Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

290 Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks
came into being somewhat later. (Corinthian is a misnomer. Paradoxically,
it was the Doric Order that was invented in Corinth.)
Doric columns, which are somewhat squat in appearance, rise from
their platform without any base. They are decorated with 20 vertical
grooves, known as flutes, in which shadows settle as the sky darkens,
thereby lending a sense of drama and plasticity to the building.
They are topped by capitals that resemble cushions. The Ionic column,
which is considerably taller in proportion to its width, rises
from a molded base and terminates in a capital that is surmounted
by a pair of volutes. It has 24 flutes, separated from one another
by a narrow band. The Corinthian capital also rises from a molded
base but its capital resembles bands of acanthus leaves.
The differences in style extended up into the superstructure. A
Doric frieze consists of rectangular blocks called metopes, interrupted
by narrower rectangles with vertical grooves called triglyphs.
By contrast, an Ionic frieze is continuous. The crowning member is
a triangular gable known as a pediment, which is located at either
end of the temple. A few temples, notably the Parthenon, combine
elements of both the Doric and Ionic orders. Metopes, pediments,
and friezes are frequently decorated with relief sculpture. Because
these were painted, the overall effect would have been extremely
colorful. Most large temples on the Greek mainland were built in
the Doric style with a surrounding colonnade, whereas in Ionia
(western Turkey) the fashion was for massive temples in the Ionic
style with double colonnades.
Much of the sculpture that decorated a temple was narrative.
A masterly example is found on the east pediment of the temple of
Zeus Olympios at Olympia. Its subject is the chariot race between
Pelops and Oinomaos. Pelops, who wished to wed Oinomaos’s
daughter, Hippodameia, had to defeat him in order to secure her
hand. To assure his victory, he bribed Oinomaos’s charioteer to tamper
with the king’s chariot wheels so that they would fall off during
the race. Instead of portraying the drama of the collision, however,
the sculptor has chosen to depict the tense moment before the race
begins. The composition, which is dominated by the commanding
presence of Zeus flanked on either side by the contestants, conveys
an unearthly stillness. What shatters this mood is the reclining seer
who raises his clenched fist to his cheek in a gesture of alarm. We
comprehend that the seer is gazing into the future and envisions
the catastrophe ahead.
It is testimony to the achievements of Greek architecture that no
fewer than five of the Seven Wonders of the World listed in the sec-