The Doric shaft then rises immediately from the platform on which the building stands, but this platform was usually raised on a series of three or more steps or gradations, the risers of which are proportioned not to the capacity of the human step, but to the magnitude of the building. The shaft, when compared with those of the other orders, is of stunted and massy proportions, its height being only 5 or 0 times greater than its lower diameter ; the upper diameter, however, is of much smaller dimensions, the column converging rapidly towards the capital, a circumstance which gives an appearance of great stability. Towards the top of the column, a narrow channel is carved out round the shaft, so as to form an annulus in recession, and this marks the division between the shaft and capital, although a portion above this is in form nothing more than a continuation of the shaft. The shaft was almost universally fluted, very few exceptions to the contrary existing; the number of the flutes is either 16 or 20, and their profile is that of a seg ment of a circle less than a semi-circle, being much broader and flatter or shallower than those of the succeeding orders. These flutes meet each other in a sharp arris, without the intervention of fillets, which are universal in the later orders ; a slight fillet, however, is to be found in examples at Eleusis, Sermium, nhamnus and Thoricus, but so narrow as to be insignificant. Much pains have been taken by various authors to account for the introduction and use of those flutes, but in our opinion without success; one supposes that they are imitations of the crevices in the stems of the trees out of which the timber-huts, the primitive models of the stone structures, were constructed ; another,that the idea was occasioned by the rain-streak running down the shafts of the columns; and a third, that flutings were hollowed out for the purpose of resting spars in the crevices. Such hypotheses are doubtless very ingenious, although not to all minds equally convincing ; for our own part, we do not see the absolute necessity there is to account for the reason and origin of every small member or ornamental detail. We require no further reason for the use of flutes, beyond the effect produced by them as a means of decoration, and as such we think their origin very easily accounted for. In the majority of Egyptian examples, from which—to prejudge the question—we suppose those of Greece to have been derived, the columns were reeded, or ornamented with pro jecting staves instead of recessed flutes; nor are the two methods of decoration so dissimilar and unconnected, for we have only to remove the staves to produce the flutes : and besides these methods we find another, in which the columns are what is called canted, that is to say, have their horizontal sections rectilineal polygons, the faces of the polygon or sides of the column being flat, instead of convex or concave. Thus we have three kinds of polygonal columns, the first of which seems to possess the primitive form, and the others to be merely enriched variations of the same. At Amada in Nubia, there is a very curious illustration of the progress made in the improvement and enrichment of columns, where in the same building we find one column a mere pier or simple parallelopiped, and another and adjoining one both rounded ow at the corners and fluted ; this last bears a remarkable resemblance to the Grecian Doric, on which account we shall have to refer to the subject again ere the close of this article. Specimens of Doric canted columns are to be found in the portico of Philip, king of Macedon, and in the temple of Cord ; the flutes, however, are the most prevalent, as they are the most beautiful means of enrich ment; the pleasing effect produced by them is attributable mainly to the diversity of light and shade so created, but this is not their only advantage ; they likewise give a variety and lightness of appearance to the column, which would otherwise appear heavy, and at the same time, by the diminu tion of the breadth of the channels as viewed by the eye, add to the apparent circularity of the column. We have no specimens of reeded columns in this order. The flutes diminish in width as they reach the top of the shaft, to correspond with the diminution of the shaft ; they are carried above the necking of the capital, and usually terminate immediately below the annulets, butting upon a plane surface perpendicular to the axis of the columns, or parallel to the horizon, as in the Propylwa at Athens. In other cases, as in the temples of Theseus and of Minerva at Athens, as well as in the Portico of Philip, in the island of Delos, the upper ends of the flutes terminate upon the superficies of a cone, immediately under the annulets, in a tangent to the bottom of the curve of the echinus of the capital. The same kind of termination takes place in the temple of Apollo, at Cora, in Italy ; but in this example, the conic, termination of the flutes is not immediately undc• the abacus, but at a small distance down the shaft, leaving a small portion quite a plain cylinder, and thus forming the hypotrachelium or neck of the capital. Palladio and other Italian authors have terminated the flutes of the shafts of their design of Doric columns in the segments of spheres tanged by the surfaces of the fluting. in some few instances the shaft is fluted only at the upper and lower extremities, the other part being left plain, although probably with the intention of being orna mented in a similar manner at some future time. Examples of this are to be found at Eleusis and Thoricus in Attica, at Egesta and Selinus in Sicily, at the temple of Apollo at Delos and at Rhamnus, which last forms a peculiar instance, the columns of the pronaos being fluted the whole length of the shaft in front ; with eleven channels, having at the back nine plain surfaces. We have above stated the number of channels to be 16 or 20, but the latter is by far the more usual ; examples of which practice are, the Parthenon, Theseum and Propykea at Athens, with others at Corinth, Delos, Eleusis, Thoricus, Basses, Agrigentum, and in the temple of at Pa:stum. There are but few examples with only 16 channels, of which number are those at Sunium, and the upper range of the interior columns in the temple of Neptune at Paestum, in which last mentioned building there are specimens of columns with as many as 24 flutes. The channels were not always circular, but sometimes semi-ellipses, and at others eccentric curves. Doric antra were never fluted.
