mape3

GREEK ARCHITECTURE

TEMPLE

The temple was the most common and best-known form of Greek public architecture. The temple did not serve the same function as a modern church, since the altar stood under the open sky in the temenos or sacred fane, often directly before the temple. Temples served as storage places for the treasury associated with the cult of the god in question, as the location of a cult image, and as a place for devotees of the god to leave their votive offerings, such as statues, helmets and weapons. The inner room of the temple, the cella, served mainly as a strongroom and storeroom. It was usually lined by another row of columns. Some Greek temples were oriented astronomically.

THE GREEK COLUMN

he Greek used the column, as a pillar to support a building and occasionally as a freestanding monument. Columns may have a circular or polygonal cross section and are at least four times taller than they are wide. In classical architecture, a column is a shaft that usually rests on a base and is topped by an enlarged section called a capital.

The ancient Greeks developed three distinctive, carefully proportioned styles of columns: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. In all three styles, the surface of the shaft is grooved with shallow vertical flutings.