The perceptual totality of group design in sacred Classical Greek architecture : the approach and the Temple of Apollo at Delphi and the Panathenaic Way, the Propylaea and the temples on the Athenian Acropolis

Abstract

It is the contention of this research to explain the perceptual totality of composed groups of Classical Greek buildings in sacred precincts, as exemplified at Delphi and the Athenian Acropolis. The main proposal to be tested by the analysis of these architectural ensembles is that sacred Classical Greek architecture is not exclusively an architecture of three Classical orders, but an architecture on two hierarchical levels, namely the architecture of the divine level, as symbolised mainly by the Doric temple, as opposed to the architecture of the secondary human level, represented by the ancillary buildings in the approach areas that are characterised by a diminished scale, complexity and ambiguity.

Die bespreking in hierdie navorsing het ten doel om te verduidelik hoe komposisies van groepe Klassieke Griekse geboue in heilige omgewings ’n perseptuele totaliteit vorm, soos by uitnemendheid by Delfi en die Akropolis van Athene. Die belangrikste proposisie wat deur die ontleding van hierdie argitektoniese groeperings getoets word, is dat heilige Klassieke Griekse argitektuur nie by uitnemendheid drie Klassieke ordes is nie, maar ’n argitektuur op twee hiërargiese vlakke, naamlik die heilige vlak wat hoofsaaklik deur die Doriese tempel gesimboliseer word, in teenstelling met die argitektuur van die sekondêre menslike vlak wat verteenwoordig word deur die bykomende geboue in die aanloopareas wat deur ’n verminderde skaal, kompleksiteit en dubbelduidenheid gekenmerk word.