INTRODUCTION TO CLASSICAL GREEK

ARCHITECTURE
TEMPLE DESIGN AND OTHER STRUCTURES
 GREEK ARCHITECTURE 650-30 BC
Geographical
•Started in Crete thousands of years
•ago before Greek civilization reached
•its peak
•The Aegean culture reached Greece and
engaged in trade in the eastern
Mediterranean, Asia minor, Cyprus, Syria,
Palestine, Egypt and Libya.
•When the Aegean culture crumbled,
colonists helped in forming Greece of
classical times.
•Geography –mountainous character of
Greece surrounded by sea produced
strong sea- faring men engaged in
maritime business
•Hinterlands made communications
difficult.
•Two periods of Greek: Hellenic and
Hellenistic period

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Religious
Gods and goddesses

Greek Roman

Zeus supreme god, ruler of the sky Jupiter(Jove)

Hera wife of Zeus, goddess of marriage Juno

Apollo god of law and reason, art, music and Apollo

poetry; founder of cities

Athena Goddess of wisdom and learning Minerva

Poseidon sea god Neptune

Dionysos god of wine, feasting and revelry Bacchus

Demeter goddess of earth and agriculture Ceres

Artemis goddess of chase Diana

Hermes messenger of the gods; god of commerce Mercury

Aphrodite goddess of love and beauty Venus

Hephaestus god of fire, flame, forge; god of handicraft Vulcan

Ares god of war Mars

Hestia goddess of hearth

Helios (Sol) the sun god

Selene (Luna) moon goddess

Pan god of flocks

Heracles (Hercules) a mortal who became god of strength and labor

Asclepius (Aesculapius) god of healing

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Historical
Aegean period:Minoan, Mycenean
3000 BC -Aegean people move from
Asia minor to Crete and mingled with
the original inhabitants
2000 BC-Aegeans penetrated the
mainland which five hundred years
later were invaded by the people from
the north
1600-1400 BC -whole Aegean culture
reached its peak. Another severe attack
by the northern Greek tribe.
1100 BC The third attack of Crete by the
Dorian Greeks almost destroyed the
Aegean culture
The Aegean fled to neighboring coast,
Asia Minor, and build new cities and
colonize other cities.
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600 BC Hellenic period
After the attacks of the Dorian Greeks,
Hellenic civilization was born
Greek cities settled down forms of
government-tyrannic, aristocratic,
democratic
Greek cities colonized other lands
Ionians of Asia Minor got involved politically
with the Persian king
546 BC -Cyrus (Persian King) won the battle at
Sardis and conquered the Greek cities in Asia
Minor
499-493BC- the Ionian Greeks revolted but
reconquered by Darius I
490 BC –the Persians conquered Greece itself
but were defeated in the Battle at Marathon
480 BC second attack of Greece by Xerxes
ended at the sea battle at Salamis
479 B and land battle at Plataea
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Historical
National celebrations in the victories of HELENISTIC PERIOD
Salamis and Plataea brought about the
constructions of important temples in 50 CONSTRUCTION OF OTHER CIVIC
years. BUILDINGS

444-429BC- rule of Pericles marked the
Athenian prosperity at its peak
431-404 BC-due to jealousy, the Spartans
attacked Athens at the Peloponnesian war
and Sparta gained supremacy.
323 BC -Alexander the Great Died at
Babylon. Split among his general resulted.
Ptolomy took Egypt
Greece attempted to rise up by conquering
Achaen and Aetolian leagues

Other states attacked Sparta and the The mutual animosity of the Greek
leadership was transferred to Thebes and communities and its natural isolation
Macedonia brought about chance for Rome to
colonize Greece.
334 BC- King Philip and Son Alexander the
Great subdued Persian Empire, conquer 146 BC -Greece became a Roman province.
Egypt and founded the city of Alexandria,
site in eastern Egypt.
His conquest extended to India, and Greek
art and civilization spread to western Asia.

