Cindy Pham and Tyler Loung

315

Architecture Essay

Greek Temple

Among the Greeks, one of the best achievements they have done is creating beautiful tall buildings with graceful columns. Their building consisted of circular columns of all sorts of styles. Of course, all columns still remain the same. As a basic, each column was to be in shape of a circular prism. There are only 3 main types of columns. The Corinthian column is beautifully decorated with designs of leaves and flowers on the top. It was the latest to be developed amongst the rest, arriving at 4th cent. B.C. The Doric column is plain but still attractive in a way. It was also known to be the one that developed earliest of the columns at 7th century B.C. That leaves it with the only type of column left, the Ionic. The Ionic column is plain, but not as much as the Doric column. A notice is that on top, the mold of the Ionic column is more curly than the rest of the columns. It was recognized at 5th century B.C, in between the discoveries of the Corinthian order and Doric order.

This building is a temple dating back to probably around 900 B.C., when Greek architecture was beginning to form it’s unique shape. That is why the model has a so simple look. After all, even the extraordinary columns weren't specially made until the Doric column appeared in 7th cent. B.C. Nor did the frieze, metopes, or pediments was recognized at the time. The concept was simple, a triangular roof, walls, and simply, sticks for decoration. Though not shown in the model, inside the little temple should be a statue of a worshiped god. However, only the earliest remaining Greek building date back to 600 B.C.

This model was a temple. Of course, it is to be originally made to worship gods. As plain as old as it is, it’s significance is amazing and was to be extremely well cared for by the Greeks. Every temple had at least 1 statue of a god it was worshipping. To worship a god and sacrifice to it was vital matter. Every temple however was not devoted to multiple gods but only one. Therefore, that was the reason why there were so many temples throughout Greece. Not only that, every city seem to have a main god to worship along with a temple. 12 main gods you’d expect to see mainly worshiped is Zeus who is ruler of the sky and of all gods, Hera who is Zeus’s wife and goddess of family and marriage, Apollo who is Zeus’s son and god of the sun along with music and poetry, Aphrodite who is Zeus’s daughter and goddess of love, Hermes who is Zeus’s son who is messenger of the gods and god of travel, Poseidon who is Zeus’s brother and god of the sea, Hestia who is Zeus’s sister and goddess of hearth, Demeter who is Zeus’s sister and goddess of agriculture, Ares who is son of Zeus and god of war, Athena who is Zeus’s daughter and goddess of wisdom and war, Artemis who is daughter of Zeus and goddess of the moon and hunt, and Hephaestus who is Zeus’s son and god of metalworkers.

Architecture is important to me because its where you can create various things so beautifully and skillfully, especially if it was man made, showing the efforts of what one or a team can do. It makes us proud and it makes others amazed at the item developed and happy if done for someone for a certain reason and purpose. The past in like a walk through an eerie door. Though not accurate, just seeing how close to accurate is what makes it feel so amazing with so many limits that they have that we don’t have now after so many evolutions. The buildings were built for various reasons because people wanted they buildings there. I find interest in such building because its a place for occupation, safety, and home. Not only that, it was a temple model that was build to worship the many gods they believed in that protected them and their land. This was very important to them, devoting themselves to their god.