01. The order that became the rule
A Greek temple is really a house for a god. A rectangular room, a long row of columns all round, a pitched roof with a low gable. Simple. But nothing is left to chance.
The Greeks build by orders – fixed rules for how a column, a capital and an entablature should look and relate to each other. The Doric is sturdy and has no base. The Ionic has scrolls, volutes, on its capital. The Corinthian is dressed in acanthus leaves.
Athens, 447 BC. Work on the Parthenon begins on the Acropolis. The architects Iktinos and Kallikrates lead the work; Phidias is in charge of the sculpture. The marble comes from Mount Pentelikon. Nine years later the temple is largely finished.
And here is the trick. Nothing in the Parthenon is quite straight. The floor curves gently, the columns swell towards the middle – entasis – and lean slightly inwards. Why? Scholars disagree. But the result is a building that looks alive.
In 1687 a Venetian shell hits the Parthenon, which the Ottomans are using as a gunpowder store. The centre of the temple is blown away. But the form has already spread. Rome takes it over – and two thousand years later it returns in Neoclassicism.
02. How to spot it
- 1.Columns around the whole building, in the Doric, Ionic or Corinthian order
- 2.A low triangular gable – a pediment – over the short side
- 3.An entablature with triglyphs and metopes (Doric) or a continuous frieze (Ionic)
- 4.Marble or limestone, often brightly painted originally
- 5.The building stands on a raised base of a few steps
03. The giveaway
The capital. A plain cushion means the Doric order, two scrolls the Ionic, and a basket of acanthus leaves the Corinthian – the capital tells you which order you are looking at.
04. Architects and builders
- Iktinos
- Kallikrates
- Phidias (sculptor)
05. Where to see it
- Parthenon, Athens447–432 BC
- Erechtheion, Athenswith the caryatids
- Temple of Poseidon, Paestum (Italy)Greek colony
- Temple of Apollo, Delphi
- The temples of Agrigento, Sicily
06. Often confused with
Roman architecture. The Romans borrow the columns but build with vaults, domes and concrete. A Greek temple is a building you walk around; a Roman one stands on a tall podium with stairs only at the front.
Neoclassicism. The façade of an 18th- or 19th-century Swedish building can look Greek, but behind the columns are ordinary floors and windows.
Sources
- Wikipedia (en): "Ancient Greek architecture"
- Wikipedia (en): "Parthenon"