The Stylobate. The steps forming the stylobate on which the column rests should be a certain proportion of its diameter, and each step should not be less in height than fifteen parts, or one-quarter of the column diameter. In Plate XXXVIII is shown one of these steps at the correct proportion as regards the Order as a whole; while another instance of their correct use is shown in the plate illustrating the small temple of Diana Propylæa at Eleusis (Plate XXXV).
The Entablature. Architrave. Above the column is placed the entablature, with the architrave Testing directly on the abacus of the capital Its lower division, or architrave, shown in Plate XXX VIII, is merely a plain stone lintel laid across and upon the supporting columns and carrying in its turn the frieze. This lintel equals in thickness the width of the column at its neck, and between the capitals forms a soffit _which, in this Order, is left perfectly plain. This archi trave is so arranged that the joints always correspond with the axes of the columns, except at the column on the angle where there is no joint on the principal facade.
The only mouldings on the architrave are the listel and the tænia which crown it, and which serve to separate it from the frieze. The listel or regula is quite small, and is used in short sections occurring directly beneath the triglyphs in the frieze above, being always of a length to correspond to the width of the face of the triglyph. Six con ical drops or guttæ are placed at regular intervals beneath, and hanging from, the listel.
Frieze. The frieze, resting directly on the tænia or architrave, is decorated by ornaments termed Triglyphs, that are used only on the face of the Doric entablature and remain its most distinctive feature. These triglyphs are blocks, rectangular in shape, and of a height in proportion to the width of the column, spaced evenly along the face of the frieze, and having their faces carved with two per pendicular, incised channels or sinkages, V-shaped in section; and two half-channels on the corner edges running from the top of the tænia to just below the lowest member of the cornice, where they are stopped, or again worked out to the surface of the triglyph. These channels imitate the cutting of the ends of wooden beams resting upon the transverse architrave or lintel. Generally the width of the triglyphs is verynearly equal to one-half the column diameter at the base, and they extend in height from the top of the tænia to the bottom of the lowest member of the cornice, which is broken around to receive them. The
regula and dependent guttæ hang on the face of the architrave below, and in line with the triglyph in every case. These guttæ are pyramidal or conical-shaped blocks or drops representing either portions of the early wooden construction, or they may have been suggested by de pendent drops of water.
Disposition of the Triglyphs in the Frieze. It is interesting to take some account of the manner in which these triglyphs are placed in the frieze. Generally they occur above each column and in the middle of the space between the columns (see Fig. 58 and Plate XXX V); but in all Greek architecture there is an exception in their placing on the angle of the building, where they are brought out to the extreme edge, so that the respective corner triglyphs on the two sides come together or miter, on the angle, showing one complete triglyph on each side of the building, but both possessing the corner half-channel in common. Except on the corner of the building, as shown in Plate XXXVIII, the triglyphs occur directly over the center line of the col umns or over the spaces beneath, as will be shown more exactly in taking up the intercolumniation of the Greek Orders. As a result of placing the corner triglyph, not over the middle of the column but on the extreme angle of the frieze, the next triglyph does not occur over the center of the space between these two columns, but is placed equally distant between the two neighboring triglyphs. This dispo sition, if the spacing of the columns below remains the same, necessarily gives the two last metopes a dimension different from the others. But, by slightly altering the intercolumniation of the columns that occur on the angle of the building, and making them a little nearer together than those on the rest of the colonnade, the inequality can be so dis tributed that it will not be observed. The column at the angle is some times heavier and more strongly inclined toward the interior of the building in order to assist in rendering these irregularities less apparent, and also in part to conform with the laws of ocular stability and so make a better effect upon the eye. The space between the triglyphs, always square, is called the Metope, and in many of the Greek temples was decorated with sculpture in relief, whose extreme face was nearly in plane with the face of the frieze.