DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4327#0026
18 INTRODUCTION.
cella, as at Bassa3, where their elegant and slender proportions seem so much more appropriate than the heavier
and thicker Doric shafts which we know were employed. It raises a strong presumption in favour of there
having been galleries in those temples in which we find an upper tier of Doric pillars standing on the head of a
lower range, as at iEgina and Passtum, as well as in the Parthenon. Without the presence of some such direct
utilitarian necessity, it is difficult to understand why the Greeks should ever have adopted an expedient which,
judged of by their own principles, never could have been aesthetically beautiful. At the same time it is
almost as difficult to see how the galleries could have been supported by the architraves at Paestum and iEgina
without arrangements, of which there is no evidence. But perhaps if these temples were now more carefully
examined with reference to this purpose even this difficulty might be removed.1 As there are no actual remains,
now existing, of the internal order of the Parthenon, the question whether there were internal galleries, or not,
must be determined from evidence derived from other temples. As it at present stands the evidence seems to be
in favour of their existence there as well as in some other temples at least.
MAUSOLEUM AND TROPHY TOMB.
One of the most remarkable applications of the Ionic order to any building, was the mode in which it was
employed to adorn the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. This was considered so successful by the ancients that they
raised the building, like the temple at Ephesus, to the rank of one of the Seven Wonders of the world;2 though
now that, thanks to the zeal and energy of Mr. Newton, we know very nearly indeed what its form and appear-
ance must have been, we are at a loss to understand why it was so much admired when it stood entire.
The principal architectural ornament of the monument was a pteron of thirty-six Ionic columns of more
than usual stoutness, being only eight and one-third of their diameters in height.3 They measured consequently
28 feet 7 inches, and supported an entablature of more than usual heaviness, being 8 feet 9 inches in height, or
three and one-third of that of the columns. These unusual dimensions were no doubt designed, and most skilfully
so, to give adequate support to the pyramidal roof they were destined to carry. This pyramid, with the pedestal
or meta on its summit, which carried the chariot of Mausolus, measured, like the pteron, 37 feet 6 inches in height.
The order consequently was only about half the dimensions of that used at Ephesus, and, as every part of it
is represented in the fragments in the British Museum, we are enabled to say it was in no respect more admirable.
The " wonder " of the monument must consequently have resided, as at Ephesus, in the podium or stylobate on
which it was raised. This from the dimensions quoted by Pliny could only have been about 51 to 52 feet in
height, and, as its girth or circumference according to the same author was 411 feet,4 its dimensions hardly
exceeded those of an ordinary English parish church. It is true the markings in the rock show that this last
dimension may have extended to 462 feet, or nearly so, for the outside of the lowest step ; but this hardly
adds to the general bulk of the base. This being so, it can only be owing to the mode in which this podium
was treated architecturally, and the beauty and disposition of its sculptured ornaments, that this tomb, like the
temple at Ephesus, from the same cause, could have excited such extraordinary admiration in the ancient world.
It is this, however, and this only, that makes it difficult to restore the Mausoleum with almost perfect certainty.
No fragments of architectural details which did not belong to the ordinary type of the Ionic order were found in
the excavations, and nothing that seemed especially appropriate to the basement. Portions of the only
frieze that could have belonged to it are in the British Museum, and the statues found on the spot, and the lions,
though beautiful, of course, are not exceptionally so, and present no features to excite wonder. If it was, as has
been suggested, that the Monte Cavallo Horses, now at Rome, really once adorned one angle of this base, and that
three similar groups were placed at the three other angles, it would go far to remove our doubts. It may also be
that twenty statues of the very highest class of Greek sculpture stood on the pedestals between the angles, and
1 Pausanias' description of the Temple of Jupiter at Olympia, though not very distinct, seems certainly to indicate that there was such a
gallery in that temple at least: eo-n/Kacrt Se Kal £vto<; tov vaov /cloves Kal aroai re evSov v-rrepmot. Kal Trpoo&ot; SI avrSiv eVl to ayaX/ta earl. 7reTrolrjTui
Se Kal dvo8o<; eirl tov opocpov q-koXm (lib. v. ch. 10). The term virepwov can hardly apply to anything on the same level as the entrance, and must
mean a gallery or upper chamber, of some sort, and the winding stair that led to the roof could only be wanted in the event of there being a clere-
story to which access was indispensable to adjust the curtains or blinds which may have been necessary to keep out the weather, where glass or
some transparent substance was not employed. It certainly was not intended for the use of masons or plumbers to get outside to repair the roof;
but, like the stairs found in most of the Sicilian temples, meant continuous access by the priests or servants of the temple.
3 It is curious that two out of the Seven Wonders of the world should belong to the Ionic order. No building in cither the Doric or
Corinthian style seems to have been considered worthy of that rank.
3 Mr. Penrose, after a most careful discussion of the dimensions of twenty-six drums measured by Mr. Newton at Halicarnassus and oftlio.se
that arc in the Museum, came to the conclusion, from the entasis, that the pillars were 8£ diameters in height, and consequently within a small
fraction cither way of 28 feet 6 inches in height. The entablature is complete in the Museum, and is drawn to a tenth scale by Mr. Pulhin; see
plate xxii. in Mr. Newton's folio work on Halicarnassus.
