The
architecture of ancient Greece isyahoo.com represented by buildings in the sanctuaries and cities of mainland Greece, the Aegean
islands, southern Italy and Sicily,
and the Ionian
coast of Turkey. Monumental Greek architecture began in the archaic period,
flourished through the classical and
Hellenistic periods, and saw the
first of many revivals during the Roman Empire. The roots of Greek architecture lie in the tradition of local Bronze Age
house and palaces. The following paper will cover
the basic forms of Greek architecture.
One of the many types
of Greek building structures was Sacred Architecture. The Greeks conceived of their gods in human
form, as anthropomorphic representations
of the forces and elements of the natural world.
These gods and goddesses were
worshiped with sacrifices made at an outdoor altar. At many sanctuaries, the altar was
much older than the temple,
and some sanctuaries had only an altar. The temple designed simply as a shelter or home for the cult
statue and as a storehouse for offerings. This shelter consisted of a cella (back wall),
a pronaos (columned porch), an opisthodomus (enclosure), an antae (bronze grills securing
the porches), and a colonnade that provided shelter
for visitors.
The earliest monumental
buildings in Greek architecture were the temples. Since these were solidly
built and carefully maintained, they had to be replaced only if
destroyed. The architectural
orders, Doric on the mainland and
Ionic in the eastern Aegean, were developed in the archaic temples,
and their lasting example tended to make
Greek architecture conservative toward changes in design or in buildingtechnology.
The Archaic period evolved after the
Mycenaen palace collapsed in 1200 BCE during the dark ages
when people began rebuilding. This era brought
about the introduction of both the Doric and
Ionic Orders.
The Doric Order, which originated around 400 BCE brought rise to a whole
new type of building technique and style. In
the archaic temples, stone gradually started to replace wood,
and some of the structural details of the early buildings appear to have
been copied in stone. At Thermon, in northwestern Greece, a succession of buildings from the Last
Bronze Age throughout the sixth century BCE show the evolution
of the Doric temple from a hall
shaped like a hairpin to a long
rectangular building with a porch at either end and
surrounded by columns. The temple of Hera at Olympia, built about 600 BCE, had wooden columns that were gradually
replaced by stone ones, probably
as votive gifts. The variety of column and capital shapes
illustrates the evolution of the Doric order. The earliest columns had a heavy, bulging profile,
and their capitals were broad
and low. During the archaic
period, limestone became the standard
building material for foundations, steps, walls, columns,
and Doric entablature. Building such as the famous
Temple of Aphaia on Aegina illustrate the dramatic influence
of the Doric order.
White the Doric order
became the standard for mainland
Greece, the Ionian colonies in the eastern Aegean
were developing a very different system of columns and entablature based on Egyptian and Near Eastern
architecture. The tall slender columns, low entablature, and lack of sculptured
frieze course were typical of Ionic buildings. The sixth century BCE Ionic temples were
unprecedented in size, as large
as 55 by
During the classical period,
Athenian Dominance greatly affected architecture. The war between the Greek
city-states and Persia (499-480
BCE) interrupted almost all temple building
for a generation while the Greeks
concentrated on restoring their defensive walls, civic buildings,
and the fleet.
Athens emerged as the leader, controlling
the war chest
of the Delian League, Panhellenic league; the city
initiated extravagant
program to rebuild the sanctuary of Athena on the Acropolis.
The Parthenon, Propylaea, Temple of Athena Nike, and the
Erechtheum were built entirely of marble and elaborately
decorated with carved moldings and sculpture.The architects were Callicrates and Iotinus, and the
chief sculptor was Phidias. A large school of builders and sculptors
developed in Athens during the second
half of the fifth century BCE. Most of these craft
workers were freed slaves from
the eastern Mediterranean. Perhaps as a consequence there developed in Attica a unique blend of the Doric and
Ionic orders seen in the fortified
sanctuaries as well as in Athens.
The Corinthian order
resulted from long civil wars
during the fifth century BCE (Classical period). The Ionian cities recovered
more quickly from the civil
war under Persian sovereignty. The colossal sixth century BCE temples and altars were
replaced on a grander scale. Several Ionian cities were
rebuilt on a grid plan that has been credited
to Hippodamus ofMiletus.
The rise of Macedonia
and the conquests
of Alexander the Great heralded the Hellenistic period. Old building
types became more complex: altars,
gate buildings, council houses, stoas with two
or three levels, and theaters
with large attached stage buildings. Many new building types
were introduced, including the nymphaeum,
monumental tomb, columned hall, choragic monument, clock tower and
lighthouse. Many of these structures were decorated with dramatic marble
sculpture.
Hellenistic
architects made imaginative
variations on the standard temple forms, introducing Apses, high podia
(stepped or square platforms), and subtle combinations
of Doric and Ionic features. Several temples had exterior Corinthinan columns, such as the colossal temple
of Zeus Olympius in Athens,
begun in 174 BCE. In the Ionic order,
Hermogenes of Priene evolved
new canons of proportion concerning the temple plan and the height
and spacing of columns. His writings were also passed
down to Roman architects who emulated his designs. Long after
the Roman army captured Athens, the principles of Greek architecture continued to govern
building designs in mainland Greece and in Anatolia and strongly influenced
Roman architecture throughout
the empire.
Greek architecture changed and evolved over
a number of years. The creative architecture of the Greeks led
to the construction
of some of the best-known buildings
in history. Therefore, the Greek's advancements
in the field of architecture were not only beneficial to their civilizations,
but ours as well.
