Ancient Greek Secular Monuments

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The Greeks never used the arch in these structures, nor did they attach to them the same importance as did most of the other nations of antiquity. The Altis of Olympia, the national shrine of Hellenism, appears to have had no central gateway of imposing size, but a number of insignificant entrances disposed at random. The Propylaea of Sunium, Priene and Eleusis are the most conspicuous, after those of the Athenian Acropolis. Of these the Ionic gateway at Priene is the finest, although the later of the two at Eleusis is interesting for its anta-capitals. (Anta=a flat pilaster decorating the end of a wing-wall and treated with a base and capital usually differing from those of the adjacent columns.) These are of Corinthian type, adorned with winged horses, scrolls, and anthemions of an exuberant richness of design, characteristic of this late period.

The specifications have been preserved to us of an arsenal of the Periclean age at the Piræus, but no vestige of the structure itself remains, nor has any other building of like character been preserved.

COLONNADES, STOAE

These were built to connect public monuments (as the Dionysiac theatre and Odeon at Athens); or along the sides of great public squares, as at Assos and Olympia (the so-called Echo Hall ); or as independent open public halls, as the Stoa Diple at Thoricus. They afforded shelter from sun and rain, places for promenading, meetings with friends, public gatherings, and similar purposes. They were rarely of great size, and most of them are of rather late date, though the archaic structure at Pæstum, known as the Basilica, was probably in reality an open hall of this kind.

THEATRES,ODEONS

These were invariably cut out of the rocky hillsides, though in a few cases ( Mantinaea, Myra, Antiphellus) a part of the seats were sustained by a built-up sub- structure and walls to eke out the deficiency of the hill-slope under them. The front of the excavation was enclosed by a stage and a set scene or background, leaving somewhat over a semicircle for the orchestra enclosed by the lower tier of seats. An altar to Dionysus (Bacchus) was the essential feature in the foreground of the orchestra, where the Dionysiac choral dance was performed. The seats formed successive steps of stone or marble sweeping around the sloping excavation, with carved marble thrones for the priests, archons, and other dignitaries. The only architectural decoration of the theatre was that of the set scene or skene, which with its wing-walls (paraskenai) enclosing the stage (logeion) was a permanent structure of stone or marble adorned with doors, cornices, pilasters, etc. This has perished in nearly every case; but at Aspendus, in Asia Minor, there is one still fairly well preserved, with a rich architectural decoration on its inner face. The extreme diameter of the theatres varied greatly; thus at Aizanoi it is 187 feet, and at Syracuse 495 feet. One of the best preserved of Greek theatres is that at Epidaurus, the only one not altered fundamentally by the Romans. The theatre of Dionysus at Athens (finished 325 B.C.) could accommodate thirty thousand spectators.

The odeon differed from the theatre principally in being smaller and entirely covered in by a wooden roof. The Odeon of Regilla, built by Herodes Atticus in Athens ( 143 A.D.), is a wellpreserved specimen of this class, but all traces of its cedar ceiling and of its intermediate supports have disappeared.

BUILDINGS FOR ATHLETIC CONTESTS

These comprised stadia and hippodromes for races, and gymnasia and palæstræ for individual exercise, bathing, and amusement. The stadia and hippodromes were oblong enclosures surrounded tiers of seats and without conspicuous architectural features. The palæstra or gymnasium--for the terms are not clearly distinguished--was a combination of courts, chambers, tanks (piscinœ) for bathers and exedrœ or semicircular tiers of seats for spectators; it served not merely for the exercises of athletes, but also for public recitations and entertainments. It was the prototype of the Roman thermæ, but simpler in plan and adornment. Every Greek city had one or more of them, but they have almost wholly disappeared, and the brief description by Vitruvius and scanty remains at Alexandria Troas and Ephesus furnish almost the only information we possess regarding their form and arrangement.

TOMBS

These are not numerous, and the most important are found in Asia Minor. The greatest of these is the famed Mausoleum at Halicarnassus in Caria, the monument erected to the king Mausolus by his widow Artemisia ( 354 B.C.. It was designed by Satyrus and Pythius in the Ionic style, and comprised a podium or base 50 feet high and measuring 80 feet by 100 feet, in which was the sepulchre. Upon this base stood a cella surrounded by thirty-six Ionic columns, and crowned by a pyramidal roof, on the peak of which was a colossal marble quadriga at a height of 130 feet. It was superbly decorated by Scopas and other great sculptors with statues, marble lions, and a magnificent frieze. The British Museum possesses fragments of this most imposing monument. At Xanthus the Nereid Monument, so called from its sculptured figures of Nereides, was a somewhat similar design on a smaller scale, with sixteen Ionic columns. At Mylassa was another tomb with an open Corinthian colonnade supporting a roof formed in a stepped pyramid. Some of the later rock-cut tombs of Lycia at Myra and Antiphellus may also be counted as Hellenic works.

DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE

Our knowledge of the typical Greek house is principally derived from literary sources, few remains of Greek houses having been found sufficiently well preserved to permit of restoring even the plan. It is probable that they resembled in general arrangement the houses of Pompeii; but that they were generally insignificant in size and decoration. The exterior walls were pierced only by the entrance doors, all light being derived from one or more interior courts. In the Macedonian epoch there must have been greater display and luxury in domestic architecture, but no remains have come down to us of sufficient importance or completeness to warrant further discussion.