarse conglomerate, finished with fine stucco, and embellished with sculpture

by the greatest masters of the time. The adjacent Heraion (temple of Hera) was a

highly venerated and ancient shrine, originally built with wooden columns which,

according to Pausanias, were replaced one by one, as they decayed, by stone

columns. The truth of this statement is attested by the discovery of a singular variety

of capitals among its ruins, corresponding to the various periods at which they were

added. The Theseum is the most perfectly preserved of all Greek temples, and in the

refinement of its forms is only surpassed by those of the Periclean age.

FIG. 34.--RUINS OF THE PARTHENON.

THE PERICLEAN AGE. The Persian wars may be taken as the dividing line between

the Transition period and the Periclean age. The élan of national enthusiasm that

followed the expulsion of the invader, and the glory and wealth which accrued to

Athens as the champion of all Hellas, resulted in a splendid reconstruction of the

Attic monuments as well as a revival of building activity in Asia Minor. By the wise

administration of Pericles and by the genius of Ictinus, Phidias, and other artists of

surpassing skill, the Acropolis at Athens was crowned with a group of buildings and

statues absolutely unrivalled. Chief among them was the Parthenon, the shrine of

Athena Parthenos, which the critics of all schools have agreed in considering the

most faultless in design and execution of all buildings erected by man (Figs. 31, 34,

and Frontispiece). It was an octastyle peripteral temple, with seventeen columns on

the side, and measured 220 by 100 feet on the top of the stylobate. It was the work

of Ictinus and Callicrates, built to enshrine the noble statue of the goddess by

Phidias, a standing chryselephantine figure forty feet high. It was the masterpiece of

Greek architecture not only by reason of its refinements of detail, but also on

account of the beauty of its sculptural adornments. The frieze about the cella wall

under the pteroma ceiling, representing in low relief with masterly skill the

Panathenaic procession; the sculptured groups in the metopes, and the superb

assemblages of Olympic and symbolic figures of colossal size in the pediments, added

their majesty to the perfection of the architecture.

Here also the horizontal curvatures and other refinements are found in their highest

development. Northward from it, upon the Acropolis, stood the Erechtheum, an

excellent example of the Attic-Ionic style (Figs. 35, 36). Its singular irregularities of

plan and level, and the variety of its detail, exhibit in a striking way the Greek

indifference to mere formal symmetry when confronted by practical considerations.

The motive in this case was the desire to include in one design several existing and

venerated shrines to Attic deities and heroes--Athena Polias, Poseidon, Pandrosus,

Erechtheus, Boutes, etc. Begun by unknown architects in 479 B.C., and not

completed until 408 B.C., it remains in its ruin still one of the most interesting and

attractive of ancient buildings. Its two colonnades of differing design, its beautiful

north doorway, and the unique and noble caryatid porch or balcony on the south

side are unsurpassed in delicate beauty combined with vigor of design.11 A smaller

monument of the Ionic order, the amphiprostyle temple to Nike Apteros--the

Wingless Victory--stands on a projecting spur of the Acropolis to the southwest. It

measures only 27 feet by 18 feet in plan; the cella is nearly square; the columns are

sturdier than those of the Erechtheum, and the execution of the monument is

admirable. It was the first completed of the extant buildings of the group of the

Acropolis and dates from 466 B.C.

FIG. 35.--PLAN OF ERECHTHEUM.

FIG. 36.--WEST END OF ERECHTHEUM, RESTORED.

FIG. 37.--PROPYLÆA AT ATHENS. PLAN.

In the Propylæa (Fig. 37), the monumental gateway to the Acropolis, the Doric and

Ionic orders appear to have been combined for the first time (437 to 432 B.C.). It

was the master work of Mnesicles. The front and rear façades were Doric hexastyles;

adjoining the front porch were two projecting lateral wings employing a smaller Doric

order. The central passageway led between two rows of Ionic columns to the rear

porch, entered by five doorways and crowned, like the front, with a pediment. The

whole was executed with the same splendor and perfection as the other buildings of

the Acropolis, and was a worthy gateway to the group of noble monuments which

crowned that citadel of the Attic capital. The two orders were also combined in the

temple of Apollo Epicurius at Phigalæa (Bassæ). This temple was erected in 430

B.C. by Ictinus, who used the Ionic order internally to decorate a row of projecting

piers instead of free-standing columns in the naos, in which there was also a single

Corinthian column of rather archaic design, which may have been used as a support

for a statue or votive offering.

