Untitled Quiz

General Influences

• The first great sea-power of the Mediterranean, Crete, developed into the civilization of Classical Greece.
• The region was home to two crucial Bronze Age civilizations: the Minoans and Mycenaeans.
• The Mycenaeans were the first Greek Civilization to write and speak the Greek language.

Geological Influences

• Marble played a major role in Greek architecture, facilitating precise lines and refined details.
• Pentelic marble, prominently found in the quarries of Mount Penteli, was a key material.

Mycenaean Palaces

• Rooms were organized around a large central court.
• Palaces had extensive basement storage areas, artists’ workshops, dining halls, and luxurious living quarters for ruling families.
• Mycenaean structures were lightweight and flexible, not monumental.

The Palace of Tiryns

• A hilltop citadel surrounded by defensive walls featuring cyclopean masonry and short stretches of ashlar.
• The Lion Gate is its most famous feature.

The Lion Gate of Mycenae

• Above the lintel, corbelled stones form an arch, creating a triangle filled with two lions carved in relief on either side of a sacred Minoan column.
• The lions’ heads, now lost, were made of separate pieces of metal or stone.

Tomb Architecture

• Types of Aegean tombs:
  • Rock-cut or chamber tombs cut into hillsides with a passageway open to the sky called the dromos.

Historical and Social Influences

• Greek history comprises three distinct periods: Mycenaean or Helladic Greece, the Archaic period, and the Classical period.
• Mycenaean or Helladic Greece focused on defensive architecture like the fortifications of Mycenae and Tiryns. Citadel palaces were also built.
• Columns were usually constructed in "drums" and flutes were carved after the shafts were positioned.
• Sectioned columns were carved with a center hole or depression for pegging using stone or metal pins.

The Hellenistic Period

• Public buildings multiplied and became permanent structures.
• Civic design developed, with building groups arranged symmetrically, linked by colonnaded porticoes known as ‘stoas’.
• Town planning became a new development.
• Trabeated architecture remained common, but arches started appearing over wall openings.
• Greek cities, like the Acropolis, were located on the highest parts for dignity, enclosed within a ‘temenos’ or sacred enclosure.
• The Acropolis of Athens is the most famous acropolis, housing important and sacred buildings.

The Acropolis, Athens

• Propylaea - forms the impressive entrance to the Acropolis.
• Pinacotheca - houses painted pictures.

Temple Architecture

• The Greek temple is a rectangle with a roof supported by columns.
• The three main Greek orders are:
  • Doric - masculine in quality, has no base, height is 4-6 1/2x the diameter of the base, with 20 flutes.
  • Ionic - more graceful and delicate, has a base, height is 8-9x the diameter of the base, with 24 flutes.
  • Corinthian - the most ornate, has slender fluted columns, a plain frieze, a base similar to the Ionic, and a height of 9-10x the diameter of the base.
• Peripteral - single line of columns at the front and rear.
• Pseudo-peripteral - flank of columns attached to the naos wall.
• Dipteral - double line of columns surrounding the naos.
• Pseudo-dipteral - like dipteral but the inner range of columns is omitted.
• A Caryatid is a sculpted female figure supporting an entablature on her head.
• A Canephora is a caryatid with a basket on her head.
• An Atlantes, a decorative column in the figure or half figure of a man.

Temples of the Doric Order

• The Parthenon, Athens
  • An ambitious plan realized by Pericles, a Greek statesman.
  • A supreme example of Classical Greece, upheld as a symbol of democracy.
  • Dedicated to Athena Parthenos, whose 12.8-meter-high statue was a masterpiece by Phidias, crafted from ivory and gold with precious stones.
  • Designed by Ictinus and Callicrates, with Phidias as the master sculptor.
  • Peripteral octastyle in plan, with the naos known as ‘hecatompedon’, measuring 100 feet long.
• The Temple of Zeus, Olympia
  • Built by Libon of Elis, a temple of the Doric order with 6 x 13 columns.
  • The temple was a marvel of design and construction, with intricate carvings and decorations.
  • It was destroyed by an earthquake in the 6th century AD, but its ruins are still visible today.

Temples of the Corinthian Order

• Temple of Artemis, Ephesus
  • Designed by Demetrius, Paeonius, and Deinocrates, one of the most impressive of Greek temples, considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
  • Dipteral octastyle at the front and enneastyle at the rear.
• Tholos Philippeion, Olympia
  • Begun by Philip of Macedonia and completed by Alexander.
  • A tholos is a circular temple (this word is also used for a Mycenaean circular subterranean tomb).
• Tholos, Epidaurus
  • Built by Polykleitos, an astronomical monument, perystyle in plan with 14 internal Corinthian columns and 26 external Doric order columns, floor in black and white marble.
• Temple of Olympian Zeus, Athens
  • Built by Cossutius and completed by Roman Emperor Hadrian, renowned as the largest temple in Greece.
  • Has 55 semi-circular rows, with a seating capacity of 12,000-14,000.

Greek Theatre

• Open-air structures usually hollowed out of a hillside slope.
• Orchestra - space between the audience and the stage.
• Theatron or Cavea - the audience seating space.
• The theater at Epidaurus is famous for its acoustics and its relationship with the god Asklepius.

Greek Theatre and Asklepius

• Asklepius, the god of medicine, is said to have prescribed writing songs and "comical mimes" as treatments.
• This practice is based on the idea that a patient's emotional state is as important as their physical one.
• The theater, therefore, was seen as a part of the cure, suggesting "Theater as Medicine."

Public Buildings

• Agora
  • An open place of assembly and a center of social and business life.
• Stoa
  • Long, colonnaded covered walkways used around public places.
  • Stoa of Attalos
    • A museum of Ancient Agora with walls made of limestone and Pentelic marble.
• Assembly Halls
  • For public assemblies.
  • Telesterion, Eleusis by Ictinus was an assembly hall large enough to hold thousands of people.
• Bouleuterion (Council House)
  • A meeting place for democratically-elected councils.
• Tower of the Winds, Athens
  • Made of Pentelic marble by the Greek astronomer Andronicus of Cyrrhus, a unique octagonal structure with a sundial and weather vanes indicating the wind direction.

Entablature Features

• Astragal or bead: bead and reel
• Torus: the guilloche or plait ornament, or with bundles of leaves tied by bands.
• Corona: usually painted with the fret ornament (also called key pattern)
• The fillet is a small plain face to separate other moldings.
• The scotia is a deep hollow molding.
• The cavetto is a simple hollow molding.
• Dentils are a series of small projecting rectangular blocks under a cornice.
• Bird’s beak has a section resembling a beak.