Corinthian capitals (FIG. 5-73; see “The Corinthian Capital,”
above), an invention of the second half of the fifth centuryBCE.
Consistent with the extremely conservative nature of Greek
temple design, architects did not readily embrace the Corinthian
capital. Until the second centuryBCE, Corinthian capitals were em-
ployed, as at Delphi and Epidauros, only for the interiors of sacred
buildings. The earliest instance of a Corinthian capital on the exte-
rior of a Greek building is the Choragic Monument of Lysikrates
(FIG. 5-74), which is not really a building at all. Lysikrates had
sponsored a chorus in a theatrical contest in 334BCE, and after he
won, he erected a monument to commemorate his victory. The
monument consists of a cylindrical drum resembling a tholos on a
rectangular base. Engaged Corinthian columns adorn the drum of
Lysikrates’ monument, and a huge Corinthian capital sits atop the
roof. The freestanding capital once supported the victor’s trophy, a
bronze tripod(a deep bowl on a tall three-legged stand).144 Chapter 5 ANCIENT GREECE
T
he Corinthian capital (FIG. 5-73) is more ornate than either the
Doric or Ionic (FIG. 5-14). It consists of a double row of acanthus
leaves, from which tendrils and flowers emerge, wrapped around a
bell-shaped echinus. Although this capital often is cited as the distin-
guishing feature of the Corinthian order, in strict terms no such or-
der exists. Architects simply substituted the new capital type for the
volute capital in the Ionic order.
The sculptor Kallimachos invented the Corinthian capital during
the second half of the fifth centuryBCE. Vitruvius recorded the cir-
cumstances that supposedly led to its creation:
A maiden who was a citizen of Corinth... died. After her funeral,
her nurse collected the goblets in which the maiden had taken de-
light while she was alive, and after putting them together in a basket,
she took them to the grave monument and put them on top of it. In
order that they should remain in place for a long time, she covered
them with a tile. Now it happened that this basket was placed over
the root of an acanthus. As time went on the acanthus root, pressed
down in the middle by the weight, sent forth, when it was about
springtime, leaves and stalks; its stalks growing up along the sides
of the basket and being pressed out from the angles because of the
weight of the tile, were forced to form volute-like curves at their
extremities. At this point, Kallimachos happened to be going by and
noticed the basket with this gentle growth of leaves around it. De-
lighted with the order and the novelty of the form, he made columns
using it as his model and established a canon of proportions for it.*
Kallimachos worked on the Acropolis in Pericles’ great building
program. Many scholars believe that a Corinthian column supported
the outstretched right hand of Phidias’s Athena Parthenos (FIG. 5-46)
because some of the Roman copies of the lost statue include a Corin-
thian column. In any case, the earliest preserved Corinthian capital
dates to the time of Kallimachos. The new type was rarely used before
the mid-fourth centuryBCE, however, and did not become popular
until Hellenistic and especially Roman times. Later architects favored
the Corinthian capital because of its ornate character and because it
eliminated certain problems of both the Doric and Ionic orders.
The Ionic capital, unlike the Doric, has two distinct profiles—
the front and back (with the volutes) and the sides. The volutes
always faced outward on a Greek temple, but architects met with
a vexing problem at the corners of their buildings, which had two
adjacent “fronts.” They solved the problem by placing volutes on
both outer faces of the corner capitals (as on the Erechtheion,FIG.
5-52,and the Temple of Athena Nike,FIG. 5-55), but the solution
was an awkward one.
Doric design rules also presented problems for Greek architects
at the corners of buildings. The Doric frieze was organized accord-
ing to three supposedly inflexible rules:
❚A triglyph must be exactly over the center of each column.
❚A triglyph must be over the center of each intercolumniation (the
space between two columns).
❚Triglyphs at the corners of the frieze must meet so that no space is
left over.
These rules are contradictory, however. If the corner triglyphs must
meet, then they cannot be placed over the center of the corner col-
umn (FIGS. 5-25, 5-30,and 5-44).
The Corinthian capital eliminated both problems. Because
the capital’s four sides have a similar appearance, corner Corinthian
capitals do not have to be modified, as do corner Ionic capitals. And
because the Ionic frieze is used for the Corinthian “order,” architects
do not have to contend with metopes or triglyphs.The Corinthian Capital
ARCHITECTURAL BASICS
*Vitruvius,De architectura,4.1.8–10. Translated by J. J. Pollitt,The Art of Ancient
Greece: Sources and Documents (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990),
193–194.
5-73Polykleitos the Younger,Corinthian capital, from the tholos,
Epidauros, Greece, ca. 350 bce.Archaeological Museum, Epidauros.
Corinthian capitals, invented in the fifth centuryBCEby the sculptor
Kallimachos, are more ornate than Doric and Ionic capitals. They
feature a double row of acanthus leaves with tendrils and flowers.