The most significant Athenian buildings of the Early Classical period were constructed in their agora, where the increasingly radical democracy decided policies that began to dominate Greek affairs. In purely architectural terms, however, the fifth-century Athenians built no political structure comparable to the enormous
Circular assembly hall already standing in the agora of West Greek Metapontion. Moreover, there is uncertainty about the nature and even identity of the agora in which the statues by Kritios and Nesiotes were set up; there is a growing consensus that the ‘‘Old Agora’’ of the Peisistratids was not that of Classical Athens, north of the Areopagos. The shift may have coincided with the establishment of the democracy in 508 - but there have also been suggestions that the new agora dates from immediately after Athenian reoccupation (once again: before or after 480?). It is uncertain, however, whether archaeological and stylistic evidence would permit the lower dating of the Royal Stoa, in any case the first Athenian stoa, whose Doric order was appropriated from religious architecture. More clearly of the new era, the tholos or roundhouse, where the prytaneis carried out their business and were fed at public expense, was constructed in the 460s; its circular plan apparently had a traditional connection with dining going back to Archaic temporary structures. Around the same time, the Athenians built a new stoa, the Stoa Poikile. The paintings that gave this popular building its name (not just ‘‘Painted’’ but ‘‘Fancy’’) have not survived, but an important and influential architectural innovation can be restored: exterior Doric colonnade, Ionic columns in the interior. The Athenian Stoa at Delphi - little more than a display-case for trophies - was long dated just after the Persian War but now appears to have been built around mid-century, for spoils from fellow-Greeks rather than Persians (Walsh 1986). The exterior (and sole) order is Ionic.
The earliest agora, wherever situated, was the original home of Athenian dramatic performances. In the 490s, tragic drama was moved to a new setting, the sanctuary of Dionysos on the south slope of the akropolis, where a theater of sorts was provided by shaping the earth so that large audiences could look down from rudimentary seating onto the actors and chorus in the orchestra. Specialists increasingly believe that this orchestra, and consequently the ‘‘auditorium,’’ were rectangular or trapezoidal rather than circular; while this may be true of early theaters around Attika and elsewhere, the Theater of Dionysos probably had a circular orchestra, which would explain the rounded corners ofrectilinear designs. Outside Attika, the earliest and most enthusiastic following for drama was among the West Greeks, and Syracuse had one of the first theaters.
It has been remarked that during the Classical period West Greek temples become more ‘‘conventional’’: more alike and more like those of the mainland; the closest match is certainly between the second Temple of Hera at Poseidonia and the contemporary Temple of Zeus at Olympia (470-456). It may well be that influence flowed from the west to the mainland, rather than vice versa. Libon of Elis, architect of the ambitiously large - and beautifully designed - Olympia temple, is otherwise unknown, from a state with no distinctive architectural tradition; he might have received training in the west, or from visiting West Greek architects (Klein 1998: 364-5). By now, lavishly funded West Greeks had replaced Peloponnesians as the dominant athletes at Olympia, and the western cultural presence was correspondingly impressive.
World History
