Search results
Apr 3, 2018 · The path from Greek to English is complicated, but the influence of the Ancient Greek word ‘παρα-γράφειν (para-grafein)’ is clear. Other examples include words such as angel (from ἄγγελος), drama (from δρᾶμα), music (from μουσική), problem (from πρόβλημα) and zoo (built on ζῷον).
- Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek architecture has influenced many architectural...
- The Most Beautiful Greek Names
The Greek language is a beautiful, complex language that has...
- Ancient Greek
The Ancient Greeks built grand buildings with distinctive features such as columns, friezes and ceremonial gateways. Many of these features are still seen in buildings today, showing that Ancient Greek architecture still has influence.
- Overview
- Where and when
- Temple
- Stoa
- Theater
- Bouleuterion
- House
- Fortifications
- Stadium, gymnasium, and palaestra
- Altar
By Dr. Jeffrey A. Becker
For most of us, architecture is easy to take for granted. It's everywhere in our daily lives—sometimes elegant, other times shabby, but generally ubiquitous. How often do we stop to examine and contemplate its form and style? Stopping for that contemplation offers not only the opportunity to understand one’s daily surroundings but also to appreciate the connection that exists between architectural forms in our own time and those from the past. Architectural tradition and design have the ability to link disparate cultures together over time and space—and this is certainly true of the legacy of architectural forms created by the ancient Greeks.
Greek architecture refers to the architecture of the Greek-speaking peoples who inhabited the Greek mainland and the Peloponnese, the islands of the Aegean Sea, the Greek colonies in Ionia (coastal Asia Minor), and Magna Graecia (Greek colonies in Italy and Sicily).
Greek architecture stretches from c. 900 B.C.E. to the first century C.E., with the earliest extant stone architecture dating to the seventh century B.C.E.
The most recognizably “Greek” structure is the temple (even though the architecture of Greek temples is actually quite diverse). The Greeks referred to temples with the term ὁ ναός (ho naós), meaning "dwelling," temple derives from the Latin term, templum. The earliest shrines were built to honor divinities and were made from materials such as wood and mud brick—materials that typically don't survive very long. The basic form of the naos (the interior room that held the cult statue of the God or Gods) emerges as early as the tenth century B.C.E. as a simple, rectangular room with projecting walls (antae) that created a shallow porch. This basic form remained unchanged in its concept for centuries. In the eighth century B.C.E., Greek architecture begins to make the move from ephemeral materials (wood, mud brick, thatch) to permanent materials (namely, stone).
During
, the tenets of the Doric order of architecture in the Greek mainland became firmly established, leading to a wave of monumental temple building during the sixth and fifth centuries B.C.E. Greek city-states invested substantial resources in temple building—as they competed with each other not just in strategic and economic terms, but also in their architecture. For example, Athens devoted enormous resources to the construction of the
in the 5th century B.C.E.—in part so that Athenians could be confident that the temples built to honor their gods surpassed anything that their rival states could offer.
The multi-phase architectural development of sanctuaries such as that of Hera on the island of Samos demonstrates not only the change that occurred in construction techniques over time but also how the Greeks re-used sacred spaces—with the later phases built directly atop the preceding ones. Perhaps the fullest, and most famous, expression of Classical Greek temple architecture is the Periclean Parthenon of Athens—a Doric order structure, the Parthenon represents the maturity of the Greek classical form.
Greek temples are often categorized in terms of their ground plan and the way in which the columns are arranged. A prostyle temple is a temple that has columns only at the front, while an amphiprostyle temple has columns at the front and the rear. Temples with a peripteral arrangement (from the Greek πτερον (pteron), meaning "wing") have a single line of columns arranged all around the exterior of the temple building. Dipteral temples simply have a double row of columns surrounding the building. One of the more unusual plans is the tholos, a temple with a circular ground plan; famous examples are attested at the sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi and the sanctuary of
Stoa (στοά) is a Greek architectural term that describes a covered walkway or colonnade that was usually designed for public use. Early examples, often employing the Doric order, were usually composed of a single level, although later examples (Hellenistic and Roman) came to be two-story freestanding structures. These later examples allowed interior space for shops or other rooms and often incorporated the Ionic order for interior colonnades.
Greek city planners came to prefer the stoa as a device for framing the agora (public marketplace) of a city or town. The South Stoa (c. 700–550 B.C.E.), constructed as part of the sanctuary of Hera on the island of Samos, numbers among the earliest examples of the stoa in Greek architecture. Many cities, particularly Athens and Corinth, came to have elaborate and famous stoas. In Athens, the famous Stoa Poikile (“Painted Stoa”), c. fifth century B.C.E., housed paintings of famous Greek military exploits, including the battle of Marathon, while the Stoa Basileios (“Royal Stoa”), c. fifth century B.C.E., was the seat of a chief civic official (archon basileios).
