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HELLENIC ARCHITECTURE [CHAP, vi

Paestum to twenty-four. The columns are built up indrums of a rather coarse, but brilliantly white localmarble, but the frieze was of Parian. The entablature,however, has almost completely disappeared, and the fewsculptured stones which have been found are so muchdefaced that it is difficult to estimate the quality of thework.

The influence of Ionian art on that of the mother-country becomes obvious when the Ionic order is adopted

FROM THE ARCHITRAVE OF THE TEMPLE OF ATHENE, ASSOS(Anderson and Spiers.)

in the interior of buildings which are externally Doric,

such as the temple of Apollo at Bassae or the Propylaeaof the Athenian Acropolis : or used for small buildingswithout any admixture of style, such as the temple onthe Ilissus, now destroyed, or the Erechtheium, and theshrine of Nike Apteros on the Acropolis. The two stylesare not reciprocal in their influence, for the Doric neverhad any firm foothold on the eastern shores of the Aegean. 1

1 Cases are found in which a Doric frieze is combined with Ioniccolumns, as in the Tombs of the Kings or the so-called tomb of

CHAP, vi] CULMINATION OF THE STYLE 109The earlier colonists had migrated before the Dorianshad imposed their crude and peculiar culture on theAchaean inhabitants of Peloponnesus or on the earlierpopulation of northern Greece, and hence it may beassumed that the gradual development of Ionian archi-tecture was largely influenced by earlier structures andlocal methods which already prevailed there. These musthave had an independent character in which traces ofearly oriental art may have been handed down, and inrelation to which the Doric art of Greece remained anexotic. Thus it happens that at the time when this art

culminated at Athens, there was only one temple on theAsiatic coast which owed its principal features to theDoric tradition. This is at Assos in the Troad where,about 470 B.C., a hexastyle peripteral temple was erectedto Athene. Its dedication suggests that it was builtunder Attic influence and explains its Doric form. Itwas contemporary with the temple of Aphaia on Aegina,and is on much the same scale, but being about 5 feet longerit has thirteen columns instead of twelve at the sides.But it reflects a somewhat earlier phase, for the columns


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are I foot 8 inches shorter, and have only sixteen flutingsinstead of twenty. The two columns in antis have, how-ever eighteen, a number which is almost unique. 1 Anothersingular feature is that the shafts are so disposed, that anarris and not a channel comes on the centre line of thefront and back of the column. But the most striking

Absolom in Palestine, but these are late in date and may beregarded as Hellenistic in style. The monument of Hierbn atSyracuse shows a somewhat similar mixture at an earlier date.

1 In temple C at Selinus there is a similar difference, but therethe columns of the prostasis have sixteen channels and the otherseighteen.

no HELLENIC ARCHITECTURE [CHAP, vi

peculiarity is that not only were the metopes decoratedwith carved figures of men, centaurs and sphinxes, butthat the architrave also had a running band of sculp-ture, apparently illustrating the contest of .Hercules andthe Centaurs. The centre of the architrave at each end

had carved reliefs of two winged sphinxes facing eachother on the opposite sides of a small stele, a designwhich corroborates the evidence of oriental influence onthis singular specimen of Ionian Doric. 1

1 A detailed study of this temple by Mr. J. T. Clarke, who madecareful investigations at Assos in 1861, will be found in the Papersof the Archaelogical Inst. of America (Classical Series, vol. i). Hefound many additional sculptured fragments supplementing thosefound at an earlier date which are now in the Louvre.

CHAPTER VII

RECAPITULATION A THEORY OF DORIC

IF it may be assumed that the Heraion of Olympiarepresents not only the earliest Doric peripteral templeof which any remains exist, but also one of the earliesttemples founded after the Dorian settlement in Pelopon-nesus, it seems possible to deduce from the indicationswhich it affords, some theory as to the formation of thestyle.

So far as the cella is concerned, its relation to theMycenaean megaron has already been discussed. 1 Build-ings of similar form are not only known to have existedin the second fortress of Troy, but were probably familiarto the Dorian invaders, as well as to the more northernraces.' 2 It is only the two columns in antis which discrimi-nate the Mycenaean megaron from its simpler prototype,and this special elaboration, adopted by the Dorians,formed the type which became permanent in later temple-


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architecture.

But a separate temple standing apart from the domes-tic buildings, and possibly enclosed from the first in atemenos of its own with an altar in front of it, was an

1 See ante, pp. 76, 77.

2 Evidence of the existence of timber buildings having the planof the Mycenaean megaron has been found in northern Germany.See paper by C. Schuchhardt already referred to, p. 5, ante.

n i

ii2 HELLENIC ARCHITECTURE [CHAP, vn

innovation unknown to the Achaeans and their Minoanpredecessors. It was apparently a feature of the religiouscult which the Dorians shared with other Indo-Europeanraces. It seems reasonable to suppose that the northerninvaders, in introducing this new form of building,were struck by the frequent use of columns and pilasters

in the Mycenaean palaces, and in order to give furtherdignity to their larger temples surrounded them with anexternal colonnade,similarinconstruction to thoseinteriorporticoes of which there is so much evidence at Tiryns,and in the earlier Cretan architecture from which theywere derived.

Whilst the cella, like the megaron which it followedin plan, was constructed of rubble or crude brick bondedwith timber ties, and based upon a few courses of ashlar,the columns also would be similar to those which werefound in use: that is to say they were tree-trunks trimmedmore or less accurately to a cylindrical or slighty conical

form, relieved on the surface with vertical grooves, suchas were to be seen on the pilasters of the " Clytem-nestra " tholos at Mycenae. No doubt these would havethe shallow stone base, and the cushion-like capital seenon the pilasters of the Treasury of Atreus, or in some ofthe Cretan frescoes which Sir A. Evans has imitated atKnossos. The general effect of such a portico may beseen on the representations of small buildings on vaseswhich, though later in date, appear to reproduce an earlyand traditional type.

The entablature supported by these columns wouldnecessarily be constructed of timber, showing the ends

of the main cross-beams ornamented like the columnswith vertical grooves which became conventionalized inthe form of the Doric triglyphs. But the evidence from

CHAP, vn] THEORY OF DORIC 113

early Doric buildings at Olympia, in Sicily and in SouthItaly, shows that the upper part of the entablature was


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protected from the weather by a terra-cotta casing, with acavetto moulding in front which served as a dripstone, andsheltered the framing of the roof and the columns below.The skill in decorative faience to which both Minoan andMycenaean artificers attained, and which the Doriansseemed to possess in some degree, 1 make it highly probablethat ceramic decoration was used architecturally even inpre-Dorian days, and was rapidly developed, with the en-tablature, by the adoption of peripteral buildings. At firstthe mouldings must have been simple in section with formalpatterns painted upon them, but the elaboration and rich-ness to which both mouldings and polychromatic decora-tion attained is shown in the fragments which have beenpreserved. Colour remained always, in Greek eyes, an im-portant element in architectural effect, even when timberand terra-cotta gave place to stone or marble. But astechnical skill increased and finer material was employedthe painted patterns were emphasized by low relief, whichgradually became deeper and more elaborate, and thus,by a tendency common in all architectural development,the formal flat designs of early Aegean art became thegerms of some of the most beautiful stone carving of farlater days.

Of the form of the roofs in these earliest temples, it isimpossible to speak definitely. There is evidence atMycenae that the roofs of the megara were generally flat,and composed of compressed clay laid on small branchesor rods of wood which were supported by cross-beams. 2But there are also indications that a saddle-back roof

1 See Hogarth's " Ionia," p. 34. - Ts. and M., p. 60.

I

ii 4 HELLENIC ARCHITECTURE [CHAP, vnwith a triangular pediment at each end was not un-known.

This obvious method of counteracting the effects ofweather must soon have become usual in a climate sub-ject to frequent rainfalls. The rounded form of roofshown on some of the vase paintings, suggests that theclay covering was thickened in the middle, so as to givea surface on which moisture could not stand. 1 The extraweight thus imposed on the centre will explain the centralrow of internal columns which existed in some cases. As

soon as the convenience of roof-tiles for the purposeof carrying off rain became obvious, the roof wouldnaturally assume the form of two plane surfaces, and thesubstitution of a timber construction with rafters andpurlins for the heavy pile of earth must have taken placealmost simultaneously.

This early form of peripteral temple, if its main featureshave been correctly deduced, must have given its charac-ter to the transitional architecture of the tenth century, but


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during the next 300 years it is evident that these perish-able structures consisting chiefly of timber, brick, and terra-cotta, were gradually replaced by more enduring ones ofstone. The real crux in the history of the Doric order isthe process by which the primitive slender columns ofwood, with their wide cushion-like capitals, became trans-formed into the graceful combination of strength andsimplicity which characterizes the perfected columns ofthe fifth century. The theory once accepted that Hel-lenic art was a spontaneous emanation of Greek geniusis unsupported by any similar phenomenon in science or

1 This appears to be the opinion of Prof. Durm (p. 140). Onthe use of pise, see also Choisy, " Etudes epigraphiques," p. 70.

