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Inauguration: Ritual Planning in Ancient Greece and Italy

In: Architecture and Mathematics from Antiquity to the Future

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  • Graham Pont

Abstract

Constantin Doxiadis has argued that the apparently haphazard layout of Greek temple sites can be explained by a planning system of ‘polar coordinates’. His analysis of 29 ancient sites revealed two systems of ancient planning. In both cases, buildings were carefully sited so that their outer edges (stylobates, cornices, etc.) appeared to the viewer at canonical angles of vision, thus creating a ‘unified composition’ of the visible landscape. This theory is confirmed by the discovery of a 30° angle between sight lines from the top western step of the Propylaea to the outer edges of the temple of Athene Nike. A similar system of planning might have been used in Italy by augurs practising the ‘Etruscan Rite,’ which was also based on a ritual division of the visual templum (sacred space). The many irregular Italian sites might have been ritually planned by methods analogous to the Greek system and involving a ‘Pythagorean’ world-view based on an ‘harmonic’ division of space and time.

Suggested Citation

  • Graham Pont, 2015. "Inauguration: Ritual Planning in Ancient Greece and Italy," Springer Books, in: Kim Williams & Michael J. Ostwald (ed.), Architecture and Mathematics from Antiquity to the Future, edition 127, chapter 0, pages 163-175, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-319-00137-1_11
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-00137-1_11
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