GREEK

AEGEAN HELLENIC
c.z ^OO \\. ..8 4 775/6 650 500
V >/ J First
v
Minoan — Crete Olympiad Archaic period

Establishment of Greek city-states

1500 1 1 84
o along the Mediterranean and Black Sea
O LO o
O LO °
o ~ Mycenaean ^.835 Homer c. 582 Pythagoras c. 5 1 o
<*
•-
<J ~
c/> vj

c c3
£
rt y S
o -3 c
a<£

Mycenae .

««»
«* "4f v i
;

Crete miles
500

The Greek invasions Greek colonisation 8th-6th centuries B.C.

Byzantium

E
Pompeii # •Tarentum •Olynthus .Troy
•Paestum
"Neandria
•Pergamum
JKphesus
»Croton
*? *Eretria •Larissa
Thermum y
• I*>hi
P/?/ # •
Eleusis
.Priene
^egesta
Ol > m ina Miletus
P^e^:^V^f
•Selinus
•Agrigentum
•Syracuse
Bassae.
Sparta
• V P/c/a
^v
Hal icarnassus

* **.
•
«Cnidus

Rhodes

j 1 00 miles Oiossus
'Phacstus

3°
 3

INTRODUCTION
HELLENISTIC
492-479 444-429
V
334— 23 146 I B.C.

War Ascendancy Alexander the Great Greece

with of Athens King of Macedon a Roman
Persia 431 —
404 province
Peloponnesian War 323 Euclid 283
429/8 Plato 347
384 Aristotle 332

acedonia 334

>^? 1/ Maracanda

Babylon d.222
Susa t 3 2 5
route of
•Persepolis 330
Alexander

miles

The Empire of Alexander the Great

The Aegean Period. 1 No records survive of the Minoan sea-kings of Crete except remains
of palaces, e.g. Cnossus. 2 The Mvcenaeans built massive citadels with Cyclopean masonry
and domed tholos tombs on the mainland. The Aegean civilization
before the Homeric Greeks.
fell

The Hellenic Period. The Greeks called themselves Hellenes (Hellas was called Graecia by
the Romans). They formed numerous which primitive houses surrounded
small city states in
a citadel and later a temple built on an acropolis or upper city. National unitv was achieved

by pan-Hellenic festivals held at Olympia, Delphi, Argos and Corinth every few years.
The Hellenistic Period began with the Empire created by Alexander the Great when many
new cities were founded with monumental buildings.
The Greek temple developed from the Mycenaean megaron built of sun-dried brick, stone
and timber to house a deity and to be looked at from outside, not to contain a congregation
within. The arch was known to the Greeks, but they based their temples on the column &
beam. These developed from the 6th~4th centuries B.C., each with its own ratios of proport-
ions established bv experience. Columns were often placed closer than necessary to support
the entablature in order to create a repetitive rhythm of solids and voids. Optical refinements
displaying an appearance of vitality and strength have been measured in a number of them.
Many architects wrote treatises about their buildings, cited by Vitruvius (1 st cent. B.C.) who
classified their plans and proportions.
 '

GREEK
CNOSSUS, CRETE
c. i 800-1 60

The Palacer of King Minos (restored), c. 800-1600 B.C. 1

1 The King and Queen's apartments 2 Great staircase 3 Hall of

the Colonnade 4 Hall of the Double Axes 5 Queen's Megaron
or Hall 6 Construction: A timber framework B sun-dried brick
or rubble masonry C gypsum slabs or D plaster painted with
frescoes E plinth and floor of gypsum or limestone F ceiling
beams 7 Cypress columns

IRYNSX 3

of the Great Hall

. (Homer)
(restored)400-1 200 b.c
c.\

on a limestone ridge above the

The great wall from 24 to 27^^^^ e ascribed to tne
Cyclops. The palace built of timber^ framework, sun-dried
columns of wood
bricks and
1 Main gatewa\ 2 Greater propylaeum 3 Lesser propylaeum

4 The men's Megaron or Great Hall 5 The women's Hall

32
 THE AEGEAN
The Lion

MYCENAE (restored), ^.1350 B.C.

