Part 6 (1/2)
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 40.--PLAN OF GREEK THEATRE.
o, _Orchestra_; l, _Logeion_; p, _Paraskenai_; _s, s_, _Stoa_.]
+THEATRES, ODEONS.+ These were invariably cut out of the rocky hillsides, though in a few cases (Mantinaea, Myra, Antiph.e.l.lus) a part of the seats were sustained by a built-up substructure and walls to eke out the deficiency of the hill-slope under them. The front of the excavation was enclosed by a stage and a set scene or background, built up so as to leave somewhat over a semicircle for the _orchestra_ or s.p.a.ce enclosed by the lower tier of seats (Fig. 40). An altar to Dionysus (Bacchus) was the essential feature in the foreground of the orchestra, where the Dionysiac choral dance was performed. The seats formed successive steps of stone or marble sweeping around the sloping excavation, with carved marble thrones for the priests, archons, and other dignitaries. The only architectural decoration of the theatre was that of the set scene or _skene_, which with its wing-walls (_paraskenai_) enclosing the stage (_logeion_) was a permanent structure of stone or marble adorned with doors, cornices, pilasters, etc. This has perished in nearly every case; but at Aspendus, in Asia Minor, there is one still fairly well preserved, with a rich architectural decoration on its inner face. The extreme diameter of the theatres varied greatly; thus at Aizanoi it is 187 feet, and at Syracuse 495 feet. The theatre of Dionysus at Athens (finished 325 B.C.) could accommodate thirty thousand spectators.
The odeon differed from the theatre princ.i.p.ally in being smaller and entirely covered in by a wooden roof. The +Odeon of Regilla+, built by Herodes Atticus in Athens (143 A.D.), is a well-preserved specimen of this cla.s.s, but all traces of its cedar ceiling and of its intermediate supports have disappeared.
+BUILDINGS FOR ATHLETIC CONTESTS.+ These comprised stadia and hippodromes for races, and gymnasia and palaestrae for individual exercise, bathing, and amus.e.m.e.nt. The _stadia_ and _hippodromes_ were oblong enclosures surrounded by tiers of seats and without conspicuous architectural features. The _palaestra_ or _gymnasium_--for the terms are not clearly distinguished--was a combination of courts, chambers, tanks (_piscinae_) for bathers and _exedrae_ or semicircular recesses provided with tiers of seats for spectators and auditors, destined not merely for the exercises of athletes preparing for the stadium, but also for the instruction and diversion of the public by recitations, lectures, and discussions. It was the prototype of the Roman thermae, but less imposing, more simple in plan and adornment. Every Greek city had one or more of them, but they have almost wholly disappeared, and the brief description by Vitruvius and scanty remains at Alexandria Troas and Ephesus furnish almost the only information we possess regarding their form and arrangement.
+TOMBS.+ These are not numerous, and the most important are found in Asia Minor. The greatest of these is the famed +Mausoleum+ at Halicarna.s.sus in Caria, the monument erected to the king Mausolus by his widow Artemisia (354 B.C.; Fig. 41). It was designed by Satyrus and Pythius in the Ionic style, and comprised a podium or base 50 feet high and measuring 80 feet by 100 feet, in which was the sepulchre. Upon this base stood a cella surrounded by thirty-six Ionic columns; and crowned by a pyramidal roof, on the peak of which was a colossal marble quadriga at a height of 130 feet. It was superbly decorated by Scopas and other great sculptors with statues, marble lions, and a magnificent frieze.
The British Museum possesses fragments of this most imposing monument.
At Xanthus the +Nereid Monument+, so called from its sculptured figures of Nereides, was a somewhat similar design on a smaller scale, with sixteen Ionic columns. At Myla.s.sa was another tomb with an open Corinthian colonnade supporting a roof formed in a stepped pyramid. Some of the later rock-cut tombs of Lycia at Myra and Antiph.e.l.lus may also be counted as h.e.l.lenic works.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 41.--MAUSOLEUM AT HALICARNa.s.sUS.
(As restored by the author.)]
+DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE.+ This never attained great importance in Greece, and our knowledge of the typical Greek house is princ.i.p.ally derived from literary sources. Very few remains of Greek houses have been found sufficiently well preserved to permit of restoring even the plan. It is probable that they resembled in general arrangement the houses of Pompeii (see p. 107); but that they were generally insignificant in size and decoration. The exterior walls were pierced only by the entrance doors, all light being derived from one or more interior courts. In the Macedonian epoch there must have been greater display and luxury in domestic architecture, but no remains have come down to us of sufficient importance or completeness to warrant further discussion.
+MONUMENTS.+ In addition to those already mentioned in the text the following should be enumerated:
PREHISTORIC PERIOD. In the Islands about Santorin, remains of houses antedating 1500 B.C.; at Tiryns the Acropolis, walls, and miscellaneous ruins; the like also at Mycenae, besides various tombs; walls and gates at Samos, Thoricus, Menidi, Athens, etc.
ARCHAIC PERIOD. Doric Temples at Metapontium (by Durm a.s.signed to 610 B.C.), Selinus, Agrigentum, Paestum; at Athens the first Parthenon; in Asia Minor the primitive Ionic Artemisium at Ephesus and the Heraion at Samos, the latter the oldest of colossal Greek temples.
TRANSITIONAL PERIOD. At Agrigentum, temples of Concord, Castor and Pollux, Demeter, aesculapius, all circ. 480 B.C.; temples at Selinus and Segesta.
PERICLEAN PERIOD. In Athens the Ionic temple on the Illissus, destroyed during the present century; on Cape Sunium the temple of Athena, 430 B.C., partly standing; at Nemea, the temple of Zeus; at Tegea, the temple of Athena Elea (400? B.C.); at Rhamnus, the temples of Themis and of Nemesis; at Argos, two temples, stoa, and other buildings; all these were Doric.
ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD. The temple of Dionysus at Teos; temple of Artemis Leucophryne at Magnesia, both about 330 B.C. and of the Ionic order.
DECADENCE AND ROMAN PERIOD. At Athens the Stoa of Eumenes, circ.
170 B.C.; the monument of Philopappus on the Museum hill, 110 A.D.; the Gymnasium of Hadrian, 114 to 137 A.D.; the last two of the Corinthian order.
THEATRES. Besides those already mentioned there are important remains of theatres at Epidaurus, Argos, Segesta, Ia.s.sus (400?
B.C.), Delos, Sicyon, and Thoricus; at Aizanoi, Myra, Telmissus, and Patara, besides many others of less importance scattered through the h.e.l.lenic world. At Taormina are extensive ruins of a large Greek theatre rebuilt in the Roman period.
CHAPTER VIII.
ROMAN ARCHITECTURE.
BOOKS RECOMMENDED: As before, Anderson and Spiers, Baumeister, Reber. Choisy, _L'Art de batir chez les Romains_. DesG.o.detz, _Rome in her Ancient Grandeur_. Durm, _Die Baukunst der Etrusker_; _Die Baukunst der Romer_. Lanciani, _Ancient Rome in the Light of Modern Discovery_; _New Tales of Old Rome_; _Ruins and Excavations of Ancient Rome_. De Martha, _Archeologie etrusque et romaine_.
Middleton, _Ancient Rome in 1888_.
+LAND AND PEOPLE.+ The geographical position of Italy conferred upon her special and obvious advantages for taking up and carrying northward and westward the arts of civilization. A scarcity of good harbors was the only drawback amid the blessings of a glorious climate, fertile soil, varied scenery, and rich material resources. From a remote antiquity Dorian colonists had occupied the southern portion and the island of Sicily, enriching them with splendid monuments of Doric art; and Phnician commerce had brought thither the products of Oriental art and industry. The foundation of Rome in 753 B.C. established the nucleus about which the sundry populations of Italy were to crystallize into the Roman nation, under the dominating influence of the Latin element. Later on, the absorption of the conquered Etruscans added to this composite people a race of builders and engineers, as yet rude and uncouth in their art, but destined to become a powerful factor in developing the new architecture that was to spring from the contact of the practical Romans with the n.o.ble art of the Greek centres.