6 Classical Greece

Question 1

Classicism

Answer 1

Ancient Greek or Roman architectural (and other cultural) forms and features, or the revivals of such in later periods

Question 2

Orthogonal Planning

Answer 2

Urban design based on rectilinear forms, usually with perpendicular intersections (including grid plans, Hippodamian planning, per strigas, etc.)

Question 3

Per Strigas

Answer 3

(“By bands”) a gridding system of land division using a small number of east-west avenues to divide a site into long bands, which were then subdivided using narrow north-south streets

Question 4

Hippodamian Planning

Answer 4

Urban development schema using orthogonal grids devised by Hippodamus of Miletus (fifth century BCE). Such planning formally employed a grid, but also social theory, in which society was divided into religious, public and private zones

Question 5

Agora

Answer 5

In ancient Greece, a public, open gathering space used for assemblies and participatory government. In Athens, it is also the site of the bouleuterion, the main communal governmental building, as well as courts, temples, fountains, and stoas (weather-protected meeting spaces)

Question 6

Stoa

Answer 6

Covered walkway or colonnade that was usually designed for public use; used as a framing device too, for the agora’s open public space

Question 7

Polychromy

Answer 7

The use of multiple colors in architecture and art. Classical Greek buildings and their sculpted ornaments were usually painted in bright colors, which has now faded or has been purposefully removed

Question 8

Doric order

Answer 8

Stoutest and least decorated of the classical Greek orders. Plain capital, fluted shaft, and no base. The entablature is ornamented with alternating triglyphs–panels with three vertical grooves–and metopes–square panels often decorated with figural sculpture

Question 9

Ionic order

Answer 9

Columns have a base, slender shafts (fluted or smooth) and capitals are decorated with volutes–scrolls–at sides

Question 10

Corinthian order

Answer 10

Columns have a base, slender shafts (fluted or smooth) and capitals are decorated with acanthus leaves

Question 11

Triglyphs

Answer 11

Only found in DORIC orders, and there are three rectangular extruded surfaces on the Doric frieze

Question 12

Metopes

Answer 12

Only found in DORIC orders, and goes hand-in-hand with triglyphs. They are square tablets after triglyphs, and are usually decorated with some sort of figural sculpture

Question 13

Greek Optical “refinements”

Answer 13

Very slight curvatures /distortions used to make Greek temples appear more harmonious in appearance overall (includes straightening what eye perceives, etc.)

Question 14

Entasis

Answer 14

Slight convex swell from about the center of the column shaft upwards to offset the optical illusion that, when seen at distance, it gets thinner at its middle

Question 15

Peripteral

Answer 15

Having a screen of freestanding columns/colonnade at all sides

Question 16

Pericles

Answer 16

Leader of ATHENS in the mid-fifth century BCE

Question 17

Acropolis

Answer 17

Highest point in any city (many cities have an acropolis, but only ATHENS has THE Acropolis)

Question 18

Panathenaia

Answer 18

The city (ATHENS)’s main, yearly religious festival, celebrating Athena as the patron of the polis (city-state); all citizens (free men) participated

Question 19

Panathenaic games

Answer 19

Athletic and cultural competition held every four years as part of the Greater Panathenaia, similar to the Olympic Games

Question 20

Votives

Answer 20

Offerings, gifts, that were offered to Athena Polias at the outdoor alter during the Panathenaic Procession

Question 21

Athena Polias

Answer 21

The original, olive-wood cult statue of Athena, set up as the guardian of the city

Question 22

Athena Parthenos

Answer 22

Virgin goddess/moral model. Parthenos means “virgin” in Greek, so it means Athena the Virgin

Question 23

Panathenaic Procession

Answer 23

Started outside the city, entered at the Dipylon Gate, across to Agora, and up the Acropolis hill to offer votives (ritual gifts) to Athena on her alter

Question 24

Parthenon Frieze

Answer 24

Shows members of society bringing votives to offer to Athena in thanks, such as the bull to be sacrificed (left), and the peplos, a dress made new each year by the daughters of elite Athenian families; it was used to dress the statue of Athena Polias, which was carried in the Panathenaic Procession. Marble was brightly painted in antiquity, which also made figures more legible from below

Question 25

Parthenon Inner Frieze

Answer 25

The inner frieze is an anomaly (it is unusual), making the Parthenon unique; it shows the Panathenaic procession. Usually, the frieze depicts mythological or heroic scenes, and not human events.