Ancient Greek architecture

The architecture of ancient Greece is the architecture produced by the Greek-speaking

people (Hellenic people) whose culture flourished on the Greek mainland, the Peloponnese,
the Aegean Islands, and in colonies in Anatolia and Italy for a period from about 900 BC until the 1st
century AD, with the earliest remaining architectural works dating from around 600 BC.[1]
Ancient Greek architecture is best known from its temples, many of which are found throughout the
region, mostly as ruins but many substantially intact. The second important type of building that
survives all over the Hellenic world is the open-air theatre, with the earliest dating from around 525-
480 BC. Other architectural forms that are still in evidence are the processional gateway (propylon),
the public square (agora) surrounded by storied colonnade (stoa), the town council building
(bouleuterion), the public monument, the monumental tomb (mausoleum) and the stadium.
Ancient Greek architecture is distinguished by its highly formalised characteristics, both of structure
and decoration. This is particularly so in the case of temples where each building appears to have
been conceived as a sculptural entity within the landscape, most often raised on high ground so that
the elegance of its proportions and the effects of light on its surfaces might be viewed from all
angles.[2] Nikolaus Pevsner refers to "the plastic shape of the [Greek] temple.....placed before us with
a physical presence more intense, more alive than that of any later building".[3]
The formal vocabulary of ancient Greek architecture, in particular the division of architectural style
into three defined orders: the Doric Order, the Ionic Order and the Corinthian Order, was to have
profound effect on Western architecture of later periods. The architecture of ancient Rome grew out
of that of Greece and maintained its influence in Italy unbroken until the present day. From
the Renaissance, revivals of Classicism have kept alive not only the precise forms and ordered
details of Greek architecture, but also its concept of architectural beauty based on balance and
proportion. The successive styles of Neoclassical architecture and Greek Revival
architecture followed and adapted Ancient Greek styles closely.
History
Historians divide ancient Greek civilization into two eras, the Hellenic period (from around 900 BC to
the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC), and the Hellenistic period (323 BC to 30 AD).[7] During
the earlier Hellenic period, substantial works of architecture began to appear around 600 BC. During
the later (Hellenistic) period, Greek culture spread widely, initially as a result of Alexander's conquest
of other lands, and later as a result of the rise of the Roman Empire, which adopted much of Greek
culture.[1][8]
Before the Hellenic era, two major cultures had dominated the region: the Minoan (c. 2800–1100
BC), and the Mycenaean (c. 1500–1100 BC). Minoan is the name given by modern historians to the
culture of the people of ancient Crete, known for its elaborate and richly decorated palaces, and for
its pottery painted with floral and marine motifs. The Mycenaean culture, which flourished on
the Peloponnesus, was quite different in character. Its people built citadels, fortifications and tombs
rather than palaces, and decorated their pottery with bands of marching soldiers rather than octopus
and seaweed. Both these civilizations came to an end around 1100 BC, that of Crete possibly
because of volcanic devastation, and that of Mycenae because of an invasion by the Dorian people
who lived on the Greek mainland.[9] Following these events, there was a period from which few signs
of culture remain. This period is thus often referred to as a Dark Age.

Types of buildings[edit]
Main articles: Ancient Greek temple, Ancient Greek theatre, Acropolis, Agora, Stoa, and List of
Ancient Greek temples
Structure
Column and lintel

Parts of an Ancient Greek temple of the Doric Order:

1. Tympanum, 2. Acroterium, 3. Sima 4. Cornice 5. Mutules 7. Frieze 8. Triglyph 9. Metope
10. Regula 11. Gutta 12. Taenia 13. Architrave 14. Capital 15. Abacus 16. Echinus 17. Column 18. Fluting 19. 
Stylobate

