Order From Chaos: The Greek Temple
and the Classical Orders
I. Greek prehistory: the Bronze Age in the Aegean Sea, 1700-1400 B.C. (Kostof, ch. 5)
I. A. 1. Where were cities situated?
Bronze-Age Mycenae, Greece, c. 1400 BC
I. A. 2. What were the priorities in architecture: the case of the megaron?
The megaron of the Mycenaean palace at Pylos, Greece, c. 1400 BC
I. A. 2. a. What forms did tombs take?
A tholos tomb at Mycenae, Greece, ca. 1400-1300 BC
II. The Archaic period (800-480 BC): the cultural turn in Greece and the invention of the Greek temple,
9th-7th centuries BC
II.
Archaic period
Classical period
Hellenistic period
II. A. Historical context: Emergence of the Greek polis (city-state); the Greek gods; science and
philosophy; formation of Greek cultural identity through religion
The Greek polis (city-state):
governed by citizen councils
Human-centered: Gods
imagined as humans in
ideal form
Faith in human reason:
Socrates (470-399 B.C.)
II. A.
The Greek temple at Segesta, Italy, 430-420 BC
II. B. Greek temple basics
Temple of Hera I at Samos, Greece, 8th cen. B.C.
phase 1
phase 2
II. B.
II. B. 3.
1. What
2.
Where
Whatwas
were
wasinthe
thealtar?
building
cella (Greek
materials
naos)?
of the early Archaic temples?
Temple of Hera I, phase 1
late 9th or early 8th cen. B.C.
late 9th or early 8th cen. B.C.
II. B. 4. What was the setting like?
Temple of Hera II at Samos, mid 7th cen. B.C.
stoa (portico) and west corner of Hera II
II. C. Precedents for the archaic Greek temple
1. Bronze-Age megarons
The megaron of Mycenaean palace
Temple of Hera I, phase 1
Pylos, c. 1400 B.C.
Samos, late 9th/early 8th cen. B.C.
II. C. 2. 8th-century Greek shrine, clay model from Argos, Greece
8th-cen. B.C. Greek shrine
Temple of Hera I, phase 1
late 9th or early 8th cen. B.C.
II. D. Architectural form: What is significant about the addition of the peristyle?
1. How does the addition of the peristyle reflect the polis-centered culture of Greek peoples?
Temple of Hera I at Samos, phase 1
Temple of Hera I at Samos, phase 2
mid 8th cen.
late 9th / early 8th cen.
II. D. 1.
Temple of Hera I at Samos, phase 2
Temples of Hera II, III, and IV, superimposed
mid 8th cen.
ca. 650-522 BC
II. D. 2. What are the initial signs of a classical order?
Wood: Hera II at Samos, mid 7th cen. B.C.
Doric order (half in wood, half in stone)
II. F. What was the predominant architectural theory in pre-Classical times?
Temple of Hera I at Samos, phase 2
Evidence from an excerpt of “To Apollon,” a
Homeric hymn of the 8th century B.C.:
“Apollo laid out the foundations, broad and very long from the beginning to end;
and on them
the sons of Erginos, Trophonios and Agamedes [architects],
dear to the immortal gods, placed a threshold of stone.
And the numberless races of men built the temple all around
with hewn stone . . . ” (from assigned reading in Gelernter, p. 41).
mid 8th cen. B.C.
III. The first stone temples and the invention of the orders in the Archaic period, 6th-5th century B.C.
Doric Temple of Hera I at Paestum
Doric Temple of Artemis at Corfu
Doric Temple of Hera at Olympia
Ionic Temple of Hera at Samos
III.
Temple of Hera II at Paestum, Italy,
5th cen. BC (c. 460), Early Classical
Temple of Hera I at Paestum, Italy,
6th cen. BC (c. 530 BC), Archaic
III.
Greek temple as mid-space object
th cen.
Greek temple at Segesta,
Three temples
Italy at Paestum,
Temple
6th - 5of
Demeter
BC at Paestum, 5th cen. BC
III.
Greek colony of Paestum in Italy (Western Greece)
Hera I
Hera I
III.
“Proto-Doric” columns at
Hatshepsut’s Temple, c. 1500 B.C.
Greek Doric Order at the
Temple of Hera I in Paestum
III. A. What are new parts are added to the plan of a Doric temple?
Temple of Hera I at Paestum (Archaic), 530 B.C.
generic Greek temple plan
III. A.
Temple at Hera I at Paestum
III. A.
Temple of Concordia, Agrigento, Italy
Temple at Hera I at Paestum
III. B. The Classical Orders: 1. What are the essential components of a Classical order?
Doric Order of the Temple Doric Order of the Temple
of Hera I at Paestum
of Hera II at Paestum
less well preserved
better preserved
III. B. 2. What parts may correspond to the primitive wood version of the Doric order?
Doric order (half in wood, half in stone)
Doric Order of the Temple of Hera II at Paestum
guttae
triglyph
III. C. 3. Greek empathy: human experience counts
a. How can we explain entasis in the Doric column?
entasis
Temple of Hera I at Paestum
IV. The Early Classical period (480-450 BC): shift in temple design that went with the new-found power to
create and preserve the conditions in which man lived
Temple E at Selinus
Temple of Hera II at Paestum
Temple of Zeus at Olympia
IV. A. Political context: To what event can we ascribe greater self-confidence but also greater uneasiness
among Greeks on the mainland in the early Classical period?
III.
Temple of Hera II at Paestum, Italy,
5th cen. BC (c. 460), Early Classical
Temple of Hera i at Paestum, Italy,
6th cen. BC, Archaic
IV. A. 1. Why did the Early Classical style invented by Greeks on the mainland reject excessive
ornament and gigantism in temples?
Doric Temple of Hera II at Paestum (460 BC)
Ionic Temple of Hera IV at Samos (538-22 BC)
IV. A. 1.
Great Archaic Ionic temples
Temple of Hera IV at Samos
538-22 BC
Temple of Artemis at Ephesos,
Turkey (formerly Ionia), 560-550 BC
IV. A. 1.
Temple of Artemis at Ephesos, Turkey (formerly Ionia), 560-550 B.C.
IV. B. Design changes in the Early Classical temple
1. What has changed in the plan of the Early Classical temple?
Hera I at Paestum (Archaic), 530 BC
Hera II at Paestum (Early Classical), 460 BC
IV. B. 2. What is the secret of the new compactness and simplicity (severity) of the Early Classical
temples compared to Archaic temples?
Temples of Hera I (left, Archaic) and II (right, Early Classical) at Paestum
IV. B. 2.
symmetria = commensurability of parts
Temple of Hera I at Paestum
(Archaic)
Temple of Hera II at Paestum
(Early Classical)
III. C. Theory: What was the predominant architectural theory in the Archaic period?
1. How is the trust in numbers and proportion part of the Greek cultural turn?
Pythagorus of Samos
(580-500 BC)
Temples built by the numbers
Gods imagined as
humans in ideal
proportions
III. C. 2. In what way are numerical harmonies (proportionality) actually spiritual, and therefore an
appropriate part of sacred architecture?
Temple of Hera II at Paestum (Early Classical)
For Monday: J.J. Pollitt, Art and Experience in Classical Greece, ch. 3, On E-Reserve.
The Classical moment: the Parthenon in Athens