INTRODUCTION

The Hellenic World' is a term which refers to that period of ancient Greek history between 507 BCE (the date of the
first democracy in Athens) and 323 BCE (the death of Alexander the Great). This period is also referred to as the
age of Classical Greece. The era should not be confused, however, with The Hellenistic World which designates the
period between the death of Alexander and Rome's conquest of Greece (323 - 146 - 31 BCE).
The Hellenic World of ancient Greece consisted of the Greek mainland, Crete, the islands of the Greek archipelago,
and the coast of Asia Minor primarily (though mention is made of cities within the interior of Asia Minor and, of
course, the colonies in southern Italy). This is the time of the great Golden Age of Greece and, in the popular
imagination, resonates as 'ancient Greece'.

EARLY DEVELOPMENT

The earliest forms of columns in Greece seem to have developed independently. Hellenic domestic architecture
centered on open spaces or courtyards surrounded by colonnades. This form was adapted to the construction of
hypostyle halls within the larger temples.

GREAT MINDS OF GREECE

The list of thinkers, writers, doctors, artists, scientists, statesmen, and warriors of the Hellenic World comprises
those who made some of the most important contributions to western civilization:

HELLENIC WAY OF THINKING

Grecism sense

Devotion to or imitation of ancient Greek thought, customs, or styles.

Greek civilization especially as modified in the Hellenistic period by influences from southwestern Asia
GREAT CITIES

Major city-states (and sacred places of pilgrimage) in the Hellenic World were

Argos,

Athens,

Eleusis,

Corinth,

Delphi

Ithaca

Olympia

Sparta

Thebes

Thrace

Mount Olympus

The home of the gods.

The temple of Demeter at Eleusis

www.tripadrivsor.com

GODS AND TEMPLES

The gods played an important part in the lives of the people of the Hellenic World; so much so that one could face
the death penalty for questioning - or even allegedly questioning - their existence, as in the case of Protagoras,
Socrates, and Alcibiades. The Athenian statesman Critias, sometimes referred to as `the first atheist', only escaped
being condemned because he was so powerful at the time.
BUILDINGS FORMS [TEMPLES]
The rectangular temple is the most common and best-known form of Hellenic public architecture that served as the
location of a cult image and as a storage place or strong room for the treasury associated with the cult of the god in
question, and as a place for devotees of the god to leave their votive offerings, such as statues, helmets and
weapons.
Small circular temples, tholos were also constructed, as well as small temple-like buildings that served as
treasuries for specific groups of donors.

Hellenic towns of substantial size also had a palaestra or a gymnasium, the social centre for male citizens which
included spectator areas, baths, toilets and club rooms.
Other buildings associated with sports include the hippodrome for horse racing.Hellenic towns of substantial size
also had a palaestra or a gymnasium, the social centre for male citizens which included spectator areas, baths,
toilets and club rooms.
Other buildings associated with sports include the hippodrome for horse racing.

Towns such as Paestum and Priene were being laid out with a regular grid of paved streets and an agora or central
market place surrounded by a colonnade or stoa.
Towns were also equipped with a public fountain where water could be collected for household use.

TEMPLE PLANS
Most Ancient Greek temples were rectangular, and were approximately twice as long as they were wide, with
some notable exceptions such as the enormous Temple of Zeus Olympus in Athens with a length of nearly 2 1/2
times its width.
A number of surviving temple-like structures are circular, and are referred to as tholos..

Greek typical floor plan

Source: : Stierlin, H. Greece: From Mycenae to the Parthenon. London, 2004, p. 191

OPENINGS

Door and window openings were spanned with a lintel, which in a stone building limited the possible width of the
opening. Door and window openings narrowed towards the top.
Temples were constructed without windows, the light to the naos entering through the door. It has been suggested
that some temples were lit from openings in the roof.
ROOF
The widest span of a temple roof was across the cella, or internal space. In a large building, this space contains
columns to support the roof, the architectural form being known as hypostyle. The nature of temple construction in
the 6th century BC, where the rows of columns supporting the roof the cella rise higher than the outer walls,
unnecessary if roof trusses are employed as an integral part of the wooden roof.

COLUMN AND LINTEL

The architecture of Hellenic is of a trabeated or "post and lintel" form, i.e. it is composed of upright beams (posts)
supporting horizontal beams (lintels).
It is likely that many early houses and temples were constructed with an open porch or "pronaos" above which
rose a low pitched gable or pediment.
The stone columns are made of a series of solid stone cylinders or “drums”

ENTABLATURE AND PEDIMENT

The columns of a temple support a structure that rises in two main stages, the entablature and the pediment. The
entablature is the major horizontal structural element supporting the roof and encircling the entire building. It is
composed of three parts. Resting on the columns is the architrave made of a series of stone “lintels” that spanned
the space between the columns, and meet each other at a joint directly above the centre of each column.

MASONRY

Masonry of all types was used for Hellenic buildings, including rubble, but the finest ashlar masonry was usually
employed for temple walls, in regular courses and large sizes to minimise the joints.