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.
GREEK ARCHITECTURE
1. Hellenic Period 650-323 BC
2. Hellenistic Period
• After the downfall of Aegean culture
•Greek states were united under similar
devotion to their religion, religious
festivals, love for drama, music fine arts,
and national games and manly sports and
contests.
•Practiced a level of democracy-citizen
shared in all affairs of the state.
•Architectural features similar with the
predecessor
•Palaces, the dominant type of building in
the Aegean period appeared scarcely in
the Greek architecture.
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Hellenic Period
• Temples were chief building type
• Megaron-Earliest temple resembled
Aegean in plan-timber laced, sun-dried
brick wall, stucco covered, on stone
dadoes, timber framed portals (origin of
the door architrave)
• Timber antae or uprights protecting the
free ends of the naos where they
embraced the pronaos or the porch.
• Low pitched roofs showing pediments or
gables over narrow ends.
• Temples were with wall enclosure and
propylaea
• Propylaea –entrance gateway or
vestibule
• Trabeated and columnar- structural
system
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 HELLENIC PERIOD
507 BC to 523 BC- democracy of
Athens to the death of Alexander the
Great
Athens –a small Mycenaean town –
became powerful so powerful that it
maintained its socio-political-economic
position even after its defeat to the
Spartan in the Peloponnesian War.
-model of empire

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Hellenic :
ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER
Stone architecture-marble
“Templates” or models in the design and
construction of temples ex. Doric, Ionic,
Corinthian Orders
buildings.- no palace since they do not have
royalties with absolute power
Temples-erected for their gods and goddesses
CIVIC BUILDINGS-
Bouleuterion-council house
Prytaneion-state dining hall
Palaestra-Gym
Hippodrome-chariot racing
Stoa-colonnaded free-standing sheds
Mausoleum-tombs
Amphitreatre-open air stage/theatre
Agora-marketplace
Propylon-entrance gateway
Architectural Character (Hellenic)
Doric style

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 Acropolis at Athens
Fine example of a sanctuary
Started as a citadel during the Bronze Age
Early 5th centuryBC, to celebrate the victory
at Marathon, new buildings were added
Gateway replaced by propylon
The site was tidied after the Persians left.
Propylaea replaced the old propylon
Improvement of the site was under the
supervision of architect Mnesicles.

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Sanctuaries and Temples
Temples
Plan –rectangular
Cella or naos- place where the god
stood
Side walls extended to form a porch
The plan is similar to megaron
Porches-are embelished with columns
In antis- columns placed either
between the ends of the side walls
prostyle –row of columns in front of
the porch

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Conventional description of the number of
columns
Greek numeral + Style Larger temples were with more than one rows
of columns to carry the weight
Style or stylos -Greek term for column Dipteral -double rows
Dystyle -two columns Tripteral - triple rows
Tristyle -three columns Pseudodipteral - the outer colonnade
Tetrasyle -four columns might be spaced as though there was a second
internal row but in fact omitted.
Pentastyle-five columns amphiprostyle -temple with porticos at
Hexastyle -six columns both ends

Heptastyle -seven columns Prostyle- -an open portico of

columns standing in front of a building
Octastyle -eight columns
Eneastyle -nine columns
Odd numbered columns were not usually used
peripteral temples -temples with cella
surrounded by columns . The same terms were
used to describe the number of columns

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Sanctuaries
Sactuaries
-Contain more than one temple and
contain those of lesser importance; or
contain temples build at different periods
- Offering and storage place
-contain other spaces for human activities
Treasury (thesaurus)-small non-peripteral
temple constructed by Greek cities as
offering to the god.
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Spaces in sanctuary
Temple and altar- the most sacred spaces
dedicated to their go
Altar – monumental, rectangular in plan
and with architectural motifs and
mouldings such as triglyph and metope
frieze or screen of columns
For human involvement in cult and
religious activities:
Theatre- for religious drama
Hippodrome and stadium -athletic contest
and chariot racing
Palaistrai and gymnasia located near the
hippodrome and stadium-physical
exercises and training
Banqueting hall- for selected worshipper
to partake the sacrificial meal dining in
reclining couches, the Greek manner.
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 Temples in Acropolis

1. Parthenon –the main temple dedicated to

Athena
Ictinus and Callicrates-supervisings architects
of Parthenon
Phidias-sculptor of Acropolis and the statue of
Athena

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Section and plan of Parthenon

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PARTHENON
The best example of Greek temple
Stylobate, cornices and architraves were
treated with entasis.
Antifixae concealed the marble roof tiles
above the cornice
No gutters; pediment with false
( unpierced) lion head spouts
Coffered ceilings were supported by
marble beams
The pediment with floral acroteria at the
apex and lower angles
a powder store exploded causing great
Eastern pediment sculptures were about
the birth of Athena
Western pediment showed the contest of
Athena and Poseidon
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Metopes, 92, were decorated with deep
relief depicting combats: gods and giants
on east, Greek amazons on west, Centaurs
on south and battle of Trojan on north.
Frieze with guttae and regulae
In 6th century, the Parthenon was
converted to a Christian church dedicated
to the Divine Wisdom
In 1458, it was converted to a Mosque by
the Turks
In 1687, during the Venetian siege,
damage to the temple.
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OTHER TEMPLES
2. ERECHTHEION
Replacement of the old one which housed the
temple’s venerable wooden cult statue of
Athena
Includes the salt pool where Poseidon struct
the acropolis with is trident, and the shrine of
Erechtheus- the legendary king of Athens
The site of the temple was not flat.
The cella was built in two levels
Hexastyle, prostyle temple with columns 6.586
m high
At the west end of the south side of the porch
contained the caryatids. These caryatids, 4 in
front and 2 behind , stands on a low wall with
an opening between the eastern rear figure
and the main cella wall, thru which an stair lead
to an anteroom.
The entablature is resting on the maidens’ head
that supports a roof of flat slab.

