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| Literally means (in Greek) the "high point of the city." There were many Greek cities which had acropoli which housed the temples to the gods including Athens and Pergamon. The most famous of these was at Athens with its complex of temples which includes the greatest of the classical temples, the Parthenon. |
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| Refers to the period in Greek art from 480 BC, about the time of Alexander the Great's death in 325. The art of this period is based upon natural models, anatomical and perspectival correctness, and is ideal or perfect. The Doryphoros and The Parthenon are the sculptural and architectural high points of the period. |
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| A series or row of columns usually spanned by lintels. |
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| One of the architectural orders of Ancient Greece, it's characterized by a slender column with a capital carved into acanthus leaves. |
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| The most plain and simplest of the three Greek architectural orders. The Doric order is characterized by capitals without bases, simple rectangular-shaped capitals, and a frieze consisting in an alternating rhythm of triglyphs and metopes. The upright form of the column with its simple fluting may have in its origin been wood (a sacred tree) with spears (trophies of one’s fallen enemies) bound around it. |
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| The part of a building above the columns and below the roof. The entablature has three parts; the architrave, frieze, and pediment. |
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| A half-column attached to a wall. |
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| In ancient Greek mythology, a hideous female demon with snake hair. Medusa was the most famous Gorgon and was capable of turning anyone that looked at her into stone. |
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| Considered to be the matronly order and its etymology suggests captive women (not maidens or virgins). Caryatids are considered to belong to this order. It is more elegant and slender in its proportions than the Doric order and its chief characteristic is the pair of volutes (or curls) in its capital, which suggests the hair of the matron. |
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| A plain or decorated slab on a Doric frieze. It alternates with the triglyphs. |
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| The festival honoring the goddess Athena, warrior goddess of wisdom and the intellect and patroness of the city of Athens. The festival occurred every four years and was characterized by a procession which passed through the city on a sacred way and concluded outside the Parthenon on the Acropolis. It was also celebrated by athletic games and sacrifices of one hundred cattle. |
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| The pediment is the triangular area contained within the peak of a temple's roof. It often contains sculptural ornament narrating events from the lives of the gods. |
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| A peripteral colonnade consists of a single row of columns on all sides. (see peristyle). |
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A Classical colonnade around a building or courtyard.
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| The name of the chief architect, designer, and sculptor of the complex of temples on the Acropolis at Athens. He and his workshop are responsible for the exquisite narrative frieze (relief) on the Parthenon as well as the sculpture in the pediment recounting stories of Athena; also the motopes done in relief, and the colossal statue of Athena of ivory and gold within the temple. He worked in the High Classical style employing the contrapposto of Polykleitos. |
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| Greek independent city-state that may include one main city and satellite towns. Until the creation of the Delian League in the mid 5th century, Greece was a geographical and cultural phenomenon rather than a unified state with the poleis trading with each other and, sometimes, fighting in civil wars. Competition between the Greeks contributed to the popularity of the Olympics and other sporting events, and the drama of individual athletes competing for the glory of themselves, their polis and the gods became a popular subject matter of art. |
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| Porch of Maidens (and caryatids) |
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| The chief decorative feature on the small temple known as the Erechtheion (or Erechtheum) located on the Acropolis at Athens. Caryatids, or columns in the form of women, support the entablature (part of the roof) of the porch. Rather than the traditional symbolic meaning of representing captive slaves, these women are dressed in the Ionic chiton which honors the Athenians relations to their eastern brethren under attack by the Persians and they stand in the festival finery as eternal witnesses to the sacrifices and proceedings of the Panathenaic festival honoring Athena. |
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| The area, or vestibule, before the naos in a Classical period temple. |
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| In Ancient Greece, an open building with a roof supported by row of columns parallel to the back wall. |
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| The upper step of the base or podium of a Classical temple. |
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| A three-grooved panel on a Doric frieze; it alternates with metop |
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