TEMPLES OF THE HELLENIC PERIOD

Great works of art and beautiful temples were created for the worship and praise of the various gods and
goddesses of the Greeks, such as

The Parthenon of Athens, dedicated to the goddess Athena Parthenos (Athena the Virgin) and

The Temple of Zeus at Olympia (both works which Phidias contributed to and one, the Temple of Zeus, listed as an
Ancient Wonder).

The temple of Demeter at Eleusis : the site of the famous Eleusinian Mysteries, considered the most important rite
in ancien Greece

PATHENON. ( Dedicated to the goddess of Athena)

Source: FreethoughtPedia.com
ORDERS USED IN THE HELLENIC (columns)

DORIC ORDER

The Doric order originated on the mainland and western Greece.

It is the simplest of the orders, characterized by short, organized, heavy columns with plain, round capitals (tops)
and no base.

With a height that is only four to eight times its diameter, the columns are the most squat of all orders.

The shaft of the Doric order is channeled with 20 flutes.

The capital consists of a necking or annulet, which is a simple ring.

The echinus is convex, or circular cushion like stone, and the abacus is square slab of stone.

Above the capital is a square abacus connecting the capital to the entablature. The entablature is divided into three
horizontal registers, the lower part of which is either smooth or divided by horizontal lines. The upper half is
distinctive for the Doric order. The frieze of the Doric entablature is divided into triglyphs and metopes. A triglyph
is a unit consisting of three vertical bands which are separated by grooves. Metopes are the plain or carved reliefs
between two triglyphs.
IONIC ORDER

The Ionic order came from eastern Greece, where its origins are entwined with the similar but little known Aeolic
order.

It is distinguished by slender, fluted pillars with a large base and two opposed volutes (also called "scrolls") in the
echinus of the capital. The echinus itself is decorated with an egg-and-dartmotif. The Ionic shaft comes with four
more flutes than the Doric counterpart (totalling 24). The Ionic base has two convex moldings called tori, which are
separated by a scotia.

The Ionic order is also marked by an entasis, a curved tapering in the column shaft. A column of the Ionic order is
nine times its lower diameter. The shaft itself is eight diameters high. The architrave of the entablature commonly
consists of three stepped bands (fasciae). The frieze comes without the Doric triglyph and metope. The frieze
sometimes comes with a continuous ornament such as carved figures instead.
CORINTHIAN ORDER

 The Corinthian order is the most elaborated of the Greek orders, characterized by a slender fluted column
having an ornate capital decorated with two rows of acanthus leaves and four scrolls.

 The shaft of the Corinthian order has 24 flutes. The column is commonly ten diameters high.

 The Roman writer Vitruvius credited the invention of the Corinthian order to Callimachus, a Greek sculptor
of the 5th century BC.

 The oldest known building built according to this order is the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in Athens,
constructed from 335 to 334 BC. The Corinthian order was raised to rank by the writings of Vitruvius in the
1st century BC.
 REFERENCES:

 Bugh, GlennKralli, Ioanna. The Hellenistic Peloponnese: Interstate Relations: a Narrative and Analytic History,
From the Fourth Century to 146 BC. Swansea: The Classical Press of Wales, 2017.

 Richard (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2006.

 Bö rm, Henning and Nino Luraghi (eds.). The Polis in the Hellenistic World. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag,
2018.

 Cary, M. A History of the Greek World, From 323 to 146 B.C. London: Methuen, 1963.

 Chamoux, François. Hellenistic Civilization. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2003.

 Champion, Michael and Lara O'Sullivan. Cultural Perceptions of Violence In the Hellenistic World. New York:
Routledge, 2017.

 Thonemann, Peter. The Hellenistic Age. First edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.

 Erskine, Andrew (ed.). A Companion to the Hellenistic World. Hoboken: Wiley, 2008.

 Goodman, Martin. “Under the influence: Hellenism in ancient Jewish life.” Biblical Archaeology Review 36,
no. 1 (2010), 60.

 Austin, M. M. The Hellenistic World From Alexander to the Roman Conquest: A Selection of Ancient Sources In
Translation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.

 Grainger, John D. Great Power Diplomacy In the Hellenistic World. New York: Routledge, 2017.

 Green, Peter. Alexander to Actium: The Historical Evolution of the Hellenistic Age. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1990.

 Lewis, D. M., John Boardman, and Simon Hornblower. Cambridge Ancient History Vol. 6: The Fourth Century
BC. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

 Rimell, Victoria and Markus Asper. Imagining Empire: Political Space In Hellenistic and Roman Literature.
Heidelberg: Universitä tsverlag Winter GmbH, 2017.

 Walbank, F. W. The Hellenistic World. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982.

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parthenon, roman temple, historic site, ancient history, egyptian temple, ancient roman architecture, ancient greek
temple” (CC0) via Pxhere

2. “Macedonia and the Aegean World c.200” (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia.