The proportions of the human figure were zealously studied in fixing the proportions of columns, and the principles of their arts, more especially that of architecture, were framed upon a thorough knowledge of the laws of geometry and mathematics. So exact were their rules of measurement and laws of proportion that if but the height of a column or the width of a triglyph is known, it is often possible to calculate the size and proportions of an entire building. Greek architecture produced a form of perfect beauty in its porticoed temple, but only one form, the similarity of type being discernible in every structure, and the constructive features being always the same. It is only in the minuter details and proportions that variety is discernible.

It must not, however, be imagined as was formerly often asserted, that the buildings of the Greeks were marked by great sameness, and that the constant repetition of the same forms rendered them insipid. Recent researches prove the contrary, the fact being that Greek buildings were characterised by an infinite variety of arrangement, both in the general contour of the building and also in the ground-plans, no two temples being exactly alike, either in plan or detail. Each building and each order possesses an idea of its own, although the type is the same. Neither did the Greeks

confine themselves to the use of their three orders, for their prolific and luxurious imagination indulged in many forms of beauty which cannot be strictly classed under either.

In addition to their love of natural forms, the religion of the Greeks influenced greatly the character of their architecture. There was no need of aspiring forms to raise the souls of the Greek worshippers. Their ideas were confined to the earth on which they lived, that earth being one of their most venerated deities: their Gods, being simply personifications suggested by the words or phrases used by the most ancient tribes when speaking of the things which they perceived in the world of nature around them, were entirely human in character, inhabiting the sunny mountain top, the grassy dell with its rippling stream and reedy banks, or the deep wood where the wood-nymphs sported by the silvery fountain. They needed no spire to point out the heavenward path, for their very heaven was upon earth in the Islands of the Blest where the sun sets, beyond the Western waters. Thus no idea of aspiration entered into their' minds, and consequently no desire whatever was evinced for great height in their buildings. Hence it is that Greek architecture may be described as faultlessly elegant and beautiful rather than majestic or grand.

As the column and entablature form so important a feature in Greek architecture, an examination and enumeration of the different component parts will be necessary to enable the learner clearly to understand them when referred to in future descriptions.

The accompanying diagram of the Doric order

(fig. 5), a profile from the Parthenon at Athens, shows the different parts of the column and entablature. The column consists of the shaft and

capital, and the entablature consists of the archi

с

trave, frieze, and cornice. The columns of the Ionic order, and also the exceptional examples of the Corinthian order, exhibit a base in addition.

Pilasters are often used in Greek buildings; they consist of flat surfaces slightly projecting from the wall, and diminishing slightly as they rise, and have a capital entirely different from those of the columns.

Colonnades, or ranges of columns, were generally used both in front of and surrounding a temple. In describing a temple a name is usually prefixed, signifying the number of columns employed, and the arrangement in other respects; for instance, one with four columns is called Tetrastyle, with six columns Hexastyle, with eight columns Octastyle, with ten columns Decastyle, and so on. If the intercolumniation, or space between the columns, is equal to one and a half diameters of the column, it is termed pycnostyle, if to two diameters systile, if to two and a quarter diameters eustyle, if to three diameters diastyle, and if to four diameters aræostyle. A colonnade, when in front of a building is called a portico, when entirely surrounding the building peristyle, and when double or treble in depth polystyle.

In the Parthenon and some other of the Greek temples the horizontal lines, produced by the en

tablature, steps, &c., are not, as might have been supposed, perfectly level. And the vertical lines, produced by the columns, walls, &c., in the Parthenon and Temple of Theseus, are so constructed,* that if carried up to a given point, of course at an immense height above the building, they would all meet at that point; the horizontal lines possessing a curvature corresponding to the arc formed by the conjunction of the upright lines with the supposed given point. There is a passage in Cicero (Cicero in Verrem, Act II. lib. i. 51), which shows that this inclination of columns was a recog nised principle among the ancients.

curves.

Greek architecture is distinguished for nothing so much as for the grace and beauty of its mouldings, and the student must not fail to remember that they are composed of eccentric and not regular If called elliptical or portions of some other conic section, they consist rather of graceful outlines, such as could not be described or drawn by compasses, but require a free hand, guided by a correct eye and keen sense of the beautiful, qualities which the Greeks possessed to an extraordinary extent. The Greek mouldings are not independent features as the Roman generally are, but

* An Investigation into the Principles of Athenian Architecture, by F. C. Penrose.