CHAP, vii] THEORY OF DORIC 115

art, and in the absence of any other theory it is difficultto evade the conclusion that the ancient stone architec-ture of Egypt had a direct and prepondering influencein the process.

The far reaching effect of Egyptian art on the cultureof the Aegean and western Asia is constantly perceptible.In the Minoan era it has been proved by the excavationsin Crete and other islands, where it is not only shown inminor objects of art but is evident also in Cretan archi-tecture and in decorative designs on vases and chests. 1That it was continuous during the Mycenaean periodis indicated by various details, such as the occurrence ofEgyptian pottery in the shaft-graves, the carving in thestone slabs above them, the lotus pattern on the ceilingat Orchomenos. In some cases it maybe supposed thatthis influence was transmitted indirectly or by intermedi-aries such as Phoenician traders, but in the case of the

Greek mainland after the Dorian settlement it seemsmore probable that it was direct. In the history of Greeksculpture this is particularly evident. Apart from theminiature idols which were common throughout theAegean, the earliest attempts at figure-sculpture weremade in wood. This is apparent from the frequencywith which Pausanias mentions wooden statues of thegods, and when at a later date stone began to be usedthe more primitive statues still show by their peculiarform their relation to figures carved from tree trunksor squared baulks of timber. 2 But even when the art wasconsiderably advanced a peculiar rigidity of attitude re-

1 See ante, pp. 28, 31.

2 E.g., the marble xoanon of Artemis from Delos dedicated toNicandra (Nat. Museum, Athens). See also illustrations in P. andC., vol. viii, pp. 146-147; Colignon, etc.



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mains, and there is such an obvious imitation of the well-known conventional pose of Egyptian figures with theleft foot slightly forward and the pendant arms pressedclosely to the sides that there can be no doubt as to theirinspiration. 1

If then the early Greek sculptor received his impulseand borrowed his manner from the great school of figure-sculpture which flourished in Egypt from the IVth tothe Xllth dynasty and was in fact not wholly extinctin the ninth century B.C. it is unlikely that the Greekarchitect failed to be equally impressed by the solemndignity of the columned hall of Ameni's tomb at Beni-Hasan, or the later consummation of this simple rock-hewnarchitecture conspicuous in Hatshepsut's pillared por-ticoes at Der-el-Bahri. 2 This fine monument of the greatqueen constructed in the sixteenth century was probablystill complete if not intact in the tenth, and must havehad more attraction for the pure taste and logical mindof the Greek artist than the ponderous erections ofRameses II and III impressive chiefly by gigantic scaleand overwhelming mass which had by that time super-seded the less barbaric work of the earlier dynasties. 3

Thus if we assume that the timber columnar system ofCrete and Argolis was originally inspired by that of

1 P. and C., viii, p. 321. See also the statue of Apollo found atDelphi, in which the head as well as the pose suggest Egyptianinfluence (Museum, Delphi).

2 See " Arch, of Anc. Egypt," pp. 89-98, and frontispiece.

3 The argument adduced by Liibke (vol. i, pp. 145-6) that if theGreeks had been influenced by the architecture of Egypt thevwould naturally have adopted the "lotus" columns which were theprevailing type, shows both a want of appreciation of Greek genius

and taste, and a somewhat superficial view of Egyptian art. Ittakes no account of the wide difference between the work of the


Egypt, we have both in architecture and sculpture thesame peculiar process of stone translated into wood, andthen developed or resuscitated in a higher plane of artas more perfect creations in stone and marble. 1

That the intercourse between Greece and Egypt was

frequent enough to account for a direct influence is notdoubtful. The numerous allusions to Egypt by Homerproves that in the ninth century if not sooner the countrywas well known to Greek travellers and traders. In theseventh century Psamtek employed Greek mercenariesagainst the Assyrian invaders (6/0 B.C.) and regularintercourse between the Greeks of Ionia and Africa hadbecome so great that a Greek colony rose at Cyrene, anda trading community was allowed to establish itself inthe Delta and found the city of Naucratis. It may be


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assumed that long before this the marvellous architectureof Egypt had awakened the wonder and stimulated theimagination of the Greek world, where the multiplicationof temples after the Dorian settlement must have given

earlier dynasties and that which came into vogue in the XlXth,and ignores the fact that the Ptolemaic buildings which now con-stitute so large a proportion of the architecture of ancient Egypthad not, at the date in question, displaced many of the earliertype.

: This alternation from stone to timber and back again to stoneis found in mediaeval architecture. When the arcades of roman-esque buildings were imitated in more primitive structures of wood,the arch-heads were evidently crudely represented by two straightpieces of timber meeting in a point. But when builders began tosubstitute stone for wood they reproduced these straight-sided" arches " in stone, a process illustrated in the tower of Earls Barton(Northants), or the gateway at Lorsch on the Rhine, to mentiononly two of the most familiar examples. This accounts for all the"triangular"-headed doors and windows which are characteristicof what E. A. Freeman called the "primitive English romanesque."


rise to a school of temple-builders. That they were thusled to substitute more massive stone pillars for the slenderMycenaean tree-trunks is more than a mere assump-tion. Octagonal stone columns such as may be seen inthe rock-hewn tombs on the Nile occur on ancient sites.Amongst the ruins of the ancient Troezen on the north-east coast of Argolis are some eight-sided drums of a darkstone, like basalt, with a marked diminution upwards,which may be the remains of a temple of Apollo Theariosmentioned by Pausanias as the oldest sanctuary he

knew. 1 At Limni near Marathonesi on the Laconian gulfare similar fragments of octagonal marble columns whichmay have belonged to a temple of Artemis 2 and on theisland of Aegina the propylaeum of the temple of Aphaia,which is probably contemporaneous with one of theearlier temples, had octagonal columns. Nor is it onlyin such columns that Egyptian influence may be detected.Pausanias mentions a building like a pyramid, on theroad between Argos and Epidaurus, supposed to be thetomb and monument of those slain in a battle whichtook place on the spot. About four miles to the southof Argos are the remains of the Pyramid of Kenchraea,constructed of rough stone blocks, in some cases poly-

1 Pausanias, II, xxxi. They are described in Cell's "Itineraryof Greece" (Argolis), 1810, p. 121. The diminution of the peri-meter which is 7 ft. 11 in. at the base is as much as 4 in. in asection of 3ft. At Calauria in the island of Poros opposite Troezen,E. Dodwell mentions having seen the foundations of some pillars,2 ft. 9 in. square, in the cella of the temple of Poseidon, whichwere probably remains of the oldest temple. See " Tour throughGreece," vol. ii, p. 277.


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2 See Pausanias, III, ii, and IV, xxxi. They appear to be theremains described by Dr. Ludwig Ross, at a place called Volimnos.See " Reisen im Peloponnes," Berlin, 1841, pp. 4-7.

CHAP, vir] THEORY OF DORIC 119

gonal, of which only the quoin-stones are trimmed. 1Remains of another pyramid exist at the village ofLigourio near where the roads to Epidauros from Argosand Nauplia join. 2

Such examples, few though they are at the present day,tend to show that in the obscure centuries which followedthe Dorian invasion the stone architecture of Egypt musthave arrested the attention of Greek builders. It is there-fore reasonable to suppose that in the general substitu-tion of stone for timber, the purer and less barbaric typeof Egyptian columniation had a direct and decisive effecton the evolution of the Doric column.

The process here assumed is not precisely what ismeant by architectural tradition, and in that sense the

objection some have made to the term proto-Doric asapplied to the columns of Beni-Hasan may be justified.The gradual development and concatenation of con-structive methods and of decorative motives, analogousto organic evolution, which are essential to a continuousand vital tradition in architecture, must in the case ofEgypt and Greece be traced elsewhere, namely, in thecolumnar system of Minoan and Mycenaean buildings,in their frescoed walls and in various decorative detailswhich are best illustrated in minor works of art. Allthis formative influence was, however, greatly modified

1 Pausanias, II, xxiv, mentions this monument as a tomb and

not as a pyramid ; it is not a simple rectangle in plan, as part of theeast side, where the entrance was, is slightly set back. There isalso some doubt as to whether it was ever carried up to an apex.A sketch and plan are given in "Expedition de la Moree," PI. 55.

- See Dr. Frazers note on Pausanias, II, xxv (vol. iii, p. 233).All these structures are mentioned by Ross, who infers from themthe relations between Argolis and Egypt.

A

120 HELLENIC ARCHITECTURE [CHAP, vn

by the original genius of the Mediterranean race, andto some extent by a widely different religious cult ofAsiatic origin; and, in the case of the Greek main-land by the infiltration of other influences from thenorth shown in a form of fortified palace and isolatedmegaron.


