If we admit that the people amongst whom the Doric order took its rise, were colonies from Egypt or Pliceni cm, dispossessing their more barbarous predecessors, and settling in a country abounding with forests, it is na tural to expect, that, being at the time of their settlement possessed of a tolerable degree of information and skill, habitations similar to American log-houses would be con structed. This would at once furnish a correct model of the Doric order : and, if this was the case in private dwellings, a public building required only to be of in creased dimensions, with some degree of decoration upon the essential parts ; (see Plate CLVII. and CLVIII.) for which, as we have already observed, the Egyptian and Persian architecture furnished abundant hints. It may, however, be objected, that no trace of Egyptian mytho logy is to be found upon any work in Greece. In an swer to this, it may be observed, that there are none upon the Egyptian pyramids ; and besides, that, with respect to the causes of those emigrations to Greece, it cannot be reckoned an improbable conjecture, that the continued tyranny of the Egyptian priesthood, or kings, at last rous ed some hold innovator, who, rather than be controuled, removed, with a colony of similar characters, to Greece. If this is admitted as probable, we need not be surprised that the mythology and habits of the mother country were in a great measure changed; and, by comparing emi grants of this description, with those of a similar charac ter in modern times, combining with these the local cir cumstances of those detached and intersected countries, and granting, (which history authorises), that various co lonies, at separate times, settled in and formed the sev in ral states of Greece, we may easily conceive how such n dependent and turbulent characters were originally form ed. But whether these speculations are admitted or denied, it is evident, that a building resembling a Lrhouse has been the model of the Doric order; and it seems quite unnecessary to attempt to trace the art of building previous to that stage, since the habitations of all savages, even after they have obtained some degree of fixed residence, are uniformly found to be the cavern or the hut, according as their local situation is in a rocky or a wooded country.
The district of Argolis first received colonies who in troduced civilization into Greece. It has been reckoned the cradle of the Greeks, the theatre of the events which distinguished their earliest annals, and the country which produced their first heroes and artists. It was, accord ingly, in the temple of Juno at Argos, where the Doric order rose first to a marked eminence. and became the model for the magnificent edifices afti rwards erected in the other cities, states, and islands. Vitruv. b. iv. c. i. p. 68.) After the Doric order had been established in the temple of Juno at Argos, it was employed in the temple of Jupiter Nemeus, between Argos and Corinth ; Jupiter Olympius, at Olympia in Elis ; in a splendid triple por tico in the city of Elis; and also in three temples in the same city, to Juno, Minerva, and Dindymene; at Eleusis, in the great temple to Ceres ; in that of Minerva, at Su Mum; and, above all, in the temple of Minerva Parthe non, (see Plate CLVII.); in the entrance to the Acropo
lis, and other public edifices, of great magnitude and splendour, at Athens. In many of the islands there were also temples of the Doric model : that of Apollo in the isle of Delos ; Juno in Samos; Jupiter, Panellenius, Egina, and Silenus, in Sicily ; and innumerable in places of inferior note. Even in Ionia, it was employed in the temple of Apollo Panionius. Many of these edifices were of great magnitude. The temples of the Greeks were universally of an oblong form ; in some, the porticos were at the ends only ; in others, they were extended quite around the cell, some in single, others in double ranges; some were covered with roofs, others were left partly uncovered ; and sonic of them were divided by ranges of pillars along the middle of the cell. The su perstructure was placed upon a platform composed of three steps, which surrounded the whole edifice, and upon which the columns were all placed without bases. The number of columns were either 6 along the ends, and 13 along the sides, or 8 along the ends and 17 along the sides. (Vitrify. rinacliarsift, Stuart's Antig. Athens, Ionian Antig.) When formed upon so large a scale, and the ranges of columns so distinctly insulated, the essen tial parts of the Doric order produced effects not to be exceeded for simplicity and majesty ; even the imperfect fragments now remaining, appear to have far surpassed the expectations of persons well qualified to appreciate their merits. They were the chief embellishments of their cities ; and their magnificent colonnades, by exclud ing the sun and rain, became the resort of the wealthy and idle, who associated for the purposes of business or pleasure ; and also of those who delighted to engage in discussing the subjects of politics and philosophy.
In the earliest specimens, the diameters of the Doric columns N% ere very great in proportion to their height ; that of the temple of Silenus, in Sicily, being only five diameters in height ; but, in process of time, these rela tive dimensions were changed, and a considerably great er portion of delicacy introduced : The finest marbles were employed, and artists of the first talents not only formed the models of the edifice, and directed its execu tion, but also, under the strongest influence of rivalship and thirst of glory, they, with their own hands, clothed those edifices with sculptures, and enriched them with statues, expressive of more than mortal excellence.
This chaste and severe Doric style was, with very few exceptions, the only one employed in Greece or its European colonies in Sicily and Italy, until after the Macedonian conquest. (Ionian Antig. vol. ii. Preface, p. I.) Of the Ionic Order.
The Greek colonies which were planted in a part of the coast of Asia, named by them Ionia, being in pos session of a rich country, with many cities well situated for commerce, became very populous and rich. Philo sophy, science, and the arts, flourished there in so high a degree of perfection, that their claim to eminence has been reckoned to surpass that of any district of the mo ther country in the zenith of her glory, and they are even said to have finally adjusted and refined the proportions of the Doric order. See Ionian Antig. Preface, vol. i.