The first object which attracts notice in passing the eye up the column, and which breaks the outline of the fluting, is what is termed the hypotrachelium, or under-necking of the capital. ThiS consists of one or more channels cut in reces
sion round the upper part of the shaft ; in some instances, as at the temple of Minerva at Sunium, in the Agora at Athens, and in most of the examples at Agrigentum ; this division is so fine as almost to escape Dotice, and in others is very pro minent, the channels varying both in size and number. In the Parthenon, and in the Propyhea at Eleusis, and at Rhamnus, there is a single rectangular groove ; at the Pro pyhea at Athens, a groove chamfered on the upper edge, and at the Theseum, a groove chamfered on both edges, so as to form an acute angle at the meeting of the chamfers. At Corinth there arc three channels similar to those in the Propylceo. at Athens, having a fillet between each two, as also at the temple of Apollo at Bassfe, but in this example the channels are of a curvilinear section. At Pfestum there are three fine channels, which, at their junction with the arrises of the flutes, are cut into the shape of diamonds, the projecting edge of the being chamfered off. The hypo trachelium of three channels ie considered a mark of antiquity, for although they are not of necessity found in all ancient examples, yet they are never inserted in those of later date. Some writers consider those channels as the commencement of the capital, while others are inclined to think them but a continuation of the shaft. In the other orders the correspond ing member is certainly the division between the two parts, all above being giving to the capital, and all below to the shaft; the difficulty in this case arising from the fact of the continuation of the flutes above this point, the space between the hypotrachelium and annulets being precisely similar to the lower portion of the shaft, yet at the same time it is diffi cult to assign any other reason for the introduction of the grooves, except they serve to mark the division between the two members of the column. Without the intervention of such a mark as this the capital would have appeared stunted and heavy, but, as it is, the shadow produced by the sinking, marks to the eye a distinct division, and, in appearance at least, increases, at the same time, the length and comparative lightness of the capital.
Above the hyputrachelium, the shaft, with its fluting, is continued for a short distance, and meets the annulets of the capital in a curve or apothesis ; this portion forming, accord ing to our notion, the necking of the capital. The annulets come next, and form the lower portion of what may be termed the capital-proper, about which there exists no difference of opinion. The following particulars of the number and ti win of annulets in different examples are furnished by a contributor to The 1;uilder," to whose valuable writings, on this subject, we shall have occasion to advert more than once in this article :— - The annulets, in Grecian Doric colums, vary as well in their profile as in their number. Some examples may be interesting, to show the exhaustless genius of the Greeks, even in details the most minute, and that although the general principles of art in the Doric order are the same, yet that they could produce great variety in their details. In the Parthenon, that best and purest of all examples, we find, under the echinus of the capitals in the porticos, five rings, placed on a slope, continued, as it were, from the lower link of the echinus, and in the columns of the promos of the same edifice, there are but three rings. In the temple of Theseus, the profile of the annulets is somewhat similar to that of the Parthenon ; the rings arc four in number, and the under side of the lower arris of each ring is slightly undercut. In the example from the portico at Athens, presumed to belong to the ..1gora, or market-place, we see how widely the artist departed from the graceful and flowing outline of earlier pat terns ; this, of the age of Augustus, is one of the latest known examples of Grecian-Doric, 3 et in many points it cannot be safely recommended for modern imitation. In the temple of Apollo Epicuritts, at !lassie, a building of the pure ago of Greek art, the annulets are four in number, resembling in their contour those in the Parthenon, excepting that the second and third rings recede a little from a line drawn from the first to the fourth. At ilhainnus, where are two temples, at Su n Min, and in the Dodecasty lc portico of Ceres at Eleusis the rings are three in number, profiled like the best examples at Athens ; at Egesta and Selinus, they are three in number ; at the tetnide of Jupiter Olympus, at Agrigentinn, of Apollo in the isle of Delos, and in the portico of Philip at the same place, at Corinth (where the annulets have a great projection, and are very deeply undercut), in the 1 Iyp:uthral temple at Ptestum, in the temple of Diana, in the Propyhea at Eleusis, in the Propylam at Athens (an excellent example) and at Thoricus, the rings are four in nnniber. At the latter place the annulets are remarkable, and probably singular in their way. In the capital from the PSeudodipteral temple at Paestum, in which many pecu lia•ities are observable; the immense size and projection of the abacus seem to crush the echinus, which has beneath it two rings, under which the flutings curl in the form of leaves. At Selinus, Mr. Woods noticed some remarkable features in the capitals :—"The shape of these capitals is very peculiar ; I have seen nothing like them in Greece, except a fragment on a very small scale which I noticed at Corfu. The common Grecian-Doric capitals in the best examples form a sort of and we find this curve at the third temple, but in the great temple, and in two of the three smaller ones, a deep hollow interrupts the flow of the lines.' ches3 capitals were each cut out of a block of stone thirteen feet square." The next member of the capital is the echinus, which is similar to an ovolo, or quarter-round moulding, and which, spreading out from above the annulets, serves to sill port the overhanging abacus. In the best examples it is usually very flat in profile, being little more than a frustum of an inverted cone, having its base rounded off at its edge, and quirked, as it were, where it meets the abacus. Its use seems to have originated from an imitation of the cushion-capitals of the Egyptians, the lower portion only being reserved in Grecian buildings. The diameter of the top of the echinus is equal to, or somewhat greater than, the lower diameter of the column. We refer again to the writer above alluded to.