Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/61

Geeek Architecture. 31 when the surrounding enclosure is large. The earliest Greek temples are supposed to have consisted of a naos only, and were astylar buildings (*. e. without columns) except in front, where a porch was produced by continuing the side walls and placing columns between them in antis, as it was called, or between the two antce (i. e. pilasters) forming the ends of the walls. The next step was to advance the porch before the building, converting it into a prostyle {i. e. projecting line of columns). If the other end of the building were treated in a similar manner, it became amphvprostyle (i, e. prostyle at both ends), the sides being still astylar (i. e. without columns). The next stage was the continuation of the columns all round, enclosing the cella with colonnades on every side. This treatment is called peristylar or peripteral {i. e. having columns all round). There are two kinds of peristylar temples, — those with a single row of columns on each side, and those which have two, which latter are called dipteral (i. e. having two wings or aisles on each side). The internal arrangement of all the Greek temples was very simple. From the pronaos (i. e. porch) we enter the cella, beyond which is the posticum (i. e. back space), leading in some cases to the opisthodom.as (back temple). In large buildings the interior has a double row of columns, one over the other, the light being, it is supposed, admitted through the upper row of columns. There are three Greek orders, the special characteristics of each of which we shall presently describe. The term Order refers to the system of columniation adopted by the Greeks and Romans, and denotes the columns and entablature together, — that is to say, the supporting columns and the horizontal beams and roof supported by