Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-03-13
WONDERS IN ART.
GREEK ARCHITECTURE ON THE
ACROPOLIS.
Matchless Grandeur and Beauty
ofAncient Grecian Structures
and Colossal Statues

is the original function of all architecture
Greek, the architecture of the Intel !;
Roman, of the round arch; and Gothic, of
the gable. The simplest type of Intel
architecture is the Stonehenge; the most
refined. the Parthenon the noblest the
Temple of Karnak. In the hands of the
Egyptians it was sublime; in those of the
Greek, pure; in those of the Roman, rich /;
and in those of the Renaissance builder,
effeminate" Greek architecture is the
parent of that of all nations, and it is re-
markable fact that no feature of Egyptian,
Assyrian, or Persian architecture still keeps
its influence except such as the Greeks
ornament which they used. though tested
by the ages, stands approved to-day.
Surely this wonderful people are worth
studying, for their principles of poetry,
philosophy and oratory are still the stand
ards. their sculptures still models of hope
less imitation, the subtle refinements of
their simple, grand architecture still rev.
serently copied. In the history of civiliza-
ton the Greeks are the first to show an
inner personal development. genuine
national life a mental activity full of
0iiNcIcdl uutudI anu Il VIC
tory in the everlasting struggle of the
beautiful and true against the opposing
elements. They were a branch of the
great Asiatic family that includes the In
dams and the Persans but Greek civili-
zation was an independent product much
influenced by the character of the country
Greece is about half as large as the State
of New York, isolated by mountains from
the northern countries, connected to Asia
by the islands of the Egean Sea, and
crossed by mountain ranges which naturally
divide it into small Independent PROV
inces, opening to the sea by deep bays
Ocean and mountain soften the southern
climate, giSe landscape of rare beauty
and luminous atmosphere while the soil
yields beautifully only to the hand of toll.
An important influence was the invasion of
the powerful Dorians, reserved. war-lOv-
ing people. who came over the northern
mountains in the year 1000 and conquered
peloponnesus. The Ionians Greeks were a
versatile. impressionable race, with many
gifts, and these two races, radically unlike,
yet living together, wrought double ma
ture into Greek life. giving it depth, rich
ness and perfection.
The period of greatest achievement dates
from the Persian invasion and Greek vic
tory at Marothon, 400 B. c., to the Pelo-
ponnesian war, civil strife between Sparta
and Athens, 430 B. G. The some brilliant
epoch was the time of Pericles, when
q Prodicus was teaching rhetoric, Democri-
tus specializing about the doctrine of atoms,
Alcibiades giving banquets Aristophanes
writing comedies and Euripides composing
tragedies, ASpasia setting the fashions,
Cimon fighting battles, Socrates teaching
philosophy and setting great example in
morals and Phidias, with the soul of a
poet and eye of an artist, carving immortal
marbles. The Greeks cared little for pala-
tial homes, for the glory of the State was
passion overmastering individual pride, and
they iayished their nobest skill and grand
est efforts on their temples, the abodes of
their gods, in whom they embodied what
they valued most in themselves-manly
force, athletic perfection. unalterable Sc
renity, and unaffected nobility.
The most important Hellenic contribu-
ton to the worlds architecture was the use
of columns in symmetrical beauty and per-
lection. The three styles of Greek archi-
lecture are easily identified by the capitals
or taps of the columns. (See illustrations
0ebster's Unabridged Dictionary, page
1.7S7). The straight fluted column strong,
virile and suggestive of concentrated power,
is the Doric, whose grandeur is seen in the
Parthenon, but the best preserved example
is the Temple of Theseus. The Ionic capt.
tai shows spiral whorl, strongly twisted.
with the spaces enriched with graceful
floral ornament and of this, the Erectheum
and Temple of Diana at Ephesus are
worthy examples. These two styles char
acterize the elements of Doric and Ionic ma
lures in Greek life, for the art of nation
inevitably betrays the quality and spirit of
its people. A natural development of the
Ionic was a third style, the Corinthian,
profuse with rich foliated ornamentation in
slender, graceful FORMS 1t marks the de-
cadence of Greek art, and was appropriated
by the Romans. Another striking feature
of their architecture was the pedimeEt, or
triangular space surrounding the columns
at either end of the temples, and affording
admirable scope for sculpture.
Elevated above the Mediterranean. over
looking mountain, plain and town, is the
Acropolis, a natural rocky fortress, in the
''City of the Violet Crown" Here stand
the ruins Of the Propylea, Parthenon and
Erectheum, an extensive group of white
marble buildings harmoniously brought
into grand unity. A wide road between
two flights of sixty marble steps led up to
the Propylaea, the splendid entrance of the
Acropolis. The gate, fifty-eight feet wide,
was a portico with six Doric columns, and
the side wings, really large halls, had three
Doric columns fronting on the grand stair
case. Beyond this portico was a deep court
with rich ceiling, brilliant with gold and
colors and lined with rich Ionic columns
This opened into a smaller court CORE
spending, with six Doric columns, to the
first portico. Both these colonnades had
the complete entablature of temple, with
sculptured pediment. At the right of this
magnificent portal stood the elegant little
temple of Nike Apteros, or Wingless Vic
tory-wingless to signify that victory never
left Athens.
The noblest monument of the Acropols
was the temple of the virgin goddess
Athene, or Minerva, called the Parthenon
1t was built of Pentalic marble, by the
architects Ictinus and Callicrates under the
direction of Phidias, and finished 42S b. c..
after sixteen years labor. This restoration
of an ancient temple, destroyed by the
Persians, was ordered by Pericles in the
hight of his power as leader of the repub-
lie. When Greece fell under Roman rule
the Parthenon was dedicated to Roman
gods; later it was consecrated by the
Christians to the worship of the Virgin
Mary, and in 1857 Turkish bomb ex-
pioded powder magazine and rent it in
twain. But for the brutality or fanaticism
of man, every Greek temple would be in
tact to-day, for work so substantial can out
live dynasties and civilizations. Scholars
and artists of every nation have reverently
StuuASu 1iie patueuC runs anu laiiSn col
umns on the Acropolis, and Phidias, of
whose personal history we know little, has
been schoolmaster for the world.
Earth proudly wears the Parthenon
As the best gem upon her zone"
This temple was parallelogram 22S feet
long, 101 feet wide. and GA feet high, being
twelve times the size of Solomons Temple,
but smaller than the great Gothic Cafhe-
drals. A Doric colonnade of 40 pillars
surrounded the structure, and at either end
was portico eight columns wide and two
deep. supporting pediment or gable of
fiat pitch, the whole standing on base
ment of steps. On the eastern pediment
Phidias embodied in high relief the legend,
as told by Homer, of Minerva springing
full-armed from the brain of Jupiter, when
Olympus and the assembly of gods were
shaken The torso of Theseus, mutilated
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