The Ancient Greeks continue to influence our lives today in three prominent ways: architecture, politics, and medicine. In present day, Western architecture owes a heavy debt to the classical styles of Ancient Greece. Ancient Greeks started building temples of worship to their gods at about 600 B.C. One defining feature in these temples was the distinctive column styles known as Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. These can be most easily defined and identified by each column’s capital.
The Greeks believed that intellect is superior to forces of nature, while the Romans wanted their architecture to dominate the sites. A third similarity was their ability to be innovative during their time periods. Along with their innovations when it came to their temples, the Greeks also had the ability to create very life-like and dynamic sculptures, something that the Romans constantly struggled with during their time. Because of this, a lot of their sculptures were just replicas of Greek sculptures with small adaptations and changes occurring. One of the most innovative steps that the Romans took with their
In most Greek city-states the most powerful individual was the high priest or priestess of the city’s patron deity. Great temples were built in every city to honor the gods and offer sacrifices. These temples were usually built on the acropolis, or highest place in the city, to denote the gods’ position above man. This also served as a place to retreat to in case of attack, providing both the high ground for physical safety and the protection of the gods (“Acropolis,” n.d., para. 1).
They developed have used featured pillars with various kinds of architectural decorations which is commonly replicated today as classical orders. They introduced three main types of classical orders called Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. The Romans later adapted the Greek orders and developed two more classical orders called Tuscan and Composite. In Australia, it can be seen that there are more than one dominant classical styles of architecture. These styles are replicas of ancient inventions and would have been adapted to suit the local conditions and the materials by slightly
The architecture of ancient Greece is represented by buildings in the sanctuaries and cities of mainland Greece, the Aegean islands, southern Italy and Sicily, and the Ionian coast of Turkey. Monumental Greek architecture began in the archaic period, flourished through the classical and Hellenistic periods, and saw the first of many revivals during the Roman Empire. The roots of Greek architecture lie in the tradition of local Bronze Age house and palaces. The following paper will cover the basic forms of Greek architecture. One of the many types of Greek building structures was Sacred Architecture.
Roman Architecture The creative and efficient design of roman architecture has influenced the features and theory behind many of our most admirable structures today. The Roman’s carry many successful buildings to their name as they greatly influenced the time in which they were introduced. Some of the Roman’s most recognized and appreciated innovations were the aqueduct, the roads, the dome and the invention of concrete. There are many reasons as to why the Roman building was so accepted, mostly because of their unique yet successful ideas and reliable materials. To start the Roman’s were a very advanced society.
Doric columns were sturdy and the tops were plain. This style was most used in mainland Greece, and in southern Italy and Sicily. Doric columns are found on the Parthenon and other religious temples. Ionic columns were thinner and more elegant, and had a scroll-like design on the top. Ionic was found more in eastern Greece and the islands.
Oval in shape, it had incredible interconnecting corridors that would lead to six tiers of seats, thus allowing a huge audience to sit within its walls. One can only imagine the atmosphere and acoustics within such a place in its time. It is believed by many researchers that Roman design was based on Greek precedent, in my opinion Roman and Greek architecture appear to stand together in many aspects of their designs, yet the Romans seem to have been able to take everything one step further in order to ‘outdo’ the Greeks, for example-they recreated the use of mortar within buildings by using concrete, as well as stone and brick. Roman architecture was founded upon many new structural techniques. Both the column and the arch had been seen before, but the Romans based their work on the arch and its structural principles which had not been done previously.
Two of the greatest civilzations on earth, Egyptian and Greek cultures had a long and glorious history between them. Both cultures contributed many marvelious artistic styles and designs in various fields of art and architecture. They each have their unqiue design philosophies, yet they also share many similaries. These two respective cultures has influenced many modern day designs which shows that memorible designs are truly timeless. Some of the comparitive areas of Egyptian and Greek cultures include sculptures, pottery making, and various architectural designs.
Because of pottery’s durability, it comprises a large part of the archaeological record of the Ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it, it has exerted a large influence on the understanding of Greek society. Each period has its own style of decorations. Although, Greek pottery was used to explain myths and legends, it also had many other uses. Greek pottery is famed for its range of uses, from large storage containers for oil and grain to small pots meant to hold perfumes to vessels used strictly for ceremonial purposes, as much as for the range of motifs, patterns and painting techniques utilized, or used, by Greek artisans. As you can see, there are many uses for Greek pottery.