The architecture of ancient Greece is of a trabeated or "post and lintel" form, i.e. it is composed of
upright beams (posts) supporting horizontal beams (lintels). Although the existent buildings of the
era are constructed in stone, it is clear that the origin of the style lies in simple wooden structures,
with vertical posts supporting beams which carried a ridged roof. The posts and beams divided the
walls into regular compartments which could be left as openings, or filled with sun dried bricks,
lathes or straw and covered with clay daub or plaster. Alternately, the spaces might be filled with
rubble. It is likely that many early houses and temples were constructed with an open porch or
"pronaos" above which rose a low pitched gable or pediment.[7]
The earliest temples, built to enshrine statues of deities, were probably of wooden construction, later
replaced by the more durable stone temples many of which are still in evidence today. The signs of
the original timber nature of the architecture were maintained in the stone buildings.[24]
A few of these temples are very large, with several, such as the Temple of Zeus Olympus and the
Olympians at Athens being well over 300 feet in length, but most were less than half this size. It
appears that some of the large temples began as wooden constructions in which the columns were
replaced piecemeal as stone became available. This, at least was the interpretation of the
historian Pausanias looking at the Temple of Hera at Olympia in the 2nd century AD.[2]
The stone columns are made of a series of solid stone cylinders or "drums" that rest on each other
without mortar, but were sometimes centred with a bronze pin. The columns are wider at the base
than at the top, tapering with an outward curve known as "entasis". Each column has a capital of two
parts, the upper, on which rests the lintels, being square and called the "abacus". The part of the
capital that rises from the column itself is called the "echinus". It differs according to the order, being
plain in the Doric Order, fluted in the Ionic and foliate in the Corinthian. Doric and usually Ionic
capitals are cut with vertical grooves known as "fluting". This fluting or grooving of the columns is a
retention of an element of the original wooden architecture.[24]
Masonry
Every temple rested on a masonry base called the crepidoma, generally of three steps, of which the
upper one which carried the columns was the stylobate. Masonry walls were employed for temples
from about 600 BC onwards. Masonry of all types was used for ancient Greek buildings, including
rubble, but the finest ashlar masonry was usually employed for temple walls, in regular courses and
large sizes to minimise the joints.[7] The blocks were rough hewn and hauled from quarries to be cut
and bedded very precisely, with mortar hardly ever being used. Blocks, particularly those of columns
and parts of the building bearing loads were sometimes fixed in place or reinforced with iron clamps,
dowels and rods of wood, bronze or iron fixed in lead to minimise corrosion.[4]
Openings
Door and window openings were spanned with a lintel, which in a stone building limited the possible
width of the opening. The distance between columns was similarly affected by the nature of the
lintel, columns on the exterior of buildings and carrying stone lintels being closer together than those
on the interior, which carried wooden lintels.[25][26] Door and window openings narrowed towards the
top.[26] Temples were constructed without windows, the light to the naos entering through the door. It
has been suggested that some temples were lit from openings in the roof.[25] A door of the Ionic Order
at the Erechtheion (17 feet high and 7.5 feet wide at the top) retains many of its features intact,
including mouldings, and an entablature supported on console brackets. (See Architectural Decoration,
below)[26][27][28]
Structure, masonry, openings and roof of Greek temples

The Parthenon, shows the common structural features of Ancient Greek architecture: crepidoma, columns,
entablature, pediment.
Temple of Hephaestos, fluted Doric columns with abacuses supporting double beams of the architrave

Erechtheion: masonry, door, stone lintels, coffered ceiling panels

At the Temple of Aphaia, the hypostyle columns rise in two tiers, to a height greater than the walls, to support a
roof without struts.

