The Greek Gods

Early Ancient Greek architecture was extinct in Greece from the end of the Mycenaean era which was about 1200 B.C. to 600B.C.. After that urban life and prosperity seemed to have recovered and public building was again started. Many Greek buildings in the 8th century B.C. to the 6th century B.C. period were made of wood or mud brick or clay. Nothing of them is still there except for a few ground plans. There are not very many written sources of early architecture or descriptions of the ground plans which do still exist.

The construction of the buildings consisted of wood for supports and roof beams, unbaked brick for walls, limestone and marble. The unbaked brick was mainly used on the private homes. The limestone and marble was used for columns, walls, and upper parts of temples and public buildings. The roof tiles and ornaments were made from terra cotta. These materials were used to build five basic styles of buildings. There was the religious, civic, domestic, funerary, and recreational buildings. The marble and limestone was very expensive so it was used on the Temples and other buildings where the owner could afford to use the material.

Around 600 B.C. the wooden columns of the Temple of Hera at Olympia was replaced with stone columns. This transformation was called petrification. Other portions of the Temple were also petrified and when it was finished, the whole temple was made from stone. After this renovation, other buildings were also restored with stone. From that era on, most buildings were made from stone. A few of these have survived through the ages. The only buildings that have survived through the ages are the temples. In the first half of the classical period, Greek architecture was specially crafted by an expert craftsman and was employed by the wealthy or the state to work on the buildings. Greek architecture was not just the building of a home or other building. It was a style of art. The craftsmen worked meticulously to do a fine job. This was their art and they put their feelings and thoughts into it. It was an art equal to a fine painting or sculpture.

The temples consisted of one or two styles of three different styles of columns. There was the Doric, Ionic, and the Corinthian style. The Doric style was the most common and the simplest of the three. The top, or crown was made of a circle topped with a square. The shaft has 20 sides, and there was no base on this style. The Ionic shaft was taller than the Doric style. This made the columns look more slender but they weren’t. The base was large and looked like a set of rings stacked up. The shaft had a bulge in the columns which made them look straight. The Corinthian style was the most decorative of the three. It also had the bulge in the shaft and the tops had flowers or vines below a small scroll. The shaft had flutes and the base was like the Ionic.