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This view, however, does not preclude the exceptionalaccession of a later -and more direct influence fromEgypt, which is the more remarkable inasmuch as ithad ceased to be effective in its own country. 1

But the various communities which after the Dorianinvasion formed the population of Greece, and ultimatelybecame more or less unified as the Hellenic race, com-prised a large element endowed by nature with an extra-ordinary appreciation of beauty in form and line artistswho, like their Cretan forerunners, availed themselves offoreign ideas only to transmute them to something-better. This is shown especially in the work of the archi-tect and sculptor, and is sufficient to account for thedifferences between the Egyptian and the Doric poly-gonal columns. In adapting to their own temples thegeneral proportions and shape of the shaft the Greekbuilders discarded the base, and adjusted their own cap-ital a member which had remained undeveloped in theEgyptian rock-architecture to the new form of column.For whilst the diameter of the stone shaft was so muchenlarged it was obviously needless to retain either the

1 It seems to have come direct to Peloponnesus through Argolis,where the port of Nauplia afforded the most convenient access.Prof. Frazer points out (Pausanias, vol. iii, p. 213) that all thepyramids in Greece, with one exception (in South Laconia), arefound in Argolis, and much the same may be said for the octagonalcolumns.


base or the heavy cushion-like capital which were requiredto give adequate bearing surfaces to the slender wooden

columns and to keep them from decay. Thus whilst thebase disappeared at once, the capital by successive ex-periments was refined in profile and reduced in diameteruntil it attained that appropriate and satisfactory relationto the whole column which is shown in the most perfectexamples of the order.

How far removed the Greek architect was from beinga mere copyist is also shown in his treatment of the en-tablature. The fascia or cornice with a cavetto mouldingwhich had furnished a suitable and elegant parapet tothe battering walls and flat stone roof of the Egyptianpylon, and which had perhaps been adapted in terra-cotta

to the timber framing of Cretan and Mycenaean porticoes,was no longer applicable to the carpentry of a ridgedand tiled roof. The universal adoption of such roofswas no doubt due to climatic conditions, and the ends ofthe horizontal beams and the projecting eaves formed bythe sloping rafters, must have become characteristicfeatures of the side walls or of the lateral colonnades ofthe numerous temples that arose. So when a stone archi-trave and frieze took the place of the old timber framing,the Greek architect, without attempting, an exact imita-


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tion of the discarded woodwork, formalized its features,and adapted them as decorative material for his stoneentablature. That it was a decorative convention andnot a literal and unimaginative imitation of timberconstruction, as various writers have suggested by dia-grams, 1 is evident from the fact that in one of the oldest

1 See Perrot and Chipiez, vol. vi, ch. 8, and Choisy, vol. i, pp. 280,285. Though there are instances of the actual copying of woodworkin stone as in the Lycian tombs, in the primitive English romanesque


entablatures constructed entirely of stone that of thetemple of Ceres at Paestum the taenia and guttae below

RESTORATION OF THE ENTABLATURE AT THERMON

Showing the terra-cotta metopes, antefixae and tiling.From " Antike Denkmaeler," vol. ii.

the triglyphs, which are supposed to represent a woodenfillet and its attachment, were wanting, their place being

(see note, p. 117, ante), or in some of the early architecture of India(see Choisy, vol. i, p. 153), the assumed complete evolution of theDoric order in timber before stone was used, as suggested by thesediagrams, has no evidence to support it.

CHAP, vn] THEORY OF DORIC 123occupied by a simple moulding. 1 The continued use ofterra-cotta casing, even when the entablature was other-wise of stone, also shows that there was a considerablehiatus between the period of timber eaves and that ofthe typical stone cornice.

It was probably the skill of early Greek potters, in-herited from their Aegean predecessors, which had notonly prompted the original use of terra-cotta in this form,but had also prolonged it when it was no longer requiredas a protection on a stone entablature. But the expe-

dient of coating the coarse stone, which was often used,with a smooth surface of stucco or cement which retainedcolour, led to the abandonment of the ceramic casing andultimately to the substitution of finer stone or marble.

Nor was it only in decorative mouldings and geometricpatterns that the application of terra-cotta precededsculpture. The painted metopes of the temple at Ther-mon in Aetolia, which was one of that early type in whichthe roof was supported internally by a central row of


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columns, have already been mentioned (p. 5 5) ; and thoughtheir date is uncertain it was probably anterior to therudely sculptured metopes at Selinus which are assignedto the earlier half of the sixth century B.C. 2

That a simultaneous process of transition applies tothe pediments, where sculpture forms so important afeature in the fully developed style is not, however, to be

1 See ante, p. 96.

2 The terra-cotta decorations at Thermon consisted not only ofthe metope-plaques, but comprise also coloured male and femaleheads which are supposed to have been arranged round the en-tablature as antefixae and waterspouts. Their style seems to agreewith the archaic sculptures found in the Athenian acropolis, butsome of the metopes are supposed to be older.


inferred. This decorative idea appears to have beenderived from a custom, which is illustrated especially

in the rock-hewn architecture of Phrygia, of placingfigures of religious significance in the pediments oftombs. The tympanum of the Lion-Gate at Mycenaeproves its early introduction into Greece ; and the archaicremains excavated in the Acropolis of Athens showthat an architectural convention had already becomeestablished before the Persian war. 1 These rude andhighly-coloured sculptures in coarse Poros stone maypossibly be somewhat earlier than the sixth centuryB.C.; but the rapid development of this culminating fea-ture of the Doric temple as shown in those of Aphaiaon Aegina, of Zeus at Olympia, and in the Parthenon,forms a separate study associated rather with the history

of sculpture than with the earlier phases of the architec-ture to which it lends a crowning grace.

1 See P. & C., vol. viii, p. 533, and Sir A. J. Evans' paper inJ. H. S., vol. xxxii, especially p. 286.

CHAPTER VIII

IONIAN ART : ASIATIC INFLUENCES

IF the origins of the Doric style are obscured by the

disappearance of the earliest buildings, the historyof Ionian architecture is still further complicated bythe vast field over which oriental culture ranged, andby the sporadic forms in which it permeated Asia Minorand came into contact with European influences.

The mutual chronological relation of the Egyptian andChaldean civilizations is still ambiguous and it is onlylately that any important evidence of a neolithic culturein Mesopotamia has been brought to light. 1


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There are later remainsof brick buildings andof ancientcemeteries, of sculptured figures and inscribed stones, allof doubtful date, which bear witness to the existencein Mesopotamia of prehistoric kingdoms, the origin ofwhich is still open to discussion. 2 But in the thirdmillenium the chronology becomes more definite, and by

1 Vis., in excavations at Abu Sharain (Eridu) and El-Obeid,within a few miles of " Ur of the Chaldees," undertaken at theinstance of the British Museum, by Capt. R. Campbell Thompsonand Mr. H. R. Hall, and not yet published. Previous excavationsat Nippur and Tello seem to illustrate at the earliest a BronzeAge civilization.

2 The latest efforts to disentangle the complicated records ofthe early kings will be found in E. Meyer's "Gesch. des Alter-thums," vol. i (3rd ed., 1913), and H. R. Hall's "Anc. Hist, of theNear East."

125

126 HELLENIC ARCHITECTURE [CHAP, vmthe year 2200 B.C. there had arisen a powerful Semitickingdom with its capital at Babylon on the Euphrates, ofwhich abundant evidence has survived in the shape of in-scribed stones and clay tablets consisting to a great ex-tent of legal documents, and testifying to a high level ofsocial life and culture under the great king Khammurabiand his dynasty.

The civilization of which Babylon was for a timethe centre was carried northward by migrations of thepopulation, and at about 1700 B.C. the kingdom of

Assyria was established with its chief cities at Assurand Caleh on the Tigris. At a much later date Nineveh,further to the north, became its far-famed capital.

But before this powerful and warlike state rose to theascendancy in arms and science which it afterwards at-tained, the first Babylonian dynasty had fallen beneath anattack by the Hittites, a more northern race, whose his-torical importance has only recently been recognized.During the present century exploration in the centre andsouth-east of Asia Minor and the north of Syria hasbrought to light unmistakable evidence that for abouteight hundred years (2000-1200 B.C.) these Hittites or

Hatti (Khatti), as they are alternatively called, consti-tuted a powerful empire, or association of states, whichextended its influence from the Euphrates to the Aegeansea-board. 1 At about 1400 B.C. their capital was at a spotnow known as Boghaz-Keui (the ancient Pteria) inCappadocia, and here the remains of two palaces havebeen brought to light. Though little is left beyond founda-tions and low walls, there is enough to show that, unlikethe buildings of Babylonia and Assyria, they were largely1 See Garstang's " The Land of the Hittites," and Hall's " N. E.,"


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ch. viii.

CHAP, vni] IONIAN ART 127

constructed of stone, and that their builders were alsoskilled in the art of sculpture. Their artistic capacity isevident at a later period when, their military ascendancyhaving passed away, they appear still to have formed aprosperous community. The later of the two palaces atBoghaz-Keui, a second capital at Karchemish on theupper Euphrates, and other towns and monuments whichhave been excavated in Cilicia show continuous archi-tectural activity; and with many other sites in NorthernSyria still unexplored give evidence of a civilizationwhich must have been flourishing between 1000 and 750B.C. Shortly after this date Karchemish was destroyedby the Assyrians, and the Hittites ceased to have anypolitical importance.

