The entire order certainly does not exhibit a finer sense of proportion than the Doric, which, in fact, displays an unsurpassable refinement in the arrangement of its lines; yet the Ionic has greater softness and rich ness of details. It may be compared with the Doric as feminine beauty with masculine strength. The Ionic bears also in its entire aspect some thing of the Asiatic, for in it crops out a feeling similar to that which breathes in the columned structures of the Persians, though the latter knew not how to bestow upon it the same artistic delicacy. The pro portionally wider spacing of the columns and the laterally projecting capitals are related to the Persian cycle of forms, and the traditions of timber-construction are similar to those which appear in the Persian porticoes, and differ from those apparent in the Doric temple. As we trace the volute ba,pk to its prototype in the uprolled shaving of wood, so can we trace, though its long wandering scarcely permits us, the form of the early Asiatic or Pelasgic wooden column to the marble column of the Erechtheion. A certain sanctity gives to tradition the power to pre serve remnants of the primitive expression.
Works of the Sixth Century B. the oldest monuments of the Doric order, we come upon works which are of the highest artistic completeness, and which are described to us by the old writers as the pride of Greece, and of the architectural history of which enough remains. The works of the sixth and the beginning of the fifth century B. C. have still an uncommon austerity. In Greece itself and in the Grecian colonies of Lower Italy the Doric order rules, and even in Asia Minor it is almost exclusive. It was probably about the middle of the sixth century B. c. that the Temple of Hera at Samos was erected by the architects Rhcekos and Theodoros of Samos, who are also men tioned as famous bronze-founders. It was about too metres (328 feet) long.
Temple of larger was that most immense of Grecian buildings the Temple of Artemis, or Diana, at Ephesos, which was probably commenced about this time by Chersiphron and his son Meta genes, but was not fully completed until after two hundred years by the architects Demetrios and Paionios. This temple was a dipteros with eight columns on the ends, and measured 220 feet in width by 425 in length. Crcesus is said to have presented this temple with monolithic marble columns, and all the Greeks of Asia Minor contributed toward the expense of its erection. Not merely its artistic perfection, but also the overcoming of technical difficulties—the construction of the foundations on marshy ground, the raising and transport of the enormous cylinders of the columns, which were about 20 metres (65 feet) in height, and of the lintels, which were more than to metres (33 feet) long—excited the wonder of contemporaries, who followed the erection of the structure with admiration and interest; so that Chersiphron wrote a work concern ing this temple which Vitruvius quotes. It is similar to another work
which Theodoros composed upon the Temple of Hera which was car ried out under his direction at Samos.
Temples of ,..115ollo and celebrated Temple of Apollo at Delphi was built in the second half of the sixth century by the contribn dons of the whole of Greece; Spintharos of Corinth is mentioned as the architect. The priestly family of the Alkmaionidm directed the construe tion, and gained great fame because they employed Parian marble, where as their contract only obliged them to use sandstone. 'Famous also is the Temple of Zeus at Athens, which was commenced tinder Peisistratos by the architects Antistates, Kallaischros, Antimachides, and Porinos, yet remained unfinished until the Emperor Hadrian completed it.
The Older Parthenon, upon the Acropolis—a peripteral temple of eight columns on the front and sixteen on the sides—though certainly of smaller extent, was yet famed as the more complete work of art. It was destroyed by the Persians, but enough of the old arrangement has recently been discovered beneath the later building to allow, in conjunc tion with fragments found in the ancient wall of the citadel, a spirited restoration to be made, and also to show that it was never entirely com pleted.
The Temple of Athena at rEgina was probably built after the Persian war, yet still in the earlier half of the fifth century B. c. It is a hypx thral peripteros of six columns by twelve, about 14 metres (46 feet) wide by twice that length. Two rows of five columns (hl. 7, fig. 7) part the cella into a nave and two aisles. The structure was partly of marble, and partly of sandstone covered with stucco. A temple in antis is that of Themis at Rhanmos.
Works of the Fifth Century B. C.—In Lower Italy and Sicily there are also a great number of Doric temples belonging to the fifth century B. C. ; among the most ancient are two temples at Syracuse. On the island of Ortygia have recently been found the remains of a Temple of Artemis, a peripteros of six columns by eighteen. The Temple of Athena at Ortygia was a peripteros of six columns by fourteen. At Selinus yet remain the ruins of six peripteral temples.