what must have been a high and massive entablature. The columns
and capitals thus express in a vivid manner their weight-bearing
function. One structural reason, perhaps, for the heaviness of the
design and the narrowness of the spans between the columns might
be that the Archaic builders were afraid thinner and more widely
spaced columns would result in the superstructure’s collapse. In later
Doric temples (FIGS. 5-25, 5-30,and 5-44), the builders placed the
columns farther apart and refined the forms. The shafts became
more slender, the entasis subtler, the capitals smaller, and the entab-
lature lighter. Greek architects sought the ideal proportional rela-
tionship among the parts of their buildings. The sculptors of Archaic
kouroi and korai grappled with similar problems. Architecture and
sculpture developed in a parallel manner in the sixth centuryBCE.
TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS, CORFU Architects and sculptors
were also frequently called on to work together, as at Corfu (ancient
Corcyra), where the Greeks constructed a great Doric temple dedi-
cated to Artemis in the sixth centuryBCE. Corfu, an island off the
western coast of Greece, was an important stop on the trade route
between the mainland and the Greek settlements in Italy (MAP5-1).
Prosperity made possible the erection of one of the earliest stone
peripteral temples in Greece, one also lavishly embellished with
sculpture. Reliefs (unfortunately very fragmentary today) decorated
the metopes, and huge high-relief sculptures (more than nine feet
high at the center) filled both pediments. The pediments appear to
have been decorated in an identical manner. The west pediment (FIG.
5-17) is better preserved.
Designing figural decoration for a pediment was never an easy
task for the Greek sculptor because of the pediment’s awkward trian-
gular shape. The central figures had to be of great size. In contrast, as
the pediment tapered toward the corners, the available area became
increasingly cramped. At the center of the Corfu pediment is the gor-
gon Medusa, a demon with a woman’s body and a bird’s wings.
Medusa also had a hideous face and snake hair, and anyone who
gazed at her turned into stone. The sculptor depicted her in the con-
ventional Archaic bent-leg, bent-arm, pinwheel-like posture that sig-
nifies running or, for a winged creature, flying. To her left and right
are two great felines. Together they serve as temple guardians, repuls-
ing all enemies from the sanctuary of the goddess. Similar panthers
stood sentinel on the lintel of the seventh-centuryBCEtemple at
Prinias. The Corfu felines are in the tradition of the guardian lions of
the citadel gate (FIG. 4-1) at Mycenae and the beasts that stood guard
at the entrances to Near Eastern palaces (FIGS. 2-18and 2-21). The
triad of Medusa and the felines recalls as well Mesopotamian heraldic
human-and-animal compositions (FIG. 2-10). The Corfu figures are,
in short, still further examples of the Orientalizing manner in early
Greek sculpture.
Between Medusa and the two felines are two smaller figures—
the human Chrysaor at her left and the winged horse Pegasus at her
right (only the rear legs are preserved next to Medusa’s right foot).
Chrysaor and Pegasus were Medusa’s children. According to legend,
they sprang from her head when the Greek hero Perseus severed it
with his sword. Their presence here on either side of the living
Medusa is therefore a chronological impossibility. The Archaic artist
had less interest in telling a coherent story than in identifying the
central figure by depicting her offspring. Narration was, however,
the purpose of the much smaller groups situated in the pediment
corners. To the viewer’s right is Zeus, brandishing his thunderbolt
and slaying a kneeling giant. In the extreme corner (not preserved)
was probably a dead giant. The gigantomachy (battle of gods and
giants) was a popular theme in Greek art from Archaic through
Hellenistic times and was a metaphor for the triumph of reason and
order over chaos. In the pediment’s left corner is one of the Trojan
War’s climactic events: Achilles’ son Neoptolemos kills the enthroned
King Priam. The fallen figure to the left of this group may be a dead
Trojan.
The master responsible for the Corfu pediments was a pioneer,
and the composition shows all the signs of experimentation. The
lack of narrative unity and the figures’ extraordinary diversity of
scale eventually gave way to pedimental designs with freestanding
figures in place of reliefs all acting out a single event and appearing
the same size. But the Corfu designer already had shown the way, by
realizing, for example, that the area beneath the raking cornice could
be filled with gods and heroes of similar size if a combination of
standing, leaning, kneeling, seated, and prostrate figures were em-
ployed in the composition. The Corfu master also discovered that
animals could be very useful space fillers because, unlike humans,
they have one end taller than the other.112 Chapter 5 ANCIENT GREECE
5-17West pediment from the Temple of Artemis, Corfu, Greece, ca. 600–580 bce.Limestone, greatest height 9 4 . Archaeological Museum, Corfu.
The hideous Medusa and two panthers at the center of this early pediment serve as temple guardians. To either side, and much smaller, are scenes
from the Trojan War and the battle of gods and giants.
1 ft.