The period during which these three great empires ofwestern Asia were successively in the ascendant, includesthat in which Egypt under the XVIIIth and XlXth dyn-

asties attained its greatest political power and influence.That there was much intercourse between Egypt and theAsiatic kingdoms is proved by documentary evidence.andit might in any case be assumed that the peculiar and im-pressive art of Egypt must have had some influence onits less developed Asiatic neighbours. There is someevidence that this was the case ; and though its ultimateinfluence on Ionian art is less obvious than it is on thatof Greece itself, it forms an element in that general culturein which the Hellenic art of Western Asia arose. 1

But there are also influences from the west to be takeninto account. The Phrygians, who appear to have been

1 The reputed glories of Babylon as rebuilt by Nebuchadrezzarthe Great in the sixth century, B.C., have been so thoroughly oblit-erated by time ard the alternate ravages and neglect of later races,that it is difficult to reconstruct them in imagination. All that

Oil

128 HELLENIC ARCHITECTURE [CHAP, vm

first heard of as invaders of Hittite territory about

1 200 B.C., are generally supposed to have been immi-grants from south-eastern Europe. The special form ofdesign which became conventional on the later tombs ofPhrygia seems to indicate that they brought with thema religious cult which had some affinity to that whichprevailed in the Aegean. 1 That the Minoan culture hadalso a direct influence on the Asiatic coast, as it un-doubtedly had on Cyprus, is also more than probable,though distinct evidence of it is still very scanty. It wasin a soil thus compounded of various elements that the


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Hellenic art of Ionia germinated and developed concur-rently with that of Dorian Greece. 2

remains seems to indicate that they had little effect on the con-temporary art of Ionia; though it is conceivable that they mayhave had some influence on the Hellenistic and Roman architec-ture of a later date, as found at Pergamon, Baalbek, or Palmyra.

1 See ante, p. 46.

- See ante, p. 60, and " Ionia," p. 103.

CHAPTER IX

PRE-IONIAN ARCHITECTURE

THE first tentative efforts in architecture of the Greekcolonists in Asia have naturally perished and left notrace; and such early monuments as still exist near thecoast must be assigned to a date anterior to the Ionianimmigration. Of these one of the most noted is the so-called Tomb of Tantalus on the north side of the Gulf of

Smyrna. It consisted of a circular podium about2Oofeet indiameter, faced with rough irregular masonry surmountedby a cone similarly constructed, of which only a small por-tion now remains. The interior was solid with the ex-ception of a rectangular cavity in the centre which formedthe sepulchral chamber. This was lined with horizontalcourses of squared stone, which at the sides inclined to-wards each other in a curve and intersected longitudinallyin an internal ridge line. In this feature the sepulchremay be compared with the Egyptian tombs of the Xlthdynasty at Abydos, but in its general form it is evidentlyan elaboration of the primitive tumulus, and is a type ofmany others of later date and smaller size in the same

region. 11 The tomb of Alyattes is a much larger tumulus near Sardis ;its diameter being about 816 feet. There are remains of some stonestructure on the summit. See Herodotus, I, xciii, and Rawlinson'snote on the passage.

K

CHAP, ix] PRE-IONIAN ARCHITECTURE 131

Whilst these monuments must be regarded as relics ofan indigenous population, or of earlier emigrants fromEurope, the large figure, miscalled Niobe, cut in the rockon Mount Sipylus, and the figures carved in relief at

MODERN COUNTRY DWELLINGS IN LYCIA


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From drawings by Sir C. Fellows.

Karabel, further south, are assumed to be undoubtedlythe work of Hittites who had advanced towards the coastsome time before 1,200 B.C. 1

Notwithstanding the absence of any primitive struc-

1 Cf. " Ionia," p. 14, and Garstang, pp. 168-173.

132 HELLENIC ARCHITECTURE [CHAP, ix

tures which can be ascribed to the Greek immigrants, itis possible to draw some inferences as to the origin oftheir architecture from monuments which exist inneighbouring countries. The rock-hewn tombs, whichare numerous in parts of Lycia, are remarkable for theirclose imitation of timber construction, and appear toreproduce in stone an indigenous method of building. Atthe same time they have details in the form of theircolumns and entablature which have evidently been sug-gested by the Hellenic architecture of Ionia when it had

already assumed its typical form, which probably indicatesan actual date not earlier and generally later than thesixth century B.C.

When in the earlier half of the last century, CharlesFellows made two journeys through the western parts ofAsia Minor regions till then almost unknown to Euro-pean travellers he noticed the similarity between thetimber buildings of the country districts in Lycia, andthe fronts of these ancient tombs. The wooden postswhich in some cases surround these rustic buildings,the crossties which strengthened the walls, the projectingends of the horizontal beams and smaller rods which form

a bedding for the flat earthen roofs, find their counterpartsin the rock architecture, and can reasonably be assumedto perpetuate a method of timber building practised inWestern Asia from immemorial times. In some casesthe roof is ridged, and gives in front the form of the tri-angular pediment which became an invariable feature intemple architecture.

There is another form of tomb which seems peculiarto Lycia a rectangular sarcophagus, the roof of whichconsists of two curved surfaces meeting in a ridge andshowing at the ends the outline of a two-centred arch.


The likeness of this to the chasse of a medieval shrinesuggests that it is the representation in stone of thecoffer in which the bodywas enclosed, 1 and the


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imitation, in some, of awooden framework withprojecting ends by whichit could be carried to thetomb, tends to proveif further proof wereneeded that the imita-tion of woodwork instone was direct andexact, and not a meredecorative motive for-tuitously adopted fromcarpentry. 2 It is truethat a row of circulardisks which form such adistinct feature in these TOMB OF PAYAVA . From a drawing

tombs is used decora- by G. Scharf. (B. Museum.)

tively at a much earlier

period, as in the small dove-columns from Knossos (see

p. 27) or in the capital of the stele above the Lion-Gate

L M. Choisy's idea that the form originated in an inverted boat,which was afterwards encased in crude brick, seems altogetherfanciful. His suggestion that the lion's head and dependent pawswhich are sculptured on some represent a covering of hide hasmore probability. See his " Histoire," vol. i, pp. 251-2.

- This distinction may seem somewhat fine, but it is called forby the crude theories as to the origin of architectural forms whichare sometimes propounded. The clustered lotus-columns of Egyptcannot have been substitutes in stone for actual lotus-stems in asimilar position, though the temporary use of such light props i

134 HELLENIC ARCHITECTURE [CHAP, ix

at Mycenae. In these Lycian monuments their originis made obvious, and they show, as do the architravesof the Egyptian tombs at Beni-Hasan, ho\v a simplestructural feature in timber becomes the origin of a de-corative motive in stone.

That these timber rods were replaced at some time orin some cases by rectangular joists is probable, and in

that form they were eventually represented by the rowsof dentils which occur in the more developed and typicalform of the Ionic order. But though both forms occur onthe rock facades, it is not to be assumed that they arecontemporary evidences of the actual process of trans-formation. Their dates are obviously too late for that.All that can reasonably be asserted is that some ofthem reproduce an obsolete phase of an art whichhad passed its formative stage and was already welldeveloped on the Aegean coast, and illustrate a pro-


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pensity not uncommon in sepulchral and religious artto adhere to antiquated and imperfect forms.

The Phrygian rock-tombs seem to illustrate the samepersistence of an archaic tradition. Some, like the sepul-chre of Midas, have the front covered by a geometricalpattern which resembles that of some woven material,and has been supposed to represent the curtained frontof a tent-like dwelling. Some, on the other hand, showfronts with columns in antis which are evidently Hel-lenistic in style and date. The triangular pediment

suitable conditions may have suggested this treatment of thecolumn. Nor do the Doric triglyphs reproduce the ends of similarlyplaced wooden beams, which would not appear at the same level onboth front and sides, though it is likely enough that they weresuggested by a primitive decoration incised on timber beam-ends,See ante, p. 121, and "Arc. of A. Egypt," pp. 66, 238-240.


which is found even in the most archaic, shows that the

design was copied from a building with a timber-framedroof and, like the figures in the tympanum, had pro-bably become conventional before the dawn of Phrygianascendancy in the eighth century B.C.

The side-lights which are thus thrown on the primi-tive architecture of the Aegean coast of Asia tend toshow that it was largely, if not entirely, based on a timberconstruction.

ROCK-TOMB AT MAKRIHellenic Society. Photo. F. W. Hasluck.