ALEXANDRIAN AGE. A period of reaction followed the splendid architectural

activity of the Periclean age. A succession of disastrous wars--the Sicilian,

Peloponnesian, and Corinthian--drained the energies and destroyed the peace of

European Greece for seventy-five years, robbing Athens of her supremacy and

inflicting wounds from which she never recovered. In the latter part of the fourth

century, however, the triumph of the Macedonian empire over all the Mediterranean

lands inaugurated a new era of architectural magnificence, especially in Asia Minor.

The keynote of the art of this time was splendor, as that of the preceding age was

artistic perfection. The Corinthian order came into use, as though the Ionic were not

rich enough for the sumptuous taste of the time, and capitals and bases of novel and

elaborate design embellished the Ionic temples of Asia Minor. In the temple of Apollo

Didymæus at Miletus, the plinths of the bases were made octagonal and panelled

with rich scroll-carvings; and the piers which buttressed the interior faces of the

cella-walls were given capitals of singular but elegant form, midway between the

Ionic and Corinthian types. This temple belongs to the list of colossal edifices already

referred to; its dimensions were 366 by 163 feet, making it the largest of them all.

The famous Artemisium (temple of Artemis or Diana) measured 342 by 163 feet.

Several of the columns of the latter were enriched with sculptured figures encircling

the lower drums of the colossal shafts.

The most lavish expenditure was bestowed upon small structures, shrines, and

sarcophagi. The graceful monument still visible in Athens, erected by the choragus

Lysicrates in token of his victory in the choral competitions, belongs to this period

(330 B.C.). It is circular, with a slightly domical imbricated roof, and is decorated

with elegant engaged Corinthian columns (Fig. 38). In the Imperial Museum at

Constantinople are several sarcophagi of this period found at Sidon, but executed by

Greek artists, and of exceptional beauty. They are in the form of temples or shrines;

the finest of them, supposed by some to have been made for Alexander's favorite

general Perdiccas, and by others for the Persian satrap who figures prominently on

its sculptured reliefs, is the most sumptuous work of the kind in existence. The

exquisite polychromy of its beautiful reliefs and the perfection of its rich details of

cornice, pediment, tiling, and crestings, make it an exceedingly interesting and

instructive example of the minor architecture of the period.

FIG. 38.--CHORAGIC

MONUMENT OF LYSICRATES.

(Restored model, N.Y.)

THE DECADENCE. After the decline of Alexandrian magnificence Greek art never

recovered its ancient glory, but the flame was not suddenly extinguished. While in

Greece proper the works of the second and third centuries B.C., are for the most part

weak and lifeless, like the Stoa of Attalus (175 B.C.) and the Tower of the Winds

(the Clepsydra of Andronicus Cyrrhestes, 100 B.C.) at Athens or the Portico of Philip

in Delos, there were still a few worthy works built in Asia Minor. The splendid Altar

erected at Pergamon by Eumenes II. (circ. 180 B.C.) in the Ionic order, combined

sculpture of extraordinary vigor with imposing architecture in masterly fashion. At

Aizanoi an Ionic Temple to Zeus, by some attributed to the Roman period, but

showing rather the character of good late Greek work, deserves mention for its

elegant details, and especially for its frieze-decoration of acanthus leaves and scrolls

resembling those of a Corinthian capital.

FIG. 39.--TEMPLE OF OLYMPIAN ZEUS. ATHENS.

ROMAN PERIOD. During this period, i.e., throughout the second and first centuries

B.C., the Roman dominion was spreading over Greek territory, and the structures

erected subsequent to the conquest partake of the Roman character and mingle

Roman conceptions with Greek details and vice versâ. The temple of the Olympian

Zeus at Athens (Fig. 39), a mighty dipteral Corinthian edifice measuring 354 by 171

feet, standing on a vast terrace or temenos surrounded by a buttressed wall, was

begun by Antiochus Epiphanes (170 B.C.) on the site of an earlier unfinished Doric

temple of the time of Pisistratus, and carried out under the direction of the Roman

architect, Cossutius. It was not, however, finally completed until the time of

Hadrian, 130 A.D. Meanwhile Sulla had despoiled it of several columns12 which he

carried to Rome (86 B.C.), to use in the rebuilding of the temple of Jupiter on the

Capitol, where they undoubtedly served as models in the development of the Roman

Corinthian order. The columns were 57 feet high, with capitals of the most perfect

Corinthian type; fifteen are now standing, and one lies prostrate near by. To the

Roman period also belong the Agora Gate (circ. 35 B.C.), the Arch of Hadrian (117

A.D.), the Odeon of Regilla or of Herodes Atticus (143 A.D.), at Athens, and many

temples and tombs, theatres, arches, etc., in the Greek provinces.

