Classical Antiquity In Ancient Greek Architecture

The Greeks or Hellenes are an ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Anatolia, Southern Italy,

and other regions arrived as Proto-Greeks in the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, at the end of the

3rd millennium BC. Having contributing to the Classical Era popularly known as Classical Antiquity which

is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the

interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman

world. It is the period in which Greek and Roman society flourished and wielded great influence

throughout Europe, North Africa and Southwestern Asia. Greeks have greatly influenced and

contributed to culture, arts,

Ancient Greek architecture is best known from temples, many of which are found

throughout the region, mostly as ruins but many substantially intact. The second important type of

building that survives all over the Hellenic world is the open-air theatre, with the earliest dating from

around 350 BC. Greek architecture is distinguished by its highly formalized characteristics, both of

structure and decoration.

Greek Architecture has a profound influence on the Western Architecture till date through its defined

orders which are Doric order, the Ionic order and the Corinthian order. Where Doric order is recognized

by its capital, of which the echinus is like a circular cushion raising from the top of the column to the

square abacus on which rest the lintels. The echinus appears flat and splayed in early examples, deeper

and with greater curve in later, more refined examples, and smaller and straight-sided in Hellenistic

examples.

Doric columns are almost always cut with grooves, known as "fluting", which run the length of the

column and are usually 20 in number, although sometimes fewer. The flutes meet at sharp edges called

arises. At the top of the columns, slightly below the narrowest point, and crossing the

most ornate of the classic orders of

architecture. It was also the latest, not arriving at full development until the middle of the 4th cent. B.C.

The oldest known example, however, is found in the temple of Apollo at Bassae (c.420 B.C.). The Greeks

made little use of the order.

Greeks certainly had a preference for marble. Initially, though, wood would have been used for not only

such basic architectural elements as columns but the entire buildings themselves. Early 8th century BCE

temples were so constructed and had thatch roofs. From the late 7th century BCE, temples, in particular,

slowly began to be converted into more durable stone edifices; some even had a mix of the two

materials. Some scholars have argued that certain decorative features of stone column capitals and

elements of the entablature evolved from the skills of the carpenter displayed in more ancient, wooden

architectural elements.

The stone of choice was either limestone protected by a layer of marble dust stucco or even better, pure

white marble. Also, carved stone was often polished with chamois to provide resistance to water