GREEK ARCHITECTURE (1050-30BC)

A. INTRODUCTION
• Ancient Greece was used to describe the Greek-speaking world in ancient times.
• It refers not only to the geographical peninsula of modern Greece, but comprises of Hellenic
culture that were settled in ancient times by Greeks: Cyprus, the Aegean coast of Turkey (then
known as Ionia), Sicily and southern Italy (known as Magna Graecia), and the scattered Greek
settlements on the coasts of what is now Albania, Bulgaria, Egypt, southern France, Libya,
Romania, Catalonia, and Ukraine.
• Involves paintings, sculpture, buildings and decorative arts produced from about 3000-30BC.
• Importance of Greek architecture to history of western civilization can hardly be overstated.
• Greek artists were the first to establish mimesis (imitation of nature) as a guiding principle for art.
• The description of the nude human figure in Greek art reflects Greek humanism – a believe that
‘Man is the measure of all things’.
• Its primary subject matter of the art is the human figure, which may represent gods or mortals,
monsters, animals and plants.
• Greek architecture is a legacy that the west has inherited, as they established many of the most
enduring themes, attitudes and forms of western culture (e.g. structural elements, decorative
motifs and building types still used in architecture today).
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B. ARCHITECTURAL INFLUENCES
1. Geographical
• A thousand years before Greek civilization reached its peak, flourished the Aegean culture of the
people of the Island of Crete (Cretans are also known as Minoans) who were the first great sea-
power of the Mediterranean.
• The civilization grew and expanded, developing a commercial empire protected by naval power.
• Crafts, pottery, communications and trade through coastal towns produced a unity of culture and
economic stability.
• Their trade route extended to Greece and her islands and along the whole eastern Mediterranean
seaports, which include Asia Minor, Cyprus, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Libya extending to south
Italy and Sicily.
• After the collapse of the Aegean culture, the Greek colonist took over their trade routes, thus
establishing their domain not only in the Greece motherland.
• The rugged nature of Greece and its islands, with mountainous hinterlands rendered internal
communication difficult and made the sea the inevitable means of interrelationship.
• The mountains of inland Greece separated the inhabitants into groups or clans (city-states),
leading to the rivalry which characterized the Greek states, whether in peace or war.
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2. Geological
• Little supply of building stone, but abundant supply of marble.
• The marble – the most beautiful and monumental building material – gave a great credence and
characteristics to Greek architecture because it facilitates exactness of outlines and refinement of
details.
• Even where coarse-grained limestones were used, they often coat the surface with a layer of
marble “stucco” in order to achieve this effect.

3. Climatic
• The climate is between rigorous cold and relaxing heat.
• The clear atmosphere and intensity of light was conducive for the development of precise, Greek
characteristic exact forms.
• The Greeks have a love for conversation; hence they built porticoes and colonnades to shelter
them from the hot sun and sudden showers.

4. Religious
• Their religion was based on worship of nature.
• Divinities were conceived in human form, and represented by small idols, rocks and stone pillars;
and all sorts of trees and animals were venerated.
• Mysteries of masculine force were represented by the sacred bull, symbolized by the “horns of
consecration”.
• The supreme deity was the fertility – or mother-goddess (Hera).
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4. Religious
• Priestesses rather than priests conducted the religious rites since their purity can be confirmed.
• Worship centered on sacrificial altars in open-air enclosures, caves, small chapels or household
shrines.
• When temple architecture began, the Greeks began to represent their deities by large statues.
• The religious ceremonies of classical Greek included sacred games, ritual dances, athletic
contests and arts.
• The Greek gods were personifications of particular elements, or were deified heroes, and each
town or district has its own local preferences, ceremonies and traditions.
• The principal Greek deities, with their attributes and Roman names are as follows;

Greek Attributes Roman

Zeus the supreme god & ruler of the sky Jupiter
Hera wife of Zeus & goddess of marriage Juno
Apollo god of law & reason, art, music & poetry Apollo
Athena goddess of wisdom & learning Minerva
Poseidon the sea god Neptune
Dionysos god of wine, feasting & revelry Bacchus
Aphrodite goddess of love & beauty Venus
Demeter goddess of earth & agriculture Ceres
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5. Historical and Social
• The Aegean culture between 1800-1600BC achieved a power co-equal with the civilization of Egypt
and Mesopotamia.
• The Aegean culture embraced the civilizations of Crete.
• Cretans are also known as Minoans after the legendary king Minos of Knossos. They are equally
known as Mycenaean, after one of the great centers, Mycenae.
• The Mycenaean culture was also referred to as Hellenic (classical Greece) and the root of Greek
culture lies in Mycenaean culture (1600-110BC).
• The Aegean civilization centered on Crete was initiated by a movement of people from Asia Minor.
• They mingled with the ancient Mediterranean inhabitants; the civilization grew and expanded,
developing a commercial empire protected by naval power.
• The Cretan superior trading civilization affected the inhabitants of what is now Greece exporting
not only commerce but also cultural influences.
• At the end of the Bronze Age, wars between kingdoms destroyed most Mycenaean centres of
power e.g. the Trojan War of 1200BC.
• The geography of Greece did not promote unity because of its rugged mountains, valleys and a
jagged coastline.
• Ancient Greece was a disunited land of scattered city-states; thus, Greece entered into a period of
relative impoverishment, depopulation and cultural isolation known as the Dark Age.
• Greek history could be divided into several periods;
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a. The Orientalizing Periods (Dark Age) c.1100-650BC
• There was increased wealth in Greece in the 7th century BC which was promoted by overseas
trade and by colonizing activity in Italy and Sicily that had opened new markets and resources.
• Greece did not send out colonists and nor engaged in vigorous trade, and it declined as a cultural
and artistic centre.
• City-states such as Corinth, Sparta, the islands, the cities of eastern Greece and Crete came to the
fore with their diverse artistic interests and means of expression.
• The city-states demonstrated their wealth and power particularly in temple buildings, which was to
foster new architectural forms, manifested in the decoration of the temples and of the national
sanctuaries.
• In early Greek arts, the main role of the architect was to design cult buildings (temples), until the
Classical period.
• However, regular visit of the Greeks to Egypt from about 650BC exposed them to Egyptian
monumental stone buildings which were the genesis of the ultimate development of monumental
architecture and sculpture in Greece.
• Wooden pillars were replaced with stone ones and the translation of the carpentry and brick
structural forms into stone equivalents.
• This provided an opportunity for the expression of proportion and pattern, which led to the
invention or evolution of the stone “orders of architecture”.
• These orders or arrangements of specific types of columns supporting an upper section called an
entablature, defined the pattern of the columnar facades and upper works that formed the basic
decorative shell of the Greek temple building. 53
b. The Archaic Period (650-475BC)
• The contact with Near Eastern cultures from the Dark Age became particularly visible
influences on the art and culture of Greece during this period.
• Eastern imports into Greece of imitations of objects or motifs and trade were plentiful
which led to new prosperity for Greece.
• The new prosperity brought about an age of preoccupation with domestic troubles
rather than an age of reaching out to other cultures.
• Powerful dictators supported by arms and by the allegiance of the merchant classes,
took over from aristocracies that had governed many of the city-states.
• The city-states became more powerful and more competitive as each court of these
dictators became significant cultural centres.
• Monumental building programs became part of this competition, as each community
attempted to establish itself as culturally superior.
• Temple buildings became more ambitious being the demonstration of the rulers’ wealth
and power.
• Hence city-states competed to erect the most beautiful buildings at religious sanctuaries
that were Pan-Hellenic i.e. sacred to all Greece. 54
c. The Classical Period (475-323BC)
• The Persian Wars between Persia and Greece around 480-479BC, ended in victory for
Athens and the Greeks.
• Considered as the culmination of Greek arts and architecture, with its highest
achievements being the Temple of Zeus at Olympia and the Parthenon in Athens.
• People form every city-state came to Olympia to dedicate offerings to the gods and to
compete in the Olympic Games which began in 776BC.
• The 4th and 5thcentury despite the political and military excesses, witnessed the great
flowering of Greek philosophers of thinking, represented by Plato and Aristotle,
particularly Socrates who were not only concerned with the nature of knowledge and the
human soul, but there was also prodigious study in physics, mathematics, astronomy
and music.
• However, Greek city-states still engaged in constant warfare until 338BC, when Phillip II
of Macedonia and his son Alexander defeated the Greeks, thus ending the era of
powerful independent city-states.
• Between 334-323BC, Alexander the Great extended his father’s empire into Asia Minor
(Turkey), Syria, Egypt, Persia (Iraq), Afghanistan and as far as India. 55
d. The Hellenistic Period (323-30BC)
• After Alexander the Great conquered the Greek city-states, his armies extended Greek civilization
far beyond the Greek mainland into the Middle East.
• The 4th century witnessed various attempts by city-states to dominate Greece.
• The confused situation was resolved into a federal system imposed by the supremacy of
Macedonia.
• The unification of Greece was accomplished under Phillip (359-335BC), and firmly established
under his son Alexander the Great (336-323BC).
• The early death of Alexander at the age of 32 was followed by the division of the empire among his
army generals.
• The empire was divided into three monarchies: Antigonius in Greece, Seleucis in Asia Minor and
Ptolemy in Egypt.
• These were called Hellenistic (Greek-like) kingdoms, because the ruling classes spoke Greek and
the official culture was Greek.
• The city-states failed to maintain unity; there was mutual animosity and economic decline during
the 3rd century.
• The disorder created afforded opportunity for intrusion by the centralized, expanding power of the
Romans, bringing with them law, order and unified government, and adopting much of the
Hellenistic world.
• In the 2nd century BC, Rome dominated politics and began to exert its influence.
• Greece became a Roman province in 146BC, and Rome defeated the other Hellenistic kingdoms of
Asia Minor and Egypt in 30BC. 56