The of Agamemnon,
citadel palace
Cyclopean walls of boulders weighing 5 to 6
tons were eased into alignment on pebbles

P^ga^: r 1
1
'

11
1

-»»

Cyclopean wall,Tiryns Polygonal, Mycenae Curvilinear, 7th cent. Rectangular, 5th cent.

MYCENAE, The Treasury of Atreus,

1330-1 300 B.C. One of some 40 beehive or
tholos tombs on the Greek mainland. Built of
horizontal overlapping courses of lime-stone o
corbelling without centering. The door-way
flanked by 2 green sandstone half-columns
with a relieving triangle above

33
GREEK

Stone beams of great

span are liable to fracture,
therefore columns were
placed close together

TIMBER TO STONE ANTAE OR PILASTERS

10
TIMBER construction, c.620 B.C.
Doric temple of Apollo, Thermum. MARBLE construction, r.477-438 B.C.

Wooden entablature and columns The Parthenon, Athens

34
 BUILDING METHODS

ERECTION OF A COLUMN
35
GREEK
Olympia, c.649 Rc -

Walls sun-dried
v
O brick. Stone replaced wood columns as they
V
|L decayed. Gable roof with terracotta tiles

JL J

Temple of Apollo, Syracuse, ^.575 B.

Monolithic stone columns

:

The Temple of Apollo,

C.600 B.C.,
Sanctuary of Thermum, Aetolia built over Megaron B.
Columns and entablature
Megaron A, Megaron B, of wood
£•.2000-1500 B.C. C. IOOO-800 B.C.

Small stones House or Temple.

carry walls of 1 8 posts formed
wood and clay, the first known
roof thatched Greek peripteral
with reeds temple scheme Temple F, Selinus, f.560 B.C
Stone screens join the columne

Archaic Temple of Artemis, Ephesus,

leandria, Asia Minor, c.$6o B.C. Burnt down and rebuilt, 356 B.C. £
c.yth century B.C. Designed by Chersiphron of Cnossus and -5
Built of sandstone, roof gabled his son Metagenes who wrote a work on
with tiles, 7 stone columns the temple, now lost, citedby Vitruvius.
have 'Aeolic' capitals, Appearance conjectural, columns of marble,
Asiatic-Ionic motifs. walls of limestone faced with marble

36
 —^
PLANS, DORIC & IONIC TEMPLES

i '_! The Doric Temple

The Parthenon, Athens, J of Athena Alea, Tegea,
447-43 2 B - c -
'•353 B c - -

Ictinus and Callicrates architects, Pheidias Designed by the sculptor Scopas, the interior
master sculptor; built of white marble had 14 Corinthian engaged columns

1 26

u
— I

— n 3.

Ionic temple
of Athena Polias,
Doric Priene, r.334 B.C.
of Apollo Epicurius, Bassae, ^.430 B.C. By Pythios, architect and sculptor
By Ictinus, architect of the Parthenon, Athens. of the Mausoleum, Halicarnassus, J
The Corinthian order used for the first time who wrote a book on the temple, since lost

Built of fine-grained, brittle grey limestone; All the measurements are in multiples
retails in marble, roof of thin marble slabs. of the Ionic foot, i.e. 1 1587 inches.

37
GREEK & ROMAN DORIC IONIC
C

^>*^*^i~

Delos.

y* 20
Cyprus,
flutes
c.6th cent. B.C.
separated by 00

sharp '
arrises

uo
)
o
t^

lower
\ diameter
= 1 module
Neandria,
c.6th cent. B.C.
Roman Greek
he Theseion. Theatre of Temple on the
Athens Marcellus, Rome Ilissus, Athens
Ionic and
Corinthian;
*
w?g 24 flutes
separated
by fillets

Theatre of
,

P i Demeter, Marcellus,
Paestum Rome

annulets 1 , an m \\\ BT,

trachelio Irrrrri

hypotrachelioi Thermae of A method

Diocletian, Capital, of setting out
Temple of Aphaia, Aegina Rome angle column a volute

38
 THE FIVE ORDERS
CORINTHIAN COMPO- TUSCAN
SITE

Egypt, Dynasty XIX

¥f nil
Tower of The Tholos,
the Winds, Epidaurus,
5i Athens, r.334 c. 360 B.C. _
I
Roman Greek Roman Roman Roman
Temple Fortuna Choragic The Pantheon Arch of Vitruvius
Virilis, Rome Monument, Athens Rome Severus, Rome (
Iv w)