Roof
Further information: List of Greco-Roman roofs
The widest span of a temple roof was across the cella, or internal space. In a large building, this
space contains columns to support the roof, the architectural form being known as hypostyle. It
appears that, although the architecture of ancient Greece was initially of wooden construction, the
early builders did not have the concept of the diagonal truss as a stabilising member. This is
evidenced by the nature of temple construction in the 6th century BC, where the rows of columns
supporting the roof the cella rise higher than the outer walls, unnecessary if roof trusses are
employed as an integral part of the wooden roof. The indication is that initially all the rafters were
supported directly by the entablature, walls and hypostyle, rather than on a trussed wooden frame,
which came into use in Greek architecture only in the 3rd century BC.[7]
Ancient Greek buildings of timber, clay and plaster construction were probably roofed with thatch.
With the rise of stone architecture came the appearance of fired ceramic roof tiles. These early roof
tiles showed an S-shape, with the pan and cover tile forming one piece. They were much larger than
modern roof tiles, being up to 90 cm (35.43 in) long, 70 cm (27.56 in) wide, 3–4 cm (1.18–1.57 in)
thick and weighing around 30 kg (66 lb) apiece.[29][30] Only stone walls, which were replacing the
earlier mudbrick and wood walls, were strong enough to support the weight of a tiled roof.[31]
The earliest finds of roof tiles of the Archaic period in Greece are documented from a very restricted
area around Corinth, where fired tiles began to replace thatched roofs at the temples
of Apollo and Poseidon between 700 and 650 BC.[32] Spreading rapidly, roof tiles were within fifty
years in evidence for a large number of sites around the Eastern Mediterranean, including
Mainland Greece, Western Asia Minor, Southern and Central Italy.[32] Being more expensive and
labour-intensive to produce than thatch, their introduction has been explained by the fact that their
fireproof quality would have given desired protection to the costly temples.[32] As a side-effect, it has
been assumed that the new stone and tile construction also ushered in the end of overhanging
eaves in Greek architecture, as they made the need for an extended roof as rain protection for the
mudbrick walls obsolete.[31]
Vaults and arches were not generally used, but begin to appear in tombs (in a "beehive" or
cantilevered form such as used in Mycenaea) and occasionally, as an external feature, exedrae
of voussoired construction from the 5th century BC. The dome and vault never became significant
structural features, as they were to become in ancient Roman architecture.[7]
the others.[37]

Style
Orders of ancient Greek architecture
 above: Capital of the Ionic Order showing volutes and ornamented echinus

left: Architectural elements of the Doric Order showing simple curved echinus of capital

above: Capital of the Corinthian Order showing foliate decoration and vertical volutes.

Orders
Ancient Greek architecture of the most formal type, for temples and other public buildings, is
divided stylistically into three "orders", first described by the Roman architectural writer Vitruvius.
These are: the Doric Order, the Ionic Order and the Corinthian Order, the names reflecting their
regional origins within the Greek world. While the three orders are most easily recognizable by
their capitals, the orders also governed the form, proportions, details and relationships of the
columns, entablature, pediment and the stylobate.[2] The different orders were applied to the
whole range of buildings and monuments.
The Doric Order developed on mainland Greece and spread to Magna Graecia (Italy). It was
firmly established and well-defined in its characteristics by the time of the building of the Temple
of Hera at Olympia, c. 600 BC. The Ionic order co-existed with the Doric, being favoured by the
Greek cites of Ionia, in Asia Minor and the Aegean Islands. It did not reach a clearly defined
form until the mid 5th century BC.[24] The early Ionic temples of Asia Minor were particularly
ambitious in scale, such as the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus.[11] The Corinthian Order was a
highly decorative variant not developed until the Hellenistic period and retaining many
characteristics of the Ionic. It was popularised by the Romans.[7]
Doric Order
The Doric order is recognised by its capital, of which the echinus is like a circular cushion rising
from the top of the column to the square abacus on which rest the lintels. The echinus appears
flat and splayed in early examples, deeper and with greater curve in later, more refined
examples, and smaller and straight-sided in Hellenistc examples.[38] A refinement of the Doric
column is the entasis, a gentle convex swelling to the profile of the column, which prevents an
optical illusion of concavity.[38] This is more pronounced in earlier examples.
Doric columns are almost always cut with grooves, known as "fluting", which run the length of
the column and are usually 20 in number, although sometimes fewer. The flutes meet at sharp
edges called arrises. At the top of the columns, slightly below the narrowest point, and crossing
the terminating arrises, are three horizontal grooves known as the hypotrachelion. Doric
columns have no bases, until a few examples in the Hellenistic period.[38]
The columns of an early Doric temple such as the Temple of Apollo at Syracuse, Sicily, may
have a height to base diameter ratio of only 4:1 and a column height to entablature ratio of 2:1,
with relatively crude details. A column height to diameter of 6:1 became more usual, while the
column height to entablature ratio at the Parthenon is about 3:1. During the Hellenistic period,
Doric conventions of solidity and masculinity dropped away, with the slender and unfluted
columns reaching a height to diameter ratio of 7.5:1.[38]
The Doric Order
The Temple of Hephaestos, Athens, is a well-preserved temple of peripteral hexastyle plan.