CHAPTER X

1^ FORMATION OF THE IONIC STYLE

WHILST the earlier art of Asia Minor^must havecontributed to the development which took placein Ionia, it seems more than probable that the Minoanculture which grew up in Crete and, in the fifteenth and

fourteenth century B.C., had spread over the Aegean areaand penetrated into Greece, must have obtained somefooting on the Asiatic coast. That it had extendedto the Troad is evident from many objects found atHissarlik, but there is a strange absence of direct evidencein the more southern parts of the Anatolian coast. Thereferences to the buildings and worksof art in the Homericpoems, which in their current form are Ionian composi-tions of the ninth century, do not throw much light onthis point, for the traditions on which they appear to


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be based must be about three centuries older, and wereprobably brought over by the emigrants. It may besupposed, however, that the culture which the Homericredactor depicts, and which in his time was to all appear-ance almost extinguished in Greece, was to some extentmaintained by the Greek colonists, weakened though itmay have been by Dorian domination, and diluted bythe local influences of their new home. 1

1 Whatever may be the origin of the name, the historical loniansmust have been a mixed race, including Achaeans and Aeoliansas well as migratory tribes from Attica, Boeotia and more northernregions. Mr. Hogarth says, "what the Ionian took to Ionia wasa fusion of the Danubian with the Aegean culture." "Ionia " p. 41.

136

CHAP, x] FORMATION OF IONIC STYLE 137

The same complexity appears to be illustrated in theirreligious system, for if the Dorians, as has been assumed,brought a new ritual cult of Zeus and Hera and presum-

ably other divinities, it is probable that this was taken toIonia by early emigrants. There it may be supposed tohave received some oriental accretions in the shape ofvarious personifications of the great Asiatic and Aegeanmother-goddess and her son or consort, the god of thedouble axe, until the complete Pantheon of Homer's daywas evolved.

It was apparently in religious architecture in theconstruction of temples and tombs that the Ionic ordergrew to completion, but it is evident that in its plan andfundamental form the temple of Ionia, like that of themotherland, was based upon the Mycenaean megaron.

One of the first founded and greatest cities of Ionia wasEphesus, and Mr. Hogarth's exploration of the site of theArtemisium known to theChristian world astheTempleof Diana of the Ephesians has been very valuable inthrowing light upon the sources of Ionian art. He hasshown that before the last temple, which replaced the oneburnt in 356 B.C., there had been three successive enlarge-ments of a primitive shrine on the same site. At the lowestlevel was found a deposit of about 3,000 objects of variouskinds trinkets of precious metals, electrum coins, andvotive models in ivory, crystal and commoner materials.Though apparently of local manufacture they indicate

foreign influence in the imitation of Egyptian scarabs, lateMycenaean ornaments, Babylonian or Hittite carvings,with traces of a northern art. 1 Their discoverer dates most

1 As to Hittite influence, see Prof. Lethaby on the Early Arte-misium in J. H. S., vol. xxxvii.


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138 HELLENIC ARCHITECTURE [CHAR x

of these objects at about the end of the eighth century,though it seems possible that the first constructed templewas not later, and perhaps was earlier than the ninthcentury. It is only of the third enlargement that enoughremains to indicate its plan, which appears to have beena " distyle in antis " possibly with a central colonnadesuch as occurs at Neandria and seems to have existed inthe primitive temple at Sparta. 1 -

But whilst the fundamental form of the temple-cellamust have been imported with the cult with which itwas associated and, in the use of columns in pronaosandperistyle, must have shared with the Doric temple aremote indebtedness to the columnar system of Phaestosand Tiryns, there are unmistakable indications that thestructural system of the completed order was developedindependently in Ionia, and had a history distinct fromthat of the motherland. The entablature, as the Lyciantombs show, must, when the material was timber, havebeen of lighter construction ; and so it remained when itsoriginal details became conventionalized as decorative

features in stone or marble. The columns continued tocorrespond with this condition both in their slender formand comparatively wider spacing. 2 For whilst in earlyDorian work the original wooden column was abandonedfor one which had been developed in a rock-hewn archi-tecture, the Ionian column retained in its latest formevidences of a continuous evolution from a timber orig-

1 See ante, p. 63.

2 The wider spacing was generally only an apparent effect ofthe slenderness of the columns. Durm (p. 236) shows that thedistance between the axes of the columns in the temple at Corinth

and the Ionic columns of the Propylaea at Athens was almostidentical.


inal. The comparative slenderness of the shaft, thecharacter of the flutings, which are deep and narrow as /i

. . , , -ha^vvxv^

if cut out with a semicircular gouge, and are separated

by a fillet instead of a sharp edge, which could not havebeen preserved in a wooden shaft, and the retention ofthe base, are cumulative evidence of the correctness ofthis assumption.

But it is not so easy to account for what is the moststriking, if not structurally the most important character-istic of the Ionic order, that is, the voluted capital. Thecorresponding feature in the Doric with, its circular andexpanding echinus capped by a somewhat heavy square


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abacus, can be traced, in a gradual but logical process ofdevelopment, from the large spheroidal bole, which inter-vened between the top of the tree-trunk which formedthe earliest column and the squared timber of the primi-tive architrave. In its fully developed form the Doriccolumn is admirably designed to express strength andweight- bearing power without any appearance of ponder-ousness. But in the Ionic capital the curve of the loweredge of the channel between the volutes, which appearsin the finest examples, expresses anything but strengthor sustention of pressure, and when regarded in conjunc-tion with \he pulvinus at the sides is more suggestiveof a roll or scroll of thin metal or of some other yieldingmaterial.

This peculiar difference of character, in which the ideaof firmness and rigidity is exchanged for that of pliancyand grace, might in itself suggest an oriental origin forthe Ionic capital, and this supposition is supported bythe fact that the earliest representation of anythinglike an Ionic column is found in the centre of Asia Minor.It occurs in a Hittite rock-relief in the forest-sanctuary

140

HELLENIC ARCHITECTURE [CHAP, x

of lasily Kayanear Boghaz-Keui, and is ap-

proximatelydated at 1270 B.C.when the Hittites,before the Greekimmigration, hadextended theirdomination to-wards the westerncoast. The objectrepresented ap-

SHRINE ON HITTITE RELIEF. (Puchstein.)

shrine held in the handof a king. It has two col-umns supporting a roofwhich, however, is conven-tionally represented by apair of outstretched wings,


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which recall the wingedsun-disk common onEgyptian architraves. 1The shafts, which are flutedand tapering upwards, areeach surmounted by acapital formed by an arch-like cover with a spiralscroll or volute curving in-wards and downwards at

TWO DRAWINGS OF THE IONICCAPITALS AT BASSAE. (Puchstein.)

1 This design is not a solitary instance of Egyptian influence,direct or indirect, on Hittites art ; the sphinx is also found.


each end. Since nothing like it is found in any con-temporary stone structure, it must be supposed thatpillars or pilasters of this form were used in timberbuildings, the capital being perhaps a metal cap curvedover the rough end ofthe trunk to prevent theinfiltration of moisture. 1

There can be littledoubt that this peculiar

form of double volute,which has a stronglycurved upper line, be-came a recognized typeand continued in usedown to the fifth cen-tury, and even later, forit occurs in the internalpilasters of the Dorictemple of Apollo atBassae in Peloponnesusand, in a less roundedform, at the Leonideion at Olympia.' 2

That thevoluted capital was known in Assyria is shownby a relief from Khorsabad, representing a pavilion withtwo columns in antis. The date of this must be about700 B.C. but there is no reason to suppose that it origin-ated there. On the contrary, it may be inferred from anivory carving in which two of these double volutes areplaced vertically upon an upright stele, apparently repre-

1 The use of metal for the rim of the canalis at a much later


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date is suggested by Puchstein, p. 54.

2 See Olympia, PI. LXV. It is found in Campania and also inLycian tombs. See Puchstein (p. 45).

SMALL PORTICO ON A RELIEF ATKHOR3ABAI), C. 722-JO$.

(Botta, pi. 114.)

142


CYPRUS(Durm.)

CAPITAL FROM NEANDRIA

senting the sacred tree which occurs invarious forms, that this peculiar design was

imitated from a type already establishedelsewhere. 1

There is another type of double spiral usedas a capital which occurs on early monuments CAPITAL OFand reliefs. One variety is seen on a small STELE FROMAssyrian ivory panel which is supposed torepresent an Egyptian king, 2 and it must benoted that it appears in al-most identical form as thecapital of a pilaster on a tombat Tarmossos in Cyprus. 3 Ithas been conjectured that

these designs in which thespirals are not connected byany continuous line, wereoriginally suggested by a pairof goat's horns used as a finialto a wooden support as is alsoshown on an Assyrian re-lief. 4 But a somewhat similarthough evidently later varietyfound at Neandria in the


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Troad, and at Messa in theneighbouring island of Lesbos,suggest a different motive on

1 See B. M. Cat. of Babylonian Antiquities, p. 25. The positionof these voluted members recalls the capitals of the columns atPersepolis, and tends to show that Xerxes' builder was not origin-ally responsible for this inept misuse of an architectural feature,which must obviously have already become conventional in itsproper form.