Later, through the patronage of the kings of Pergamon, the Athenian agora was augmented by the famed Stoa of Attalos (c. 159–138 B.C.E.), which was recently rebuilt according to the ancient specifications and now houses the archaeological museum for the Athenian Agora itself. At Corinth, the stoa persisted as an architectural type well into the Roman period; the South Stoa there, c. 150 C.E., shows the continued utility of this building design for framing civic space. From the
onwards, the stoa also lent its name to a philosophical school, as
The Greek theater was a large, open-air structure used for dramatic performance. Theaters often took advantage of hillsides and naturally sloping terrain and, in general, utilized the panoramic landscape as the backdrop to the stage itself. The Greek theater is composed of the seating area (theatron), a circular space for the chorus to perform (orc...
The Bouleuterion (βουλευτήριον) was an important civic building in a Greek city, as it was the meeting place of the boule (citizen council) of the city. These select representatives assembled to handle public affairs and represent the citizenry of the polis (in ancient Athens, the boule was comprised of 500 members). The Bouleuterion generally was ...
Greek houses of the Archaic and
periods were relatively simple in design. Houses usually were centered on a courtyard that would have been the scene for various ritual activities; the courtyard also provided natural light for the often small houses. The ground floor rooms would have included kitchen and storage rooms, perhaps an animal pen and a latrine; the chief room was the andron—site of the male-dominated drinking party (symposion). The quarters for women and children (gynaikeion) could be located on the second level (if present) and were, in any case, segregated from the men's area. It was not uncommon for houses to be attached to workshops or shops. The houses excavated in the southwest part of the Athenian Agora had walls of mud brick that rested on stone socles and tiled roofs, with floors of beaten clay.
The Mycenaean fortifications of Bronze Age Greece (c. 1300 B.C.E.) are particularly well known—the megalithic architecture (also referred to as Cyclopean because of the use of enormous stones) represents a trend in Bronze Age architecture. While these massive Bronze Age walls are difficult to best, first millennium B.C.E. Greece also shows evidence...
The Greek stadium (derived from stadion, a Greek measurement equivalent to c. 578 feet or 176 meters) was the location of foot races held as part of sacred games; these structures are often found in the context of sanctuaries, as in the case of the Panhellenic sanctuaries at Olympia and Epidauros. Long and narrow, with a horseshoe shape, the stadium occupied reasonably flat terrain.
The gymnasium (from the Greek term gymnós meaning "naked") was a training center for athletes who participated in public games. This facility tended to include areas for both training and storage. The palaestra (παλαίστρα) was an exercise facility originally connected with the training of wrestlers. These complexes were generally rectilinear in plan, with a colonnade framing a central, open space.
Since blood sacrifice was a key component of Greek ritual practice, an altar was essential for these purposes. While altars did not necessarily need to be architecturalized, they could be, and, in some cases, they assumed a monumental scale. The third century B.C.E. Altar of Hieron II at Syracuse, Sicily, provides one such example. At c. 196 meters in length and c. 11 m in height, the massive altar was reported to be capable of hosting the simultaneous sacrifice of 450 bulls. [1]
Another spectacular altar is the Altar of Zeus from Pergamon, built during the first half of the second century B.C.E. The altar itself is screened by a monumental enclosure decorated with sculpture; the monument measures c. 35.64 by 33.4 meters. The altar is best known for its program of relief sculpture that depicts a gigantomachy (battle between the Olympian gods and the giants) that is presented as an allegory for the military conquests of the kings of Pergamon. Despite its monumental scale and lavish decoration, the Pergamon altar preserves the basic and necessary features of the Greek altar: it is frontal and approached by stairs and is open to the air—to allow not only for the blood sacrifice itself but also for the burning of the thigh bones and fat as an offering to the gods.
Greek architecture refers to the architecture of the Greek-speaking peoples who inhabited the Greek mainland and the Peloponnese, the islands of the Aegean Sea, the Greek colonies in Ionia (coastal Asia Minor), and Magna Graecia (Greek colonies in Italy and Sicily).
Nov 12, 2010 · Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2010-11-12 22:31:13 Boxid IA135105 Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Thematic overview of ancient Greek architecture, with a focus on building materials, tools, and techniques. It includes discussions of design; building organization and the roles of clients, architects, and builders; style and decoration; building types; and city planning.
People also ask
What is Ancient Greek architecture?
How did Ancient Greek architecture influence modern Greek architecture?
How did the Ancient Greek language influence English?
What is thematic overview of Ancient Greek architecture?
Mar 22, 2021 · 3 volumes : 24 cm. Translated from the French, La Civilisation Grecque. "In the original edition of this work the quotations from Greek poets appear in French. For the purpose of the present version the same passages have been quoted from ... standard translations into English." Includes bibliographical references and index.