The entablature showing the architrave, frieze with triglyphs and metopes and the overhanging cornice

The tapered fluted columns, constructed in drums, rest directly on the stylobate.

The Doric entablature is in three parts, the architrave, the frieze and the cornice. The architrave

is composed of the stone lintels which span the space between the columns, with a joint
occurring above the centre of each abacus. On this rests the frieze, one of the major areas of
sculptural decoration. The frieze is divided into triglyphs and metopes, the triglyphs, as stated
elsewhere in this article, are a reminder of the timber history of the architectural style. Each
triglyph has three vertical grooves, similar to the columnar fluting, and below them, seemingly
connected, are guttae, small strips that appear to connect the triglyphs to the architrave below.
[38]
 A triglyph is located above the centre of each capital, and above the centre of each lintel.
However, at the corners of the building, the triglyphs do not fall over the centre the column. The
ancient architects took a pragmatic approach to the apparent "rules", simply extending the width
of the last two metopes at each end of the building.
The cornice is a narrow jutting band of complex moulding which overhangs and protects the
ornamented frieze, like the edge of an overhanging wooden-framed roof. It is decorated on the
underside with projecting blocks, mutules, further suggesting the wooden nature of the
prototype. At either end of the building the pediment rises from the cornice, framed by moulding
of similar form.[38]
The pediment is decorated with figures that are in relief in the earlier examples, though almost
freestanding by the time of the sculpture on the Parthenon. Early architectural sculptors found
difficulty in creating satisfactory sculptural compositions in the tapering triangular space.[39] By the
Early Classical period, with the decoration of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, (486-460 BC) the
sculptors had solved the problem by having a standing central figure framed by
rearing centaurs and fighting men who are falling, kneeling and lying in attitudes that fit the size
and angle of each part of the space.[36] The famous sculptor Phidias fills the space at the
Parthenon (448-432 BC) with a complex array of draped and undraped figures of deities who
appear in attitudes of sublime relaxation and elegance.
Ionic Order
The Ionic Order is recognised by its voluted capital, in which a curved echinus of similar shape
to that of the Doric Order, but decorated with stylised ornament, is surmounted by a horizontal
band that scrolls under to either side, forming spirals or volutes similar to those of
the nautilus shell or ram's horn. In plan, the capital is rectangular. It is designed to be viewed
frontally but the capitals at the corners of buildings are modified with an additional scroll so as to
appear regular on two adjoining faces. In the Hellenistic period, four-fronted Ionic capitals
became common.[40]
The Ionic Order
The Erechtheion, Acropolis, Athens: a building of asymmetrical plan, for the display of
offerings to Athena
 Corner capital with a diagonal volute, showing also details of the fluting separated by fillets.

Frieze of stylised alternating palms and reeds, and a cornice decorated with "egg and dart" moulding.

Like the Doric Order, the Ionic Order retains signs of having its origins in wooden architecture.
The horizontal spread of a flat timber plate across the top of a column is a common device in
wooden construction, giving a thin upright a wider area on which to bear the lintel, while at the
same time reinforcing the load-bearing strength of the lintel itself. Likewise, the columns always
have bases, a necessity in wooden architecture to spread the load and protect the base of a
comparatively thin upright.[40] The columns are fluted with narrow, shallow flutes that do not meet
at a sharp edge but have a flat band or fillet between them. The usual number of flutes is twenty-
four but there may be as many as forty-four. The base has two convex mouldings called torus,
and from the late Hellenic period stood on a square plinth similar to the abacus.[40]
The architrave of the Ionic Order is sometimes undecorated, but more often rises in three
outwardly-stepped bands like overlapping timber planks. The frieze, which runs in a continuous
band, is separated from the other members by rows of small projecting blocks. They are referred
to as dentils, meaning "teeth", but their origin is clearly in narrow wooden slats which supported
the roof of a timber structure.[40] The Ionic Order is altogether lighter in appearance than the
Doric, with the columns, including base and capital, having a 9:1 ratio with the diameter, while
the whole entablature was also much narrower and less heavy than the Doric entablature. There
was some variation in the distribution of decoration. Formalised bands of motifs such as
alternating forms known as "egg and dart" were a feature of the Ionic entablatures, along with
the bands of dentils. The external frieze often contained a continuous band of figurative
sculpture or ornament, but this was not always the case. Sometimes a decorative frieze
occurred around the upper part of the naos rather than on the exterior of the building. These
Ionic-style friezes around the naos are sometimes found on Doric buildings, notably the
Parthenon. Some temples, like the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, had friezes of figures around
the lower drum of each column, separated from the fluted section by a bold moulding.[40]
Caryatids, draped female figures used as supporting members to carry the entablature, were a
feature of the Ionic order, occurring at several buildings including the Siphnian Treasury at
Delphi in 525 BC and at the Erechtheion, about 410 BC.[41]
The Corinthian Order
The Temple of Zeus Olympia, Athens, ("the Olympieion")

