Towards Understanding Greek Temple Design: General Considerations

Abstract

In a recent paper on stylobate design in Doric temples I stated, with the minimum of evidence, certain working hypotheses on some of the factors restricting ancient Greek architectural design procedures. The present paper is, in part, an attempt to examine more closely the evidence for those hypotheses, but it also has a wider aim; it tries to thin out the almost numberless possible theories concerning the way in which Greek temples were planned, by looking at some of the technical restrictions felt by ancient architects, by stating and examining the consequences of certain hypotheses which seem to be widely, if tacitly, accepted by students of Greek architecture, and by suggesting how many of the propositions put forward by modern investigators may be tested, more or less rigorously perhaps, but nevertheless objectively.