SECULAR MONUMENTS; PROPYLÆA. The stately gateway by which the Acropolis

was entered has already been described. It was the noblest and most perfect of a

class of buildings whose prototype is found in the monumental columnar porches of

the palace-group at Persepolis. The Greeks never used the arch in these structures,

nor did they attach to them the same importance as did most of the other nations of

antiquity. The Altis of Olympia, the national shrine of Hellenism, appears to have

had no central gateway of imposing size, but a number of insignificant entrances

disposed at random. The Propylæa of Sunium, Priene and Eleusis are the most

conspicuous, after those of the Athenian Acropolis. Of these the Ionic gateway at

Priene is the finest, although the later of the two at Eleusis is interesting for its anta-

capitals. (Anta = a flat pilaster decorating the end of a wing-wall and treated with a

base and capital usually differing from those of the adjacent columns.) These are of

Corinthian type, adorned with winged horses, scrolls, and anthemions of an

exuberant richness of design, characteristic of this late period.

COLONNADES, STOÆ. These were built to connect public monuments (as the

Dionysiac theatre and Odeon at Athens); or along the sides of great public squares,

as at Assos and Olympia (the so-called Echo Hall); or as independent open public

halls, as the Stoa Diple at Thoricus. They afforded shelter from sun and rain, places

for promenading, meetings with friends, public gatherings, and similar purposes.

They were rarely of great size, and most of them are of rather late date, though the

archaic structure at Pæstum, known as the Basilica, was probably in reality an open

hall of this kind.

FIG. 40.--PLAN OF GREEK THEATRE.

o, Orchestra; l, Logeion; p, Paraskenai; s, s, Stoa.

THEATRES, ODEONS. These were invariably cut out of the rocky hillsides, though

in a few cases (Mantinæa, Myra, Antiphellus) a part of the seats were sustained by a

built-up substructure and walls to eke out the deficiency of the hill-slope under them.

The front of the excavation was enclosed by a stage and a set scene or background,

built up so as to leave somewhat over a semicircle for the orchestra or space enclosed

by the lower tier of seats (Fig. 40). An altar to Dionysus (Bacchus) was the essential

feature in the foreground of the orchestra, where the Dionysiac choral dance was

performed. The seats formed successive steps of stone or marble sweeping around

the sloping excavation, with carved marble thrones for the priests, archons, and

other dignitaries. The only architectural decoration of the theatre was that of the set

scene or skene, which with its wing-walls (paraskenai) enclosing the stage (logeion)

was a permanent structure of stone or marble adorned with doors, cornices,

pilasters, etc. This has perished in nearly every case; but at Aspendus, in Asia Minor,

there is one still fairly well preserved, with a rich architectural decoration on its

inner face. The extreme diameter of the theatres varied greatly; thus at Aizanoi it is

187 feet, and at Syracuse 495 feet. The theatre of Dionysus at Athens (finished 325

B.C.) could accommodate thirty thousand spectators.

The odeon differed from the theatre principally in being smaller and entirely covered

in by a wooden roof. The Odeon of Regilla, built by Herodes Atticus in Athens (143

A.D.), is a well-preserved specimen of this class, but all traces of its cedar ceiling and

of its intermediate supports have disappeared.

BUILDINGS FOR ATHLETIC CONTESTS. These comprised stadia and hippodromes

for races, and gymnasia and palæstræ for individual exercise, bathing, and

amusement. The stadia and hippodromes were oblong enclosures surrounded by tiers

of seats and without conspicuous architectural features. The palæstra or

gymnasium--for the terms are not clearly distinguished--was a combination of

courts, chambers, tanks (piscinæ) for bathers and exedræ or semicircular recesses

provided with tiers of seats for spectators and auditors, destined not merely for the

exercises of athletes preparing for the stadium, but also for the instruction and

diversion of the public by recitations, lectures, and discussions. It was the prototype

of the Roman thermæ, but less imposing, more simple in plan and adornment. Every

Greek city had one or more of them, but they have almost wholly disappeared, and

the brief description by Vitruvius and scanty remains at Alexandria Troas and

Ephesus furnish almost the only information we possess regarding their form and

arrangement.