* Pliny, Hint. Nat. xxxvi. .>, which is the only written authority for the dimensions above emoted.
cella, as at Bassa3, where their elegant and slender proportions seem so much more appropriate than the heavier
and thicker Doric shafts which we know were employed. It raises a strong presumption in favour of there
having been galleries in those temples in which we find an upper tier of Doric pillars standing on the head of a
lower range, as at iEgina and Passtum, as well as in the Parthenon. Without the presence of some such direct
utilitarian necessity, it is difficult to understand why the Greeks should ever have adopted an expedient which,
judged of by their own principles, never could have been aesthetically beautiful. At the same time it is
almost as difficult to see how the galleries could have been supported by the architraves at Paestum and iEgina
without arrangements, of which there is no evidence. But perhaps if these temples were now more carefully
examined with reference to this purpose even this difficulty might be removed.1 As there are no actual remains,
now existing, of the internal order of the Parthenon, the question whether there were internal galleries, or not,
must be determined from evidence derived from other temples. As it at present stands the evidence seems to be
in favour of their existence there as well as in some other temples at least.
MAUSOLEUM AND TROPHY TOMB.
One of the most remarkable applications of the Ionic order to any building, was the mode in which it was
employed to adorn the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. This was considered so successful by the ancients that they
raised the building, like the temple at Ephesus, to the rank of one of the Seven Wonders of the world;2 though
now that, thanks to the zeal and energy of Mr. Newton, we know very nearly indeed what its form and appear-
ance must have been, we are at a loss to understand why it was so much admired when it stood entire.
The principal architectural ornament of the monument was a pteron of thirty-six Ionic columns of more
than usual stoutness, being only eight and one-third of their diameters in height.3 They measured consequently
28 feet 7 inches, and supported an entablature of more than usual heaviness, being 8 feet 9 inches in height, or
three and one-third of that of the columns. These unusual dimensions were no doubt designed, and most skilfully
so, to give adequate support to the pyramidal roof they were destined to carry. This pyramid, with the pedestal
or meta on its summit, which carried the chariot of Mausolus, measured, like the pteron, 37 feet 6 inches in height.
The order consequently was only about half the dimensions of that used at Ephesus, and, as every part of it
is represented in the fragments in the British Museum, we are enabled to say it was in no respect more admirable.
The " wonder " of the monument must consequently have resided, as at Ephesus, in the podium or stylobate on
which it was raised. This from the dimensions quoted by Pliny could only have been about 51 to 52 feet in
height, and, as its girth or circumference according to the same author was 411 feet,4 its dimensions hardly
exceeded those of an ordinary English parish church. It is true the markings in the rock show that this last
dimension may have extended to 462 feet, or nearly so, for the outside of the lowest step ; but this hardly
adds to the general bulk of the base. This being so, it can only be owing to the mode in which this podium
was treated architecturally, and the beauty and disposition of its sculptured ornaments, that this tomb, like the
temple at Ephesus, from the same cause, could have excited such extraordinary admiration in the ancient world.
It is this, however, and this only, that makes it difficult to restore the Mausoleum with almost perfect certainty.
No fragments of architectural details which did not belong to the ordinary type of the Ionic order were found in
the excavations, and nothing that seemed especially appropriate to the basement. Portions of the only
frieze that could have belonged to it are in the British Museum, and the statues found on the spot, and the lions,
though beautiful, of course, are not exceptionally so, and present no features to excite wonder. If it was, as has
been suggested, that the Monte Cavallo Horses, now at Rome, really once adorned one angle of this base, and that
three similar groups were placed at the three other angles, it would go far to remove our doubts. It may also be
that twenty statues of the very highest class of Greek sculpture stood on the pedestals between the angles, and
1 Pausanias' description of the Temple of Jupiter at Olympia, though not very distinct, seems certainly to indicate that there was such a
gallery in that temple at least: eo-n/Kacrt Se Kal £vto<; tov vaov /cloves Kal aroai re evSov v-rrepmot. Kal Trpoo&ot; SI avrSiv eVl to ayaX/ta earl. 7reTrolrjTui
Se Kal dvo8o<; eirl tov opocpov q-koXm (lib. v. ch. 10). The term virepwov can hardly apply to anything on the same level as the entrance, and must
mean a gallery or upper chamber, of some sort, and the winding stair that led to the roof could only be wanted in the event of there being a clere-
story to which access was indispensable to adjust the curtains or blinds which may have been necessary to keep out the weather, where glass or
some transparent substance was not employed. It certainly was not intended for the use of masons or plumbers to get outside to repair the roof;
but, like the stairs found in most of the Sicilian temples, meant continuous access by the priests or servants of the temple.
3 It is curious that two out of the Seven Wonders of the world should belong to the Ionic order. No building in cither the Doric or
Corinthian style seems to have been considered worthy of that rank.
3 Mr. Penrose, after a most careful discussion of the dimensions of twenty-six drums measured by Mr. Newton at Halicarnassus and oftlio.se
that arc in the Museum, came to the conclusion, from the entasis, that the pillars were 8£ diameters in height, and consequently within a small
fraction cither way of 28 feet 6 inches in height. The entablature is complete in the Museum, and is drawn to a tenth scale by Mr. Pulhin; see
plate xxii. in Mr. Newton's folio work on Halicarnassus.
* Pliny, Hint. Nat. xxxvi. .>, which is the only written authority for the dimensions above emoted.