perfect proportions used for the Parthenon—21 = (2 10) 1—but
nothing else about the design is Classical. One anomaly immediately
apparent to anyone who approached the building was that it had no
pediment and no roof—it was hypaethral,or open to the sky. Also, the
grand doorway to what should be the temple’s cella was elevated
nearly five feet off the ground so that it could not be entered. The ex-
planation for these peculiarities is that the doorway served rather as a
kind of stage where the oracle of Apollo could be announced to those
assembled in front of the temple. The unroofed dipteral colonnade
was really only an elaborate frame for a central courtyard (FIG. 5-75,
right) with a small prostyle shrine containing a statue of Apollo. En-
trance to the interior court was through two smaller doorways to the
left and right of the great portal and down two narrow vaulted tun-
nels that could accommodate only a single file of people. From these
dark and mysterious lateral passageways, worshipers emerged into the
clear light of the courtyard, which also had a sacred spring and laurel
trees in honor of Apollo. Opposite Apollo’s inner temple, a stairway
some 50 feet wide rose majestically toward three portals leading into
the oracular room that also opened onto the front of the temple. This
complex spatial planning marked a sharp departure from Classical
Greek architecture, which stressed a building’s exterior almost as a
work of sculpture and left its interior relatively undeveloped.
HIPPODAMOS OF MILETOSWhen the Persians were fi-
nally expelled from Asia Minor in 479BCE, the Greek cities there
were in near ruin. Reconstruction of Miletos began after 466BCEac-
cording to a plan laid out by Hippodamos of Miletos,whom Aris-
totle singled out as the father of rational city planning. Hippodamos
imposed a strict grid plan on the site, regardless of the terrain, so
that all streets met at right angles. Such orthogonal plansactually
predate Hippodamos, not only in Archaic Greece and Etruscan Italy
but also in the ancient Near East and Egypt. But Hippodamos was so
famous that his name has ever since been synonymous with such ur-
ban plans. The so-called Hippodamian plan also designated separate
quarters for public, private, and religious functions. A “Hippo-
damian city” was logically as well as regularly planned. This desire to
impose order on nature and to assign a proper place in the whole to
each of the city’s constituent parts was very much in keeping with
the philosophical tenets of the fifth centuryBCE. Hippodamos’s for-
mula for the ideal city was another manifestation of the same out-
look that produced Polykleitos’s Canon and Iktinos’s Parthenon.PRIENEHippodamian planning was still the norm in Late Clas-
sical and Hellenistic Greece. The city of Priene (FIG. 5-76), also in
Asia Minor, was laid out during the fourth centuryBCE. It had fewer
than 5,000 inhabitants (Hippodamos thought 10,000 was the ideal
number). Situated on sloping ground, many of its narrow north-
south streets were little more than long stairways. Uniformly sized
city blocks, the standard planning unit, were nonetheless imposed
on the irregular terrain. More than one unit was reserved for major
structures such as the Temple of Athena and the theater. The central
agora was allotted six blocks.STOA OF ATTALOS, ATHENS Priene’s agora was bordered
by stoas.These covered colonnades, or porticos,which often housed
shops and civic offices, were ideal vehicles for shaping urban spaces,
and they were staples of Hellenistic cities. Even the agora of Athens,
an ancient city notable for its haphazard, unplanned development,
was eventually framed to the east and south by stoas placed at right
angles to one another. These new porticos joined the famous Painted
Stoa (see page 135), where the Hellenistic philosopher Zeno and his
successors taught. The Stoic school of Greek philosophy took its
name from that building.
The finest of the new Athenian stoas was the Stoa of Attalos II
(FIG. 5-77), a gift to the city by a grateful alumnus, the king of
Pergamon, who had studied at Athens in his youth. The stoa was
meticulously reconstructed under the direction of the American
School of Classical Studies at Athens and today has a second life as a
museum housing more than seven decades of finds from the Athen-
ian agora, as well as the offices of the American excavation team.
The stoa has two stories, each with 21 shops opening onto the
colonnade. The facade columns are Doric on the ground level and
Ionic on the second story. The mixing of the two orders on a single
facade had occurred even in the Late Classical period. But it became
increasingly common in the Hellenistic period, when architects
showed greatly diminished respect for the old rules of Greek archi-
tecture, and a desire for variety and decorative effects often pre-
vailed. Practical considerations also governed the form of the Stoa
of Attalos. The columns are far more widely spaced than in Greek
temple architecture, to allow for easy access. And the builders left
the lower third of every Doric column shaft unfluted to guard
against damage from constant traffic.146 Chapter 5 ANCIENT GREECE
5-76Restored view of the city of Priene,
Turkey, fourth century bceand later (John
Burge).
Despite its irregular terrain, Priene had a
strict grid plan conforming to the principles
of Hippodamos of Miletos, whom Aristotle
singled out as the father of rational city
planning.