Essay, Research Paper: Greek Architecture

Greek influence is visable in everything that we have today. Our laws,
cities and even our system of goverment all come from asppects of greek
civilization, but maybe what we have been influenced the most gy the greeks
is in architecture. Maybe the reason this is, is that it was a new form of
architecture that had little to do with function and everything to do with
looks. Agood example is the Greek temple. They were built in honor of the
gods, but the architects were most likely more concerned with beauty than
function.

Unlike the Romans who used the arch to support their buildings the Greeks
used columns. their system is called the post and lintel system. This
system wasn't very efficiant and is now outdated, but in ancient times it
was the only way of building. Another thing that the Greeks are famous for
are their great theaters, where they held many plays. Some of these plays
were building blocks for moderm drama.

The greek theater was incredible. The greeks spent years of time and
effort to perfect their theater design. In their theater there were four
things that most theaters had. The orchestra, paraskenia, theatron, and
skene.

the orchestra was the stage, located in the center of the theater. unlike
many modern stages, which are raised above the seatsthe orchestra was
located below the seats. There were sometimes, but not usually, seats
located behind the orchestra.

The theatron was the audiences seating. THe theatron was raised
above the orchestra,which extended in circles. These circles were devided
by walkways which extended outward from the orchestra. The shape of the
theater allowed the actor's voices to carry without the use of modern day
equiptment. The theaters were usually cut out of hillside, meaning that
theywere usually one big piece of rock. most theaters could hold about
20000 people!

The skene was the backdrop of the stage. It had a picture of the front of
a house painted on it. Because of this, all Greek plays took place in
front of a house. The skene had windows, doorways, and arches, which
allowed many entrances into the orchestra. The rooms located behind the
skene were storage rooms for props and dressing rooms for actors.
We get the word scene from the greek word, skene.

The Paraskenias were the walls that extended away from the skene so that
the audiance could not see anything beyond the play. the paraskenia was
also sometimes built to be a high arch above the orchestra. This framed
the stage and helped keep the audiences attention.

Another thing that many theaters had was the proskenium. the proskenium
was a bunch of arches or columnsplaced above the skene. This was used to
add more layers to the stage as the scenes changed.

Greek architectureis known for its magnificent columns. Columns were used
on the outsides og buildings and were the main supports of roofs. The
three mostly used columns were the dorian , ionic, and corinthian columns.

The dorian columns were the oldest and the most comenly used. they were
first used in the seventeenth sentuary B.C. They were pretty simple and
they had a stone slab at the top and the bottom of the column seperating it
from the floor or ceiling. Dorian columns were masculine and were supposed
to represent the male body.

The Ionic columns were first used in the 16 centurart B.C. The ionic
columns were thinner and mor detailed than the dorian columns. The ionic
columns were supposed to represent femininity and were eventually full
scuptures of woman as columns.

The corinthian columns were introduced in th 14 centuary B.C. These columns
are the mostly decorated of the three columns. The tops of these columns
were sculptures of plants. They had a complicated base with many layers.
the corinthian columns symbolized life.