The tall capital combines both semi-naturalistic leaves and highly stylised tendrils forming volutes.

Corinthian Order
The Corinthian Order does not have its origin in wooden architecture. It grew directly out of the
Ionic in the mid 5th century BC, and was initially of much the same style and proportion, but
distinguished by its more ornate capitals.[42] The capital was very much deeper than either the
Doric or the Ionic capital, being shaped like a large krater, a bell-shaped mixing bowl, and being
ornamented with a double row of acanthus leaves above which rose voluted tendrils, supporting
the corners of the abacus, which, no longer perfectly square, splayed above them. According
to Vitruvius, the capital was invented by a bronze founder, Callimachus of Corinth, who took his
inspiration from a basket of offerings that had been placed on a grave, with a flat tile on top to
protect the goods. The basket had been placed on the root of an acanthus plant which had
grown up around it.[42] The ratio of the column height to diameter is generally 10:1, with the
capital taking up more than 1/10 of the height. The ratio of capital height to diameter is generally
about 1.16:1.[42]
The Corinthian Order was initially used internally, as at the Temple of Apollo Epicurius at
Bassae (c.450-425 BC). In 334 BC it appeared as an external feature on the Choragic
Monument of Lysicrates in Athens, and then on a huge scale at the Temple of Zeus Olympia in
Athens, (174 BC - AD 132).[42] It was popularised by the Romans, who added a number of
refinements and decorative details. During the Hellenistic period, Corinthian columns were
sometimes built without fluting.[42]
Decoration
Architectural ornament
Architectural ornament of fired and painted clay

This Archaic gorgon's head antefix has been cast in a mould, fired and painted.

The lion's head gargoyle is fixed to a revetment on which elements of a formal frieze have been
painted.

Early wooden structures, particularly temples, were ornamented and in part protected by fired
and painted clay revetments in the form of rectangular panels, and ornamental discs. Many
fragments of these have outlived the buildings that they decorated and demonstrate a wealth of
formal border designs of geometric scrolls, overlapping patterns and foliate motifs.[43] With the
introduction of stone-built temples, the revetments no longer served a protective purpose and
sculptured decoration became more common.
The clay ornaments were limited to the roof of buildings, decorating the cornice, the corners and
surmounting the pediment. At the corners of pediments they were called acroteria and along the
sides of the building, antefixes. Early decorative elements were generally semi-circular, but later
of roughly triangular shape with moulded ornament, often palmate.[43][44] Ionic cornices were often
set with a row of lion's masks, with open mouths that ejected rainwater.[25][44] From the Late
Classical period, acroteria were sometimes sculptured figures.See "Architectural sculpture"[45]
In the three orders of ancient Greek architecture, the sculptural decoration, be it a simple half
round astragal, a frieze of stylised foliage or the ornate sculpture of the pediment, is all essential
to the architecture of which it is a part. In the Doric order, there is no variation in its placement.
Reliefs never decorate walls in an arbitrary way. The sculpture is always located in several
predetermined areas, the metopes and the pediment.[43] In later Ionic architecture, there is
greater diversity in the types and numbers of mouldings and decorations, particularly around
doorways, where voluted brackets sometimes occur supporting an ornamental cornice over a
door, such as that at the Erechtheion.[25][27][43] A much applied narrow moulding is called "bead and
reel" and is symmetrical, stemming from turned wooden prototypes. Wider mouldings include
one with tongue-like or pointed leaf shapes, which are grooved and sometimes turned upward at
the tip, and "egg and dart" moulding which alternates ovoid shapes with narrow pointy ones.[25][43]
[46]