- Ibid, p. 22. 3 Choisy, p. 257; And. and Sp., pp. 58, 59,

4 See Liibke, pp. 57, 58.

SIDE VIEW AND PLAN OFCAPITAL FROM MESSA,

LESBOS. (Durm.)


the part of the designer. Here a double stem risingvertically from the top of the column is curled over toeither side of the axis, and the graduated lobes which

VOLUTEI) PILASTER FROM TARMOSSOS

(Anderson and Spiers.)

fill the space between the spirals evidently indicate afloral motive. At Neandria it was found in the remainsof a building with a central line of columns which sup-ported the roof, the capitals being placed like T brackets

H4 HELLENIC ARCHITECTURE [CHAP, x

with their length along the axis. The date of this build-

ing is placed by Koldewey in the seventh century B.C. 1

FRAGMENTS OK CAPITAL FOl'M) AT NAUCRATIS(E. E. F.)


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COLUMN RECONSTITUTEDFROM FRAGMENTS

From Petrie's " Naucratis."Eg. Exploration Fund.(Drawn by G. Horsley.)

(Though the volutes and the base

are now lost, they were both

seen by Prof. Petrie. )

NECK ORNAMENT OF ANOTHER COLUMN

(E. E. F.)

Whatever the origin of this form may have been, it can

1 See Winckelmannsfeste-Program, 1891, p. 49.


hardly be the same as that of the Hittite design in whichthe two volutes are found on a single curved line whichcuts the axis of the shaft at right angles; and yet itmay well be the case that the use of two large spirals inthis form contributed to the elaboration of the typicalIonic capital.

The double volute, however, is not its only character-istic, for in its developed form there is found below it, andincorporated on each side in the substance of the roll orpulvinus, a moulding (cymatium) of the familiar egg anddart pattern corresponding in position with the Doric

echinus. But it differs from the latter ^_^___

inasmuch as it seems originally to haveformed a separate section, or was some-times part and parcel of the shaft. Anearly example of this moulding is found

in the mutilated capital discovered by

r^ r -r\ . . XT . 1 i f f*-\jB*ixi\^M.*\i* \^\.

Professor Petrie at Naucratis, which must TAL / Durm >be of the period of Amasis II (c. 600 B.C.)It has the form of a corolla of pendant petals which,unlike the Doric echinus expanded downwards insteadof upwards, and is therefore more analogous to thesmall leaf ornament occasionally found below the


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echinus 1 than to any member which is intended to bear aweight. For this reason it was necessarily associatedwith a member having a wider bearing surface, thoughin this case it has now disappeared, leaving only part ofthe shaft with this decorated neck. So far as the mould-ing is concerned its elementary form is shown in aPhoenician capital given by Durm, 2 which however hasonly a light abacus above it. 3

1 See ante, p. 89.

- Durm, p. 245. It is probable that it is an adaptation from anearly Ionian column. 3 See p. 157.

L

PHOENICIAN CAPI-

146


RESTORATION OF THENAXIAN COLUMN

(FouillesdeDelphesIV)

Another archaic Ionian capital isshown in the votive column of theNaxians at Delphi where the twovolutes remain, though the connect-ing canalis is lost. In other respectsthere is a great difference betweenthe two, for the column from Nau-cratis has a second moulded bandbelow the cymatium. Another col-umn appears to have had a neck-ornament of lotus-flower in low reliefa decoration which in the form of

the anthemion reappears in some ofthe later examples of the style. Butin the Naxian column the flutings otthe shaft, which are very numerous,run up with a gently expanding curveinto the hollow below the pendant

The foregoing examples indicate that two types of


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capital both of Asialic origin came into use, nam ely

EARLY IONIC CAPITAL WITH PAINTED DECORATION ATHENS

(Puchstein.)

(i) that in which Iktinos used in the temple of Apolloat Bassae, in which the voluted member was short andconcentrated, and was placed immediately upon the shaft

CHAP.X] FORMATION OF IONIC STYLE 147

[fi.S.A. An.VOT.UTFP RFLTF.F FRONT CYZICUS

without the intervention of another member below theabacus, and (2) that in which the shaft was crowned bya cymatium above which a more expanded pair of voluteswith a thin abacus was placed as an intermediary betweenthe head of the shaftand the entablature.That the Athenianarchitects, who ulti-mately brought theIonic capital to per-fection, began by at-

tempting to adaptthe Ionian volutesto the Doric echinusmay be inferred fromsome early capitalsamongst the pre-Per-sian fragments foundon the Acropolis. Inthese, the memberrepresenting thecymatium is a plaintorus or roundedmoulding entirely

devoid of carving, but decorated with coloured orna-ment. The egg and dart as a sculptured moulding isnot found at Athens till after the Persian invasion ;and Puchstein (p. 46) remarks that it is very rare tillafter the time of Mnesicles (437 B.C.). He omits, how-ever, to notice that it appears in the drawing of thetemple on the Ilissus (450 B.C., see p. 154) now de-stroyed, and it is evident that it was used as a painteddecoration at a much earlier period.


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[B. S. A, An.FRAGMENTS OF CAPITAL FROM CYZICUS

148


That it was used in Ionia early in the sixth century B.C.,is evident from the capitals of the earlier Artemisium atEphesus, a mutilated specimen of which has been recon-stituted in the British Museum. Similar fragments havebeen found at Cyzicus. 1 The primitive forms of the neck-moulding have already been noticed, and by 560 B.C.,when the earlier Artemisium was built, it will be seen

that not only had the cymatium acquired its typical

RECONSTRUCTED CAPITAL FROM THE ARCHAIC TEMPLE OF AR'lEMIS,

EPHESUS. (Br. Museum.)

form, but also that the angles between it and thevolutes are filled with an early form of palmette orna-

ment; but both these and the volutes are archaic instyle and wanting in the refinement which they acquiredat Athens in the following century. Whilst the Ionianorigin of the order, therefore, is incontestable, existingevidence seems to show that the capital acquired itsfinished and most refined form at the hands of Athenianarchitects.

1 See a paper on Cyzicus, by F. W. Hasluck, " B. S. A.," vol. viii.


The base also underwent a similar process of refine-ment. The form used in the earlier Artemisium suggestsan original derivation from a heavy spheroidal pedestalof wood, the surface of which was relieved by horizontalchannellings analogous to the vertical grooves whichare assumed to have decorated the wooden shaft. Beneaththis there must have been a stone slab, or a block of somethickness. In the more developed form in which completestone columns are first found, the base consists of a large


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Anta Column

PERFECTED IONIC BASES FROM THE NORTH PORTICOOF THE ERECHTHE1ON. (LUbke.)

torus on a circular plinth, both of which have the hori-zontal grooves sometimes alternated with larger hollowsa form which is found at Priene in Caria late in thefourth century B.C. But when the Athenian architectsadopted and developed the order they reduced the sizeof the base, and limited the members to an upper andlower torus separated by a hollow or scotia, and so formedthe type which is known as the Attic base. The uppertorus retained the horizontal grooves for which a plait-moulding was sometimes substituted, whilst the largertorus below was often left plain. Examples of both formsoccur in the Erechtheion and Propylaea.

150


EARLY VARIETIES OF THEVOLUTE, FROM ATHENS.

(Durm.)

The voluted capital seems tohave been used first in Athensfor votive stelae, various formsoccurring amongst the pre-Persian fragments. The morearchaic seem to be blocks in-cised or carved after the typefound at Neandria, whilst others

show something like the Doricechinus or cyma, coloured withan imitation of the egg anddart moulding, above which, onthe same block, was a shallowcarved double volute connectedby a canalis similar to the typeof the earlier Artemisiiim. Itseems clear from these examplesthat both types of Ionian cap-


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itals became known at Athensearly in the fifth century if notsooner, though it was only thelater one used at Ephesus thatbecame the typical form.

THE TREASURY OF THE CNIDTANS, OR SII'HNIANS, AS RECONSTRUCTEDIN THE MUSEUM AT DELPHI

On the right is a cast of the Column of the Naxians on which the Sphinxin the foreground stood. (See p. 146.)

THE ERECHTHEION FROM THE EAST

CHAPTER XI

DEVELOPED IONICAS soon as the Athenians had reduced the Ioniccapital to a regular architectural form when colourhad become subordinate to carved decoration, it is prob-able, though this can only be an assumption, that it wasused in many cases for the two columns in antis whichformed the entrance to the cella of the Doric temple.This assumption is supported by the fact that thefirst recorded complete Athenian building in the Ionicstyle was the small temple on the Ilissus which wasan amphitetrastyle that is, a simple cella with fourIonic columns at each end. Its date is supposed to be

450 B.C. ; and though it has now completely disappeared

154 HELLENIC ARCHITECTURE [CHAP, xi

it was measured and drawn by Stuart and Revett in themiddle of the eighteenth century.

