Editing Ancient Greek architecture (section)

==== Post and lintel ====
[[File:Doric.JPG|thumb|upright=1.2|Parts of an Ancient Greek temple of the Doric Order:<br />
1. [[Tympanum (architecture)|Tympanum]], 2. [[Acroterium]], 3. [[Sima (architecture)|Sima]] 4. [[Cornice]] 5. [[Mutules]] 7. [[Frieze]] 8. [[Triglyph]] 9. [[Metope (architecture)|Metope]] <br />10. [[Regula (architecture)|Regula]] 11. [[Gutta]] 12. [[Taenia (architecture)|Taenia]] 13. [[Architrave]] 14. [[Capital (architecture)|Capital]] 15. [[Abacus (architecture)|Abacus]] 16. [[Echinus (molding)|Echinus]] 17. [[Column]] 18. [[Fluting (architecture)|Fluting]] 19. [[Stylobate]]]]

The architecture of ancient Greece is of a trabeated or "[[post and lintel]]" form, i.e. it is composed of upright beams (posts) supporting horizontal beams (lintels). Although the existent buildings of the era are constructed in stone, it is clear that the origin of the style lies in simple wooden structures, with vertical posts supporting beams which carried a ridged roof. The posts and beams divided the walls into regular compartments which could be left as openings, or filled with sun dried bricks, lathes or straw and covered with clay daub or plaster. Alternately, the spaces might be filled with rubble. It is likely that many early houses and temples were constructed with an open porch or "pronaos" above which rose a low pitched gable or pediment.<ref name="BF3" />

The earliest temples, built to enshrine statues of deities, were probably of wooden construction, later replaced by the more durable stone temples many of which are still in evidence today. The signs of the original timber nature of the architecture were maintained in the stone buildings.<ref name=Strong3>{{harvnb|Strong|1965|pp=38–40}}.</ref>

A few of these temples are very large, with several, such as the Temple of Zeus Olympus and the Olympians at Athens being well over 300 feet in length, but most were less than half this size. It appears that some of the large temples began as wooden constructions in which the columns were replaced piecemeal as stone became available. This, at least was the interpretation of the historian [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] looking at the Temple of Hera at Olympia in the 2nd century AD.<ref name="HG2" />

The stone columns are made of a series of solid stone cylinders or "drums" that rest on each other without mortar, but were sometimes centred with a bronze pin. The columns are wider at the base than at the top, tapering with an outward curve known as [[entasis]]. Each column has a [[Capital (architecture)|capital]] of two parts, the upper, on which rests the lintels, being square and called the [[Abacus (architecture)|abacus]]. The part of the capital that rises from the column itself is called the echinus. It differs according to the order, being plain in the Doric order, fluted in the Ionic and foliate in the Corinthian. Doric and usually Ionic capitals are cut with vertical grooves known as [[Fluting (architecture)|fluting]]. This fluting or grooving of the columns is a retention of an element of the original wooden architecture.<ref name="Strong3" />