Introductory American History | Page 8

Europe.
GREEK METHODS OF BUILDING STILL USED. If we look at our large buildings, we shall see much to remind us of the Greek buildings. Sometimes the exact form of the Greek building is imitated; sometimes this form is changed as the Romans changed it, or as it was changed by builders who lived after the time of the Romans. If the model of the whole building is not used, there are similar pillars, or gables, or the sculpture in the pediment and the frieze is imitated. The Greeks had three kinds of pillars, named Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. The Doric is simple and solid, the Ionic shows in its capital, or top, delicate and beautiful curves, while the Corinthian is adorned with leaves springing gracefully from the top of the pillar.
[Illustration: Doric Ionic Corinthian GREEK ORDERS OF ARCHITECTURE]
[Illustration: RUINS OF THE GREEK THEATER AT EPIDAURUS]
THEATERS. The first Greek theater was only a smooth open space near a hillside, with a tent, called a skené, or scene, in which the actors dressed. Later an amphitheater of stone seats was constructed on the hillside, and across the open end was placed the scene, which had been changed into a stone building. On its front sometimes a house or a palace was painted, just as nowadays theaters are furnished with painted scenery. In these open-air theaters thousands of people gathered. Plays were generally given as a part of religious festivals, and there were contests between writers to see which could produce the best play. Sometimes the plays followed one another for three days from morning until night. Many of them are so interesting that people still read them, after twenty-five hundred years. The Romans studied them, and so do modern men who are preparing themselves to write plays.
[Illustration: THE MODERN STADIUM AT ATHENS]
THE STADIUM. A building which somewhat resembled the theater was the stadium, where races were run. The difference was that it was oblong instead of half round. The most famous stadium, at Olympia, was seven hundred and two feet long, with raised seats on both sides and around one end of the running track. The other end was open. About fifty thousand persons used to gather there to watch the races.
PORTICOES. There were other buildings, some for meeting places, some for gymnasiums, and still others called porticoes, where the judges held court or the city officers carried on their business. The porticoes were simply rows of columns, roofed over, with occasionally a second story. As they stretched along the sides of a square or market place they added much to the beauty of a city.
GREEK SCULPTURE. We know that the Greeks were skilful sculptors because from the ruins of their cities have been dug wonderful marble and bronze statues which are now preserved in the great museums of the world, in Paris, London, Berlin, and Rome, and here in America, in New York and Boston. Museums which cannot have the original statues usually contain copies or casts of them in plaster. The statues are generally marred and broken, but enough remains to show us the wonderful beauty of the artist's work. Among the most famous are the Venus, of Melos (or "de Milo"), which stands in a special room in a museum called the Louvre in Paris; the Hermes in the museum of Olympia in Greece; and the figures from the Parthenon in the British Museum in London.
[Illustration: THE DISCUS-THROWER (DISCOBOLOS) An ancient Greek statue now in the Vatican]
Artists nowadays, like the Roman artists long ago, study the Greek statues and the Greek sculpture, in order that they may learn how such beautiful things can be made. They do not hope to excel the Greeks, but are content to remain their pupils.
PAINTING AND POTTERY. The Greeks were also painters, makers of pottery, and workers in gold and silver. Many pieces of their workmanship have been discovered by those who have dug in the ruins of ancient buildings and tombs.
[Illustration: A GREEK BOOK The upper picture, shows the book open.]
WHAT THE BOYS WERE TAUGHT. The Greek boys were not very good at arithmetic, and even grown men used counting boards or their fingers to help them in reckoning. In learning to write they smeared a thin layer of wax over a board and marked on that. There was a kind of paper called papyrus, made from a reed which grew mostly in Egypt, but this was expensive. Rolls were made of sheets of it pasted together, and these were their books. One of the books the boys studied much was the poems of Homer--the Iliad and the Odyssey--which tell about the siege of Troy and the wanderings of Ulysses. Boys often learned these long poems by heart. They also stored away in their memories the sayings of other poets and wise men,