Ilissus, Athens
"JUUll

(Trechtheum, From
Athens
The Five Orders
<* of Architecture
by Vignola
__;The Olympieum, (a.d. 1509-73)
Temple :Athens, c. 74 B.C.
1 Temple of Arch of
Fortuna Virilis, Capitals taken Castor and Pollux, Titus, r:
Rome to Rome, 86 B.C. Rome, A.D. 1 6 Rome, a.d. 8 1

39
 A

GREEK

distyle in antis

prostyle tetrastyle

peripteral,
hexastyle
/
—
stylobatg 1"
(surrounded • g * • I I I

half elevation of facade half transverse section

• '5

peripteral ;

octastyle /°
dipteral •'octastyle
r
rows of columns)

dipteral decastyle

Classification of columnan
arrangement according to
Vitruvius (i i i, 2)

40
 THE DORIC TEMPLE
THE TEMPLE OF APHAIA,
AEGINA, f.490 B.C.

K'liif of soft, yellow local

"---J
sandstone, coated with a thin
and coloured.^
layer of stucco
Sculpture and tiles on
ediments of Parian
marble, other tiles
P
A
of terracotta „ j»

41
 ;:

GREEK ATHENS,
Between the Greeks' defeat
of the Persians in 479 B.C.
and the Peloponnesian War
(431-404 B.C.)
Athens rose to her zenith
under the leadership
of Pericles buildings were
erected on the Acropolis
1 The Parthenon
2 The Propylaea

3 The Erechtheum
(restored)

100

PARTHENON, 447-432 B.C. Doric temple

icated to Athena. Ictinus and Callicrates, architects;
lias, master sculptor. Optical refinements p. 38

42
BUILDINGS ON THE ACROPOLIS

20

THE ERECHTHEUM, 420-406 b.c.

A. Sanctuary of Athena Polias

B. Sanctuaries of Erechtheus and Poseidon

Possible architect Mnesicles. The caryatids and column capitals may have been designed
by Callimachus, inventor of the Corinthian capital. Built on 4 levels, irregular in plan
to preserve places sacred to Athens; built of white marble

43
GREEK CITY
AEGEAN ELLEN
ittle is known of Greek
city planning before
Hippodamus
aid out his native city

MILETUS
f.479 or 466 B.c

II Prehistoric citadel, c. 2600-2 3 00 B.C.

VI Homeric Troy, 1900 B.C.; sacked c.i 200 B.C.
IX The Roman acropolis, f.30 b.c.-a.d. 14.
and
'discovered the
method of
dividing up cities'
(Aristotle Politics)

The Telesterion
or Hall of the
Mysteries,
Eleusis

Plan of selected buildings, Troy

Scheme of
II Prehistoric citadel VI Homeric Troy (restored),

Plans showing
additions to a
palace, Larissa
(restored)

A house or temple, ^r. 8th cent. B.C.

after a terracotta model

from Argive Heraeum Megaron, ^.500 b.c Peristyle, ^.450 B.C.

44
PLANS, BUILDINGS AND HOUSES
HELLENISTIC
Dynamic planning
Upper citadel,
PERGAMUM,
^.241-159 B.C.

tteway
 .

GREEK Parthenon,
REFINEMENTS
Athens

Basilica,
Paestum ^
28' 8"

<F Increase
i The Parthenon as seen 3 The front with inclined
axes of columns and with
convex stylobate and
entablature producing
the result seen at i
in

2 Without optical corrections

Entasis (Gk: distension)

designed to counteract the
illusion of the outline of
column curving inwards

Exaggerated diagram of
the rising curvature of the stylobate Angle columns look thinner seen dark
and inward inclination of the columns against light and are thickened by if in

OPTICAL CORRECTIONS, THE PARTHENON, ATHENS

9° W o
0^5 £7o ^BHB oo
8-c

n <x> w 8

Modules
based on
the lower
diameter .

i- d ameters 2 4 LJ til''
Pycnostyle Systyle Diastyle Araeostyle
Proportions of height, thickness & distance apart of columns according to Vitruvius (111,3)

46