A further development is shown in the somewhat

10 15 FEET

10 5


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10

20

30 FEET

ELEVATION AND PLAN OF THE IONIC TEMPLE ON THE ILISSUS(Anderson and Spiers.)

similar temple of Nike Apteros on the Acropolis(435 B.C.), which after its partial demolition was fortu-nately found to be capable of reconstruction with the

CHAP. XI]

DEVELOPED IONIC

155

original stones. Here there are four Ionic columns inprostyle at each end, and in addition two in antis at

the entrance of the cella. It stands on a podium onwhich part of an interesting sculptured frieze still re-mains. Simultaneously with the building of this templeand almost contiguous with it, Mnesicles was erectingthe Propylaea (437-435), and though the external order

TEMPLE OF NIKE APTEROS FROM THE NORTH-EAST. (Statham.)

was Doric he adopted Ionic columns for the two internalranges of three columns which divide the central passage

from the side walks. In the form and proportions otthese he is generally regarded as having brought theAttic type to perfection.

But in truth the typical form of Greek Ionic was neverso strictly defined nor so simple in character as the Doric.Its adoption and rapid evolution in Athens was no doubtdue to the additional scope which it gave to the imagina-


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F

) W V 20 25 JO ,

PLAN OF THE ERECHTHEION

(Statham.)

was influenced by somespecial tradition. Sinceit was not completed tillnearly the end of the

fifth century, it is pos-sible that it representsthe work of more thanone architect. The prin-cipal portion, which isgenerally regarded as atemple of Athene Polias,was probably the firstto be rebuilt. It has ahexastyle portico facingthe east on the higher

tion of the architect andthe superior richness whichhe was enabled to give tohis work. This is shownin the Erechtheion, a build-ing which comprises threeancient shrines destroyedby the Persians, the re-construction of which wasbegun almost immediatelyafter the erection of thePropylaea. This composite

character and the fact thatits site is on different levelsmay account for the singu-larity of its plan, but it hasother peculiarities whichsuggest that its designer


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PLAN OF THE PROPYL"AEA AT ATHENS,

AND THE SMALL TEMPLE OF

NIKE APTEROS

CHAP. XI]

DEVELOPED IONIC

157

part of the site. Thecapitals differ from thoseof the earlier buildingsin having a central seam

or thread which runsthrough the canalis, andgradually dies into thespiral linesof the volutes.They are enriched alsoby an elegant band ornecking of carved anthe-mion pattern at the topof the shaft immediatelybelow the cymatium.The bases of both ofthe columns and thepilasters at the ends

of the cella walls arelightened by a horizontalchannelling.

On the north side,where the ground isabout 10 feet lower,there is another portico.This is a tetrastyle withan additional column onthe return at each end.It must have formed theentrance to another ~~~ '

shrine, presumed to be ORDER OF THE ERECHTHEION, NORTH. r T- i ^i PORTICO. (Statham.)

that of Erechtheus,

which was probably separated from the eastern naos by

a cross wall or colonnade erected on the scarped side


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of the higher platform. The order is similar to that atthe eastern end, but the neck moulding of the columnsis slightly different, and the base has the upper toruscarved with a plait design. Though the height of thecolumns in relation to their diameter is slightly less,which by itself might indicate a somewhat earlier date,the details of the whole structure lead to a contraryconclusion. This is evident particularly in the doorway

of the cella, which is one of themost admired surviving speci-mens of Greek Ionic art. Theconverging sides with rosettesupon the surrounding architravehave a striking resemblance toan old Mycenaean doorway (seep. 54), and the projecting lintelis richly ornamented with aband of anthemions above an

egg and dart moulding harmon-izing with the decoration of thecolumns. The lintel is supportedby two consoles which appear tobe the earliest examples of the

modillion which is a characteristic detail of the laterCorinthian style. 1 It may be supposed that this door-way belongs to the latest portion of the work.

The most striking and generally admired feature ofthe Erechtheion is the small gallery or tribune on thesouth side, the entablature of which is supported by six

female figures generally known as Caryatides. As works1 The similarity of the form of these consoles to a Cretan orna-ment of uncertain use has been noticed in an earlier chapter. Seean/e, p. 28.

NORTH DOORWAY, ERECH-THEION. (Llibke.)

CHAP, xi] DEVELOPED IONIC 159

of art they illustrate the excellence to which architecturalsculpture had attained during the half century which fol-lowed the expulsion of the Persians, but the propriety oftheir use as supports may seem doubtful, as it probably didto the Greeks themselves, who seldom, if ever, imitatedthem. 1 They were, however, no new invention but ratherthe final form of a motive which originated in Egyptian


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architecture a thousand years earlier. It is exemplified inthe Osirid figures of Karnak and the Ramesseum, and as-sumed a barbaric exuberance in the rock-hewn temples ofAbu Simbel. 2 These figures are at first used as ornamentalaccessories to pillars and not as actual supports. But inthe seventh century B.C., they are found in an Ethiopiantemple at Napata, where grotesque figures of the godBes appear to sustain the stone beams cut in the super-incumbent rock. 3 From the original use of sculpturedfigures as merely ornamental additions to supports werederived in later times the statues known as the Incantadasformerly at Salonika, and that of an Amazon on a pilasterin the National Museum at Athens. 4 In the guise of actualsupports they were found in Grecian art in the figureswhich give a name to the Stoa of Giants at Athens, andin the immense telemones of the temple of Zeus atAgrigentum. But the figures on the Acropolis findtheir more immediate forerunners at Delphi, wheresimilar statues served as supports in antis to the frontof the Treasury of Cnidos (or Siphnos 3 ). These, thoughsomewhat more archaic and oriental in style, have some-thing of the grace of the Caryatides of the Athenian

1 They were occasionally adopted by Michelangelo,]. Goujon,and

Inigo Jones, and were imitated by Inwood in St. Pancras' church^London. 2 See "Arch, of Anc. Egypt," pp. 148-152.

:! Ibid., p. 165. 4 See Durm, p. 259. 3 See B. C. H., xx.

*~r

it-t-Jf


Acropolis. In the Erechtheion the anomaly of usingsuch figures as columns is relieved by the comparativelightness of the entablature in which the frieze is repre-sented merely by a row of dentils which are so charac-teristic of Ionian art though they are absent in the mosttypical examples of the Attic formof Ionic. It is also noticeable thatonly a cymatium with the egg anddart moulding and a plain square

abacus intervene between the headand the entablature, for it is obviousthat the precise and formal spirals ofthe voluted member would ill accordwith the naturalistic grace of thefigures. These various details seemto prove that the work was butslightly influenced by the severerschool of which Mnesicles may beregarded as the exponent.


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That the Greek architects regardedthe style as a field for experimentmay be inferred from the interiorwork of the temple of Apollo Epi-curius at Bassae near Phigaleia. 1 Itis ascribed to Iktinos the architectof the Parthenon, and was built, or rebuilt, about 430 B.C.It is therefore contemporary with the Erechtheion. Ex-ternally it was a fine example of a Doric hexastyle 2 withfifteen lateral columns,and was thus unusually long in pro-portion to its width. In other respects it has peculiaritiesof plan, for the entrance to the main cella faces north,

146 ion

PLAN OF THE

TEMPLE AT

BASSAE

1 Pausanias, VIII, xli.

2 See ante, p. 107.


and towards the further end there was a side-door on the

east side. This has led to the conjecture that the site in-cludes that of an earlier aediculum which is representedby the space between the main part of the cella and theopisthodomos. This space became the sanctuary of thelarger temple, in which it is supposed that an ancientstatue of the god was retained in its original position withits face to the east. 1 The larger cella, which formed anapproach to the sanctuary, was flanked on each sideby a row of five pilasters of a peculiar variety of the Ionicstyle which covered the ends of short cross-walls con-necting them with the sides of the cella. Round theinterior walls above the pilasters ran a marble friezedepicting in relief Amazons, Centaurs, and Lepithaes.

In vigour of delineation it resembles the Panathenaicfrieze of the Parthenon, though inferior in technicalqualities. 2

The partition of the sides by cross-walls recalls theoriginal arrangement of the Heraion at Olympia, 3 butthe two at the south end, instead of being perpendicularto the sides of the cella, are placed askew so as to give tothe sanctuary a semi-octagonal plan.


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Amongst the debris on the site was found a singlemutilated capital with Corinthianesque foliage, which if itwas contemporaneous with the building must be one of theearliest examples of that form. 4 It is generally supposedto have belonged to a column which stood between the

1 Pausanias (VIII, xxx) speaks of a fine brazen statue of ApolloEpicurius at Megalopolis which had been brought from Bassae,but .there is no reason to suppose that it was older than the fifthcentury temple.

2 Nearly the whole of this frieze is in the British Museum.

3 See ante, p. 68. 4 See /


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nearly twice that of the shaft. The whole pilaster isin oriental taste, and the contrast between this fanciful

SECTION ATtD

Of CAPITAL-

or

TTIE; IONICORDER or

THE TEHPLE

or APOLLO

EP1CVRIV5 AT ,

PHIGALEIA//

\

SECTION AT1D ELEVATION OF RASE..

