Experimentation leading to the crystalization of the Doric order seems to have begun in the early seventh century BC in Corinth and its environs. By the later century, the Corinthian fever had spread to other parts of Greece. Although fragmentary preservation has made it impossible to track the process with precision, we can note the appearance of characteristic Doric features at various temples of the early Archaic period.
The Temple of Apollo at Thermon, of ca. 630 BC, shows early evidence for the installation of a Doric entablature. This temple had stone foundations, but its walls and columns were made of mud brick and wood, now vanished. The entablature was evidently also of wood, since stone parts have not been found. The use of the Doric order in the entablature is conjectured from a series of terracotta metope plaques that have survived, painted with such mythological scenes as Perseus and the Gorgon. A few, it is important to note, are wider than the majority; this differentiation suggests that the builders of this temple had worked out a solution to the Doric corner problem.
Symmetrical though the Doric order may seem, it does have one unresolved difficulty: how should the corner triglyphs align with the column below? Normally every other triglyph is centered above a column. But if this principle is followed at the corner, the column capital will protrude. On the other hand, if the column is pulled back beneath the architrave, triglyph and column will no longer be aligned. At Thermon, a compromise was reached. The metopes at the ends of the frieze were made wider than the others, thus pushing the corner triglyph out to sit over the edge of the column.
The Temple of Hera at Olympia, ca. 600 BC, offered another solution to the Doric corner problem. As at Thermon, this temple was built of mud brick and wood on stone foundations. In contrast with the temple at Thermon, here the placement of the columns is known, and in this lay the answer. The corner columns were contracted, that is, brought in slightly from the proper corner position, set in closer to the next column instead of repeating the normal spacing between columns. As a result, the end metopes could remain the same length as the others, but the outer edge of the corner triglyph would align with the outer edge of the column below. Over the centuries the wooden columns of this temple were replaced with stone versions, each with its capital in the appropriately up-to-date style. The result must have been something of a mishmash; even today one can see capitals of different sizes and styles. One wooden column still stood in the second century AD when the Greek doctor and travel writer Pausanias visited Olympia.
The temple was decorated as well with two large terracotta disks placed at the apex of the roof. Acroteria, as such roof decorations were called, would become highly popular. They could include human figures as well as abstract or floral motifs.
In contrast with the above temples, the superstructure of the Temple of Artemis at Kerkyra (Corfu), ca. 600 BC, survives in ample fragments, demonstrating that the building was made of stone. In addition to being the earliest stone temple, it was one of the largest, 49m X 23.5m. Like the Temple of Hera at Olympia, this temple was laid out with the three standard rooms, pronaos, cella, and opisthodomos (Figure 13.3). A double row of columns inside the cella assisted in supporting the roof. The colonnade, 8 X 17 columns, was set well apart from the cella, allowing for a second, inner colonnade which was never added. Since a double colonnade is known as a dipteral arrangement, this version at Kerkyra, without the inner row, is called pseudo-dipteral. The pseudodipteral plan allows for the extra size a dipteral plan offers, but saves money because the inner columns are not built. Kerkyra displays the earliest example of this plan.
Sculptural decoration on the exterior of temples will become a hallmark of Greek cities and sanctuaries, with the reliefs generally illustrating myths of local interest or of grand cosmological concern. With the well-preserved sculptures from its west pediment, the temple at Kerkyra gives us an early and striking example of this type of decoration (Figure 13.4). The huge figure of
Figure 13.3 Plan, Temple of Artemis, Kerkyra
The Gorgon Medusa, 2.79m in height, dominates the scene. The snake-haired Medusa had the unfortunate gift of turning to stone anyone who looked at her. She was beheaded by the hero Perseus, specially equipped by Athena and Hermes with a mirror to look indirectly at Medusa, a sickle, a bag, Hades’s cap of darkness for invisibility, and winged shoes for a quick escape. Medusa had a revenge of sorts: she would be esteemed by Greeks and Romans for her power to ward off evil. Her face, an apotropaic talisman, was a prominent protecting image on their armor. Indeed, her ability to frighten away danger may explain why this myth was chosen to decorate the pediment.
In the Kerkyra pediment Medusa is shown with a round, mask-like face with a grotesque grin, typical of her depiction in Archaic art. She is down on one knee in a pose that symbolizes running. Flanking her are two tiny, upright figures, her children, the human Chrysaor and the winged horse Pegasus, and beyond them, two panthers who, like Medusa, snarl at those who approach the temple. So far the figures have fit fairly well into the triangular space, but beyond the panthers the rapidly descending ceiling creates problems for the artist. In scenes unrelated to Medusa and on a far smaller scale, standing men spear kneeling and seated figures, and in the corner, two men, fallen victims, lie on their backs, their knees drawn up to scrape the raking cornice. More experimentation would be needed before sculptors could fill this awkward space with a scene unified in scale and theme.
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