ARCHITECTURE: THE TEMPLE. In view of the evidence afforded by the Herfeum and the later but very similar temple at Thermon, in Atolia, it seems necessary to abandon theories that con sider the Doric style a transformation into stone of an original wooden architecture, the develop ment of a purely stone construction, or the stone reproduction of an original combination of wood and sun-dried brick. The lighter Ionic forms, how ever, seem to point to an origin in a purely wooden construction. As both orders are developed dur ing the early period of Greek art, though both reached their culmination only in the fifth cen tury, it will be convenient at this point to de scribe briefly the usual forms of the Greek temple and the special characteristics of the great orders.
The simplest form of the temple is that al ready described, where the side walls of the main room (cella or naos) are prolonged to form a vestibule (pronaos). The walls end in pilasters (onto:), between which are columns, usually two. Sometimes a similar vestibule is constructed in the rear, forming a double temple in antis. If a row of columns is placed in front of the cella or pronaos, the temple is prostyle; if this row is repeated at the rear, amphiprostyle. A temple surrounded by a row of columns is peripteral; by a double row, dipteral; and the refinements of the later systematizing architects introduced further elaborations of nomenclature. The simpler forms were confined to very small buildings; all Greek temples of any size are peripteral. A further classification depends upon the number of columns across the front. Those with four columns are called tetrastyle; with six, hexastyle; with eight, octostyle; with ten, deco style; and with twelve, dodecestyle. It should be observed that with rare exceptions the number of columns is always even, so that no column may block the approach to the door. The plan
of the temple does not depend upon the order except in one point: In an Ionic temple two of the columns of the peripteros at each end are in the prolongation of the side walls, while in the Doric temple no such regularity is observed. Owing to its lighter forms, the Ionic order was a favorite in small buildings.
Passing to the details of the building, we have first the stereobate or foundation, preferably of native rock, but often formed by building walls under those parts of the temple which required the most support, and filling the spaces between with earth and clay. On or around these founda tions was erected the crepidoma, a series of steps, usually three in the later temples. The upper step is the stylobate, and on this the columns of the peripteros rest. In some cases, as in the Parthenon, another step leads to a higher platform on which the cella is built. It is in the column and the entablature which the column sustains that the distinctive character of the orders is manifested. (See COLUMN; EN TABLATURE.) They are distinguished as Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders. (See these titles.) Of their history little can be said. The first two were coexistent in the earliest period, and there was an increasing tendency to use the Ionic order, though not to the exclusion of the Doric. Though Greek architecture reached its highest development in the temple, it also manifested it self in other monuments. (See PROPYL2EA; STOA.) In all of these excepting the theatre (q.v.) the column was the principal architectural feature.