Ancient Greek Architecture: Temples, Orders, and City Planning

Posted on Apr 3, 2025 in Geology

Origins in the Aegean

Background: Early architectural developments occurred on the island of Crete, situated between the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. The Minoan Civilization (Neolithic, Bronze Age) flourished through trade and maritime supremacy. This influenced the subsequent Mycenaean culture in the Peloponnese.

Minoan and Mycenaean Architecture

Key Characteristics

These early cultures constructed palaces, mansions, private homes, and tombs, often with complex, almost labyrinthine layouts. Buildings featured good orientation, windows, and structural support using round columns. Ornamentation was relatively simple, often using lintels. Crete featured ingenious drainage systems. Notably, Minoan cities on Crete generally lacked defensive walls, whereas Mycenaean sites in the Peloponnese were fortified.

Palaces were often centered around a distinctive hall type called a Megaron. Tombs were frequently underground and circular (tholos tombs). Mycenaean art and architecture provide significant examples.

Materials: Stone, clay, and wood were commonly used.

Major Minoan Works: Palaces at Knossos, Phaistos, and the tomb at Isopata.

Major Mycenaean Works: The citadels of Mycenae and Tiryns, including the Treasury of Atreus.

Characteristics of Greek Culture and Architecture

Flourishing in the Eastern Mediterranean, Aegean Islands, Ionian Sea, and Balkan Peninsula, Greek culture emphasized:

  • Anthropocentrism: A focus on humanity; gods were conceived in human form.
  • Human Scale: Buildings related to human proportions.
  • Aesthetics and Proportion: Strong emphasis on beauty, mathematical reasoning, and harmonious proportions.
  • Integration of Arts: Architecture, sculpture, and painting were often combined.

Historical Periods:

  • Homeric Age (c. 1100–750 BCE): Origins of Olympic Games.
  • Archaic Period (c. 750–480 BCE): Development beyond Mycenaean precedents.
  • Classical Period (c. 480–323 BCE): Apex of Greek art, construction of the Parthenon and Erechtheion.
  • Hellenistic Period (323–146 BCE): Greece influenced by Macedonia; spread of Greek culture.
  • Roman Period (from 146 BCE): Greece becomes a Roman province.

Religion: Polytheistic.

Architectural Principles

Greek architecture is fundamentally anthropocentric. It utilizes mathematical reasoning and proportion. The primary structural system was the post-and-lintel (trabeated) system; arches and vaults were generally not used. Common building types included temples, porticoes (Stoas), houses, agoras (public squares), and propylaea (monumental gateways).

The Greek temple was primarily designed as an exterior sculpture, meant to be viewed from the outside, housing the cult statue within. Early religious buildings (Geometric period) used wood and adobe. Harmony and proportion define the Greek temple. An obsession with perfection is evident in the refined finish of stonework. Initially built of brick, wood, or adobe, temples later predominantly used white marble. The temple housed the deity’s image; rituals were typically performed outside by priests.

The Greek Temple

General Characteristics

  • Typically uniform and rectangular, though exceptions exist (e.g., the round Tholos of Apollo at Delphi).
  • Often located in prominent or isolated sanctuaries (like an Acropolis).
  • The interior is typically divided into three parts: the Pronaos (entrance porch), the Naos or Cella (main chamber housing the cult statue), and the Opisthodomos (rear porch, often balancing the Pronaos).

Classification of Temples by Colonnade

  • In Antis: Columns are between projecting walls (antae).
  • Prostyle: Freestanding columns across the front porch.
  • Amphiprostyle: Prostyle colonnades at both front and rear.
  • Peripteral: A single colonnade surrounds the cella.
  • Dipteral: A double colonnade surrounds the cella.

Temples are also classified by the number of columns on the main facade: e.g., Distyle (2), Tetrastyle (4), Hexastyle (6), Octastyle (8).

Other Structures

Theaters: Greek theaters were typically semi-circular, with seating (theatron) built into natural hillsides.

Stadiums: Greek stadiums were long tracks for foot races, often with seating on sloped embankments, lacking the central dividing barrier (spina) found in Roman circuses.

The Architectural Orders

The column is a fundamental part of a larger system known as the architectural order. The order dictates the form, arrangement, and proportions of all parts of a temple, based on a module (often the lower diameter of the column), though dimensions were not rigidly fixed. The capital is the primary differentiator between the three main classical orders:

  • Doric Order: The oldest and simplest. Features a sturdy column with flutes, no base, and a plain capital consisting of an echinus and abacus. The frieze alternates between triglyphs and metopes.
  • Ionic Order: More elegant. Features a slimmer column (often with 24 flutes) resting on a base, and a capital characterized by volutes (spirals). The frieze is often continuous and sculpted.
  • Corinthian Order: The most ornate. Similar to Ionic in base and shaft, but the capital is taller, shaped like an inverted bell, and decorated with stylized acanthus leaves below a concave abacus.

Refinements and Concepts

  • Aesthetics: A primary concern for beauty and visual harmony.
  • Exterior Focus: Less emphasis on complex interior spaces compared to the sculpted exterior form.
  • Light and Setting: Careful consideration of how light interacts with the building and its placement in the landscape.
  • Optical Refinements: Sophisticated adjustments to counter optical illusions and enhance the perception of perfection. True straight lines and flat planes were subtly curved (e.g., column entasis, stylobate curvature, inward inclination of columns) to appear correct to the human eye.
  • Doric Corner Problem: Architectural adjustments were needed to resolve the spacing of triglyphs and metopes at the corners of Doric temples.

Urban Planning

  • Acropolis: Literally “high city,” a fortified hilltop often containing the most important temples and treasuries.
  • Hippodamian Plan: Attributed to Hippodamus of Miletus, this involved laying out cities on an orthogonal grid system with intersecting streets at right angles, often with a central agora. Miletus is an early example.
  • Stoa: A long, covered portico or colonnade, often housing shops and offices, commonly found in agoras.

Building Systems and Materials

Materials: Stone was the primary material, with a preference for marble, especially for temples. Mud brick and wood were also used, particularly in earlier periods or for less monumental structures.

Construction: Blocks were precisely cut and fitted together often without mortar (anathyrosis or dry-stone technique). Metal clamps (staples) and dowels (pins) of bronze or iron were used to secure blocks.

Foundations: Included isolated footings for columns and continuous foundations for walls.