The Greek Architecture

DEFINITION OF ARCHITECTURE

Architecture is the “art and science of designing and constructing buildings” and “design or style

of a building”. By “style“ we mean a particular or characteristic way of

making a thing, especially a work of art.

Vitruvius,

According to the roman architect a building must meet the

following requirements to qualify as architecture: it must conveniently serve

the purpose for which it was built (utilitas), it must be structurally sound

(firmitas) and it must be beautiful (venustas).

Classical Art,

Greek art was call a Renaissance term that meant that ancient

formal

model of ideal valences that recognized the merit of arriving a

perfection. For the first time the human figure is placed at the centre of the

art and the representation of half human divinity, as it happened in Egypt,

naturalistic.

was abandoned for using a schematic language in the forms and

GREEK ARCHITECTURE Island of Crete.

The first civilization in the Mediterranean region around Greece developed on the

Tribes from the North then settled on the mainland of Greece and built strong, fortress­like palaces

Lion

with thick outer walls. Mycenae was the most famous city and there can be seen the famous

Gate which led to the city.

Around 600 B.C. a new architectural form

appeared in Greece. The Greeks venerated a great

variety of gods to whom they dedicated several

temples, places of worship where the god was

worshiped with tributes and sacrifices and every

city had its patron god.

GREEK GODS

ZEUS king, god of heaven Hera was one of the most important goddess,

Zeus was the the and patron of marriage childbirth.

and

thunder. His symbols are the lightning, the The cult of Hera was particularly active in her

bull, the eagle and the oak. sanctuaries, which stood in Argos and

His cult took place on the heights of the Mycenae. Temples dedicated to Hera were

mountains such as the Olympus. located in Olympia, Corinth and on the sacred

HERA island of Delos.

APOLLO Sun, all the arts,

Apollo was the god of the of of

music, prediction,

of

poem, medical arts science that illuminates the

of of the and of

intellect; his symbols were the Sun and the Lira.

Apollo was one of the most famous and influential gods in ancient

Greece and there were two cities competing for the title of god's main

places of cult: Delphi and Delos.

ATHENA wisdom, arts, craft military strategy.

Athena is the goddess of and

Her sacred symbols were the owl and the olive tree.

Thank to her role as a sacred protector of the city of Athens, she was

protector of

venerated throughout the Greek World and was considered a

Greece. Her relationship with Athens was very special, as evidenced by

the similarity between her name and the last one.

HADES dead,

Hades was the god of the was a fearsome figure to those still living.

His cult was not very developed and there are few statues with his

depictions.

Of the few places of worship dedicated to him, the

only noteworthy is Samothrace, while there is supposed to exist a second

located in the northwest of the Peloponnese.

THE GREEK TEMPLES

Greek temple

The is perhaps the most iconic image of ancient Greece. The

temples were of profound importance to Greek culture, housing statues of the

Greek gods and serving as places of worship, treasure stores and cultural

centres.

The basic elements of the Greek temples are the lower section defined by

columns; capital,

on top each column there is a which supports the remainder of the roof. The

section above the columns contains much of

the traditional ornamental decoration of the

frieze,

temple: the a long band that surrounded

the building, is the primary surface for this

decoration; it can be continuous or broken up

into segments¹. Above the frieze is the

pediment, which contains some of the largest

and most elaborate sculptural decoration on

temples, often including full size three­

dimensional sculptures. Doric Ionic

Much of the decoration and appearance of the temple depends on whether it is of the or

order.

The cult took place outside of the Greek temple, not inside. The temple housed the statue of worship

of god or goddess for which the temple had been built; the statue is in the main chamber called the

cella².

The temples were constructed with stonewalls and wooden roofs that protected the cult statue inside.

Decorative sculpture was placed on the outside and inside of the building and traditionally these

elements were typically painted in bright colours.

temple of Herod Parthenon.

Some examples of these constructions are the and the

temple of Herod at Paestum

The was built in Italy about 550 BC, during the Archaic Period. The

peristyle

outer columns or are well preserved and typical of early Doric temple designs. The temple

is about 80 feet by 170 feet, with the one to two (1:2) ratio of columns, 9 on the ends and 18 along

the sides.

thickness

The of the columns in close spacing suggest that the

architects were primarily concerned with supporting the roof and this

gave the structure a heaviness that was reduced in later Doric temple

designs.

Metopes (rectangular elements) and triglyphs (three narrow adjacent vertical elements).

1 Cella is the later Latin name of the room that was called naòs by the Greeks

2

Following the V century BC after the sack of Athens by the Persians,

Acropolis. Parthenon,

the Athenians set out to rebuild the ruined The centre of the acropolis is the

the temple of Athena. The Acropolis also included an entrance gate west called the Propylaea and

Erechtheion.

two other temples, the temple of Athena Nike and the