TOMBS. These are not numerous, and the most important are found in Asia Minor.

The greatest of these is the famed Mausoleum at Halicarnassus in Caria, the

monument erected to the king Mausolus by his widow Artemisia (354 B.C.; Fig. 41).

It was designed by Satyrus and Pythius in the Ionic style, and comprised a podium or

base 50 feet high and measuring 80 feet by 100 feet, in which was the sepulchre.

Upon this base stood a cella surrounded by thirty-six Ionic columns; and crowned by

a pyramidal roof, on the peak of which was a colossal marble quadriga at a height of

130 feet. It was superbly decorated by Scopas and other great sculptors with statues,

marble lions, and a magnificent frieze. The British Museum possesses fragments of

this most imposing monument. At Xanthus the Nereid Monument, so called from its

sculptured figures of Nereides, was a somewhat similar design on a smaller scale,

with sixteen Ionic columns. At Mylassa was another tomb with an open Corinthian

colonnade supporting a roof formed in a stepped pyramid. Some of the later rock-cut

tombs of Lycia at Myra and Antiphellus may also be counted as Hellenic works.

FIG. 41.--MAUSOLEUM AT HALICARNASSUS.

(As restored by the author.)

DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE. This never attained great importance in Greece, and

our knowledge of the typical Greek house is principally derived from literary sources.

Very few remains of Greek houses have been found sufficiently well preserved to

permit of restoring even the plan. It is probable that they resembled in general

arrangement the houses of Pompeii but that they were generally insignificant in size

and decoration. The exterior walls were pierced only by the entrance doors, all light

being derived from one or more interior courts. In the Macedonian epoch there must

have been greater display and luxury in domestic architecture, but no remains have

come down to us of sufficient importance or completeness to warrant further

discussion.

MONUMENTS. In addition to those already mentioned in the text the following should

be enumerated:

PREHISTORIC PERIOD. In the Islands about Santorin, remains of houses antedating 1500

B.C.; at Tiryns the Acropolis, walls, and miscellaneous ruins; the like also at Mycenæ,

besides various tombs; walls and gates at Samos, Thoricus, Menidi, Athens, etc.

ARCHAIC PERIOD. Doric Temples at Metapontium (by Durm assigned to 610 B.C.), Selinus,

Agrigentum, Pæstum; at Athens the first Parthenon; in Asia Minor the primitive Ionic

Artemisium at Ephesus and the Heraion at Samos, the latter the oldest of colossal Greek

temples.

TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. At Agrigentum, temples of Concord, Castor and Pollux, Demeter,

Æsculapius, all circ. 480 B.C.; temples at Selinus and Segesta.

PERICLEAN PERIOD. In Athens the Ionic temple on the Illissus, destroyed during the present

century; on Cape Sunium the temple of Athena, 430 B.C., partly standing; at Nemea, the

temple of Zeus; at Tegea, the temple of Athena Elea (400? B.C.); at Rhamnus, the temples

of Themis and of Nemesis; at Argos, two temples, stoa, and other buildings; all these

were Doric.

ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD. The temple of Dionysus at Teos; temple of Artemis Leucophryne at

Magnesia, both about 330 B.C. and of the Ionic order.

DECADENCE AND ROMAN PERIOD. At Athens the Stoa of Eumenes, circ. 170 B.C.; the

monument of Philopappus on the Museum hill, 110 A.D.; the Gymnasium of Hadrian,

114 to 137 A.D.; the last two of the Corinthian order.

THEATRES. Besides those already mentioned there are important remains of theatres at

Epidaurus, Argos, Segesta, Iassus (400? B.C.), Delos, Sicyon, and Thoricus; at Aizanoi,

Myra, Telmissus, and Patara, besides many others of less importance scattered through

the Hellenic world. At Taormina are extensive ruins of a large Greek theatre rebuilt in the

Roman period.

11. See Appendix, p. 427.

12. L. Bevier, in Papers of the American Classical School at Athens (vol. i., pp. 195,

196), contends that these were columns left from the old Doric temple. This is

untenable, for Sulla would certainly not have taken the trouble to carry away

archaic Doric columns, with such splendid Corinthian columns before him.

Table of Contents: