Greek And Roman Architecture Essay Research Paper

Greek And Roman Architecture Essay, Research Paper

Greek and Roman Architecture

The Greeks thought of their Gods as having the same needs as human

beings, they believed that the Gods needed somewhere to live on Earth. Temples

were built as the gods’ earthly homes. The basic design of temples developed

from the royal halls of the Maycenaean Age. A Mycenaean palace consisted of a

number of buildings often more than one story high, grouped around a central

courtyard. It was brightly painted, both inside and out. In each palace there

was a large hall called a megaron, where the king held court and conducted state

business. Little remains of the megaron at Mycenae. This reconstruction is

based on the remains from other palaces, which would have been similar.

The Romans took and borrowed a lot of things from the Greek culture.

For example, the took the Greek Gods and renamed them. They also took the

styles of Greek temples, but they changed them some. The temple was rectangular,

with a gabled roof, with a frontal staircase giving access to its high platform.

They used mainly the Corinthian style, but they also made combinations, for

instance the Corinthian-Ionic style. The Romans also added a lot of details and

decorations to their temples. The Romans also made what became the very common

round, domed temple. The main temple of a Roman city was the capitolium. The

Pantheon, the famous temple in Rome, was a sample for some of the modern day

cathedrals and churches.

The Classical Period Temples became much larger and more elaborate.

Parthenon, one of the most famous structures ever, was created during that

period. The Greeks held many religious festivals in honour of their gods. The

purpose of festivals was to please the gods and convince them to grant the

people’s wishes. Such as making the crops grow or bringing victory in war. In

addition to religious events athletic competitions and theatrical performances

took place at festivals too..

The early Greek architecture, from about 3000 BC to 700 BC, used mainly

the post and lintel, or post and beam, system. Their main building material was

marble. Classic Greek architecture is made up of three different orders that

are most seen in their temples: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. All three had

the same components, but had different types of details. The orders are known

mostly by their column style. The Corinthian order was not as widely used as

Doric and Ionic. It was fancier than the others, and had a lot more detail. The

Greeks only used one order on one building, they never mixed. The basic temple

followed these same rules. It was very simple with a rectangular inner chamber

and a roof with shallow gables. The temple stood on a platform with three steps

leaving rows of columns, sometimes double rows, that helped support the roof.

The column which was used as either a part of the structure or as an

dornament, is the basic element in the Greek architecture. The oldest, dating

back to about 600 B.C. is the Doric. Perhaps the most basic temples were of the

Doric order. Doric architecture was known for being used by the Spartans.

Normally, standing right on the floor, the shaft is made of a series of drums

which are rounded, doweled together, tapered upward and fluted, usually twenty

times. On top of the shaft sits a two part capital carved in a single block.

The bottom is the cushion or echinus and the top is a flat square slab called

the abacus. There is a natural ring where the capital and shaft meet and this

is emphasized by the addition of several carved rings. The column height is

four to six and on half times the diameter at the base of the shaft. The oldest

Doric columns to survive intact, seven of them, are from the temple of Apollo at

Corinth. Each shaft, over twenty feet high, is cut from a solid limestone block

which was surfaced with a stucco made of marble dust. While the columns seem

simple and stumpy, the sharp ridged fluting is evidence of a high degree of the

mastery of stone carving. Further they are bellied slightly at the centre which

keeps them from seeming too dumpy. The vertical columns supported beans

called architraves. To form a ceiling, other beans were laid across the building

with their ends on the architraves. The ends of these beams would be channelled

to make triglyphs. On top of this, another beam would be placed for the

overhanging rafters. These beams are referred to as mutules. The roofs were

finished with flat gables called pediments. A gutter ran along the tops of the

pediments, ending at a lion’s mouth, which acted as a drain. Thatch, and then

tera-cotta and marble, was used to cover the roofs. What is not evident today

as a result of the action of wind, rain, and man made destruction, is that these

temple were generally brightly painted in white, gold, red and blues. These

temples

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