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 Other Doric Temples
In Greece In Sicily and southern Italy

c. 590 BC Heraion Olympia 565 BC Temple Of Apollo Syracuse

c. 540 BC temple of Apollo, Corinth

c. 510 BC temple of Apollo, Delphi 550-530 BC temple of “C” Paestum

c. 500 BC temple of Aphaia, Aegina

c. 460 BC temple of Zeus, Olympia 530BC The Basilica Paestum

c. 449 BC temple of hephaestus

440-440 BC Temple of Poseidon 520- 450 BC Great Temple of Apollo

435-432 BC temple of Nemesis

426 BC Athenian temple of Apollo 510-BC Temple of Ceres, Paestum

425 BC Temple of EPIcurius Selinus

370 BC Temple of Asklepius 510-409 BC temple of Zeus, Olympus

After 350 BC Temple of Athena Alea

336 BC Temple of Zeus Nemea 480 BC Temple of Athena Syracuse

460 BC temple of Neptune

424- 416 BC Temple at Segesta, Sicily

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TEMPLE OF ZEUS WITH ATLANTES/TELEMON TEMPLE OF APHAIA

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Urban Architecture
Streets-grid pattern ignoring obstacles and Tholos-circular building where the
becoming stairways in steep slopes committee of the council, when in office,
Towns were with walls dined in this building at state expense

Graves were outside the town Prytaneion- the public hall or state dining
room of the Greek city
Spaces in Greek cities were devoted more
to public rather than private spaces Domestic dwelling

Agora –an open place assembly or a For the rich- courtyard type of stone
market place example: Agora of Athens construction
located at the lower part of Acropolis Walls were of mud brick and masonry
Stoa-a free-standing portico or a detached Asymmetrical layout of rooms
colonnade used for covered walk and
meeting place; used to enclose the space Two storey houses
of a Greek city
Bouleuterion-Greek Senate or council
house

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Tombs

Classical tombs were not monumental,

grouped into family precincts rectangular
and rarely circular in plan , where the
ashes of the dead were deposited.
markers were erected
Mausoleum- ( monumental tom)
constructed by Queen Artemisia for his
dead husband king Mausolus
Consisted of high rectangular podium,
containing burial chamber, surrounded by
colonnade carrying a stepped pyramidal
roof which supported the stature of a
four- horse chariot.

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 High relief

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Hellenistic period
Cultural and political unity under Alexander
the Great
Greek culture flourished . Architecture
being affected by Greek style combined
with different forms of local tradition and
varying levels of wealth.
The successor kings after Alexander’s death
were Macedonians- contributing to the
architectural development of the period
Doric order was maintained in mainland
Greece under the Macedonians
Ionic order became popular in the Greek
temples of the Asia minor-the traditional
Ionic area. Example of Hellenistic temple

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Urban Architecture
Grid plan cities
Walled with circuit wall made of mud
brick
Presence of agora, stoa, assembly
building (ecclesiasteron).
Also with the construction of gymnasia,
palaistrai, , council house or
bouleuterion
Burial Places
Mausoleum
Rock -cut tombs in cliffs where vertical
surfaces were given architectural
facades leading to:
1. loculi –the recesses on the
wall to receive corpses or
2. sarcophagi-elaborate coffins

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Stoa Ecclesiasteron

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Greek stoas

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Houses
Affluent
Megaron type
Facing open internal court
yard
Indirect access through the
courtyard
Stone columns
varying levels due to slope
Two storey was common
Common people
Tenement houses for
ordinary people

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Plan of the Greek house

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Greek Theatres

Greek theatres unroofed

consisting of three parts:
1. auditorium or the cavea
/koilon, seating area,
2. orchestra or the dancing
floor-chorus of each play
danced and sang; and
3. stage building or the skene ,
place were the actors stayed
parodos- a passage separating
the cavea from the stage
building

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