From Simpson's "Architecture," vol. i.

1 See ante, p. 140.

CHAP. XI]

DEVELOPED IONIC

163

design and the formality of the native Doric of theperistyle, indicates a deliberate experiment in architect-ural innovation on the part of the architect.


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The peculiar form of the capital may be due to a wishon the part of the designer to make all three sides of thepilaster uniform, for the shortness of the voluted memberenabled him, by giving a slight concavity to the face, todispense with the pulvinus or barrel at the sides. Thedifference between the front and sides of the more normalIonic capital presented an obvious difficulty when the

Regular Capital Angle Capital

PLANS OF THE IONIC CAPITAL. (Ltibke.)

order was used for an external peristyle, for the cornercolumns would not harmonize with both the front andlateral ranges if a general uniformity in appearancewas required. This difficulty was only evaded by plac-ing volutes on the two adjacent outer sides of the cornercapitals. But in the case of the Attic form, in whichthe spirals project considerably beyond the shaft, thisentailed a pronounced curvature of the faces of the two

spirals which meet at the angle, whilst the surfaces ofthe others remained plane an expedient which is uni-versally regarded as unsatisfactory, inasmuch as it spoils


the symmetry of each face. The two inner sides of thecapital were occupied by the barrels represented by theflat volutes, but these also met awkwardly at the innerangle of the capital, where the ends bisect each other andshow only a half volute of each.

The date at which this expedient came into use cannotbe ascertained. In the imitative Lycian tomb-architecturethe columns are limited to a single row, generally in antis,for which position the form of the capital was evidentlydesigned. But when the earlier Artemisium at Ephesuswas built, possibly as the first peripteral in this style, the

TJJJJJJJ

Telmessos Antiphellus From a Persian Rock-

(Puchstein.) Tomb. (Durm.)

difficulty must have presented itself and was probablymet in the way indicated. That it was an established


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HELLENIC ARCHITECTURE [CHAP, xi

must be regarded as an open question. The front columnsof the great Ionic temple of Artemis at Ephesus are

a remarkable andapparently uniqueexample of this useof sculpture in highrelief. The temple,which was dipteral,stood on a highplatform, and wasapproached at theeast end by a flightof steps which ex-tended across thewhole front and

was covered by theouter peristyle. Inorder to raise thebases of the frontcolumns to theheight of the stylo-bate, each columnstood upon a rect-angular podium,the sides of which,as well as the lower-most drum, werecarved with figure-

subjects. That thiswas also the case

with the earlier sixth century temple is apparent from afew remains of sculptured drums which were brought toEngland by their discoverer, J. T. Wood, and are now inthe British Museum.

ATTEMPTED RESTORATION OF THE SOUTH-EAST

ANGLE OF THE LAST ARTEM1SIUM AT EPHESUS.

(Br. Museum.)


This predilection for sculpture in relief had no doubtan influence on the severer Doric art of Greece, which


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becomes especially evident at its culmination in the fifthcentury; and just as the perfect sculpture on the pedimentsof the Parthenon owes its remote origin to the religioussymbolism illustrated on the Phrygian tombs, so itmay be inferred that the friezes of the Parthenon, theTheseion, and of Bassae, descend ultimately from themural decorations of Egypt or Asia Minor, and have adistant kinship to those of the Assyrian and Persianpalaces. This form of art may be said to have culmi-nated three centuries later in the grand sculpturedpodium of the altar of Zeus erected by Eumenes II atPergamon between 191 and 152 B.C.; but this belongsto a phase of architectural development beyond thescope of the present enquiry.

THE CHORAGIC MONUMENT OF LYSICRATES

CHAPTER XII

THE CORINTHIAN ORDER^"" V HE rapid development in artistic expression whichproduced the unsurpassed sculpture of the fifth cen-tury was evident also in increased inventiveness and facil-ity in minor architectural decoration. The fact that theIonic order gave more scope to the artist than the rigidconventions of the native architecture is sufficient to ex-plain its use in the Erechtheion so soon after the buildingof the Parthenon. The same considerations account forthe variations already referred to in the elaboration ofthe order in Ionia. But it was soon found that a formaladherence to the conventional volutes of the capital

did not satisfy the decorative instincts of architecturaldesigners. This fact, and probably also the want of acapital which would be available in any position withoutthe sacrifice of symmetry, led to experiments resultingin the evolution of the Corinthian capital.

In this also, as in the case of Doric, may be traced theremote influence of Egypt, where bell-shaped capitalsbased on a conventionalized adaptation of the lotus-flowercame into frequent use in the fourteenth and fifteenthcenturies. But the influence extended to little more thansuggestion, for the overflowing fancy of the Greek race,like that of their Aegean forerunners, was not to be satis-

fied with the stereotyped and unprogressive art of theTheban builders and their later imitators.

169

i/o HELLENIC ARCHITECTURE [CHAP, xn


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The well-known story which attributes the "invention"of the capital to Callimachos of Corinth has nothing tosupport it. The capital found at Bassae, which seems tobe the earliest specimen known, may have been designed

;by Iktinos, or by some laterartist, but neither he nor anyone else can be supposed tohave consciously invented a;new order. In its decorationthe spiral volutes are retained,but they are ingeniously con-nected in pairs with fourjcurved stems which adhereto a plain bell with someresemblance to the Egyptianprototype, and are made tosupport the four angles of asquare abacus. 1, The egg and dart Ioniccymatium is replaced by a(continuous corolla of acan-jthus leaves, a motive whichwas rapidly developed with

great beauty, and constantlyrecurs in all later phases ofarchitectural decoration. Thecapital is thus a compound

of elements which are found both in the Egyptian andNeandrian types, with a floral addition which is character-

1 Prof. Bury (" Hist, of Greece," 1913, p. 152) notes the inter-course existing between Corinth and Egypt in the time of Periander,c. 600 B.C. ; and it is not improbable that a type of foliated capitalwas derived from Egypt through Corinth.

EARLY CORINTHIAN CAPITAL

From Bassae.(Anderson and Spiers.)

CHAP, xii] THE CORINTHIAN ORDER

171

istically Greek. A more developed form of the samedesign has been found in the circular shrine in theHieron of Epidaurus, 1 and another still remains in situin the choragic monument of Lysicrates at Athens.

Another early type of bell-shaped capital, specimens of (


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which were found in the Theatre of Dionysus (c. 340 B.C.)at Athens, may also be traced in its crude form to an

EARLY CORINTHIAN CAPITAL FROM EPIDAURUS(Hellenic Society.)

Egyptian prototype. In these the spiral is entirely dis-pensed with, and above the acanthus corolla the bell isclad with lanceolate leaves which curve outwards atthe tips, beneath the square abacus. The same typewas used much later in the porch, now destroyed, of theTower of the Winds (c. 80 B.C.) but this variety was

1 Ascribed to the younger Polycletos who lived in the earlier half01' the fourth century. See Durm, p. 287 n.

i;2 HELLENIC ARCHITECTURE [CHAP, xn

not destined to further development in classical architec-

ture; and the peculiar capacity of the acanthus-leaf forartistic treatment led to its almost exclusive use in theCorinthian capital.

The Corinthian form of column seems at first to havebeen used chiefly for interior work, and in the circularshrines or memorials which were erected in the fourth

century it was so em-

*s / ployed, though both

\ _/ the tholos in the Mar-

maria at Delphi andthat at Epidaurus hada Doric peristyle ex-ternally. That atOlympia, erected byPhilip II of Macedonafter the battle ofCheronaea (338 B.C.),had an Ionic peristyle,

CAPITAL FROM THE TOWER OF THEWINDS. (Liibke.)

but here the circularcella, which was plainoutside, had its in-terior surface relieved


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by pilasters in the Corinthian style. The capitals hadtwo rows of acanthus leaves, and two caulicoli beneatheach angle of the abacus, but none on the face of thebell, the upper part of which was merely covered withsmaller and less serrated leaves. 1

In Greece these early forms cannot be regarded as

constituting a new order. They were merely variations

/of the Ionic. This is evident in the Lysicrates' monument,.

1 See "Baudenkm. v. Olympia," PL LXXXI.

CHAP, xn] THE CORINTHIAN ORDER 173

which, though the capitals are of the type of that atBassaewith the addition of a lower corolla of striated leaveshas the regular Ionic entablature, viz., an architrave inthree planes, a frieze with sculptured reliefs and a pro-

jecting cornice with dentils. The columns have a widelyspreading base, similar to that ofIonic pilasters at Bassae, and theonly peculiarity about the shaftsis that the flutings are made toterminate in a slight leaf-like pro-jection at the top. These six col-umns are often described as if theywere pilasters or semi-columns en-gaged in the cylindrical wall, butthey are in fact actual columnsembedded in the wall. 1

So far as Greece was concernedthis so-called Corinthian style re-mained undeveloped until thecountry

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