It has been said of Greece’s literary and artistic influence: "What’er we hold of beauty half is hers".1 This is especially true of architecture. No other civilization’s architecture has been as widely praised and copied as that of Greece, as it has been accepted as the standard by which all periods of architecture may be tested. Just as Classical Greek sculptors strove to represent idealized beauty in their works, so did Classical architects. By far, the most impressive examples of Greek architecture are of the high Classical period (c.450-400 b.c.) and were constructed under Pericles for the Athenian Acropolis.2 Temple after temple, each more beautiful and more perfect that the one before, arose and climaxed with the Parthenon between 447 and 438 b.c. The Parthenon, named after the cult of Athena Parthenos ("Athena the Virgin") is considered to be the greatest architectural achievement in history. The legacy of the Parthenon continues to thrive, and its architectural influence can be found in virtually all American monuments and memorials today, most notably in the Lincoln Memorial.

What exactly is Greek architecture? It has its own unique character and is easily recognizable, but what architectural feature makes this so? The answer is the architectural order. An "order" in Classical architecture consists of the upright column or support, including base and capital, and the horizontal entablature, or part supported .3 The Greeks have been credited with the creation of the three classical architectural orders: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian.

The most basic order of architecture is the Doric order, which originated on the Greek mainland around 600 b.c. The Doric order is characterized by a slightly tapered column (fig. 1) that is the most squat of all the orders, measuring in height only about four to eight lower diameters.4 Typically, Doric shafts stand without a base directly on a stylobate, usually of three steps, and are channeled with 20 shallow flutes. The capital is a very simple design, consisting of a simple necking, a spreading, convex echinus, and a square abacus. The Doric entablature, usually about one-quarter the height of the order, is supported by the columns, and has three main divisions: the architrave, or principal beam, the frieze, and the cornice, or the upper or crowning part. The frieze section of the Doric entablature is very distinctive. It is composed of projecting triglyphs, or units consisting of three vertical bands separated by grooves, alternating with receded square panels, or metopes, that can be either plain or carved with sculptured reliefs.

While the Doric order is the basis of ancient Greek architecture, it also spawned the development of two more sophisticated orders, the Ionic and Corinthian. The two most distinguishing characteristics that identify an order as Corinthian or Ionic versus Doric are the capital and the frieze. The Ionic capital consists of two scrolls, or volutes, between the echinus and abacus, while the more elegant Corinthian capital is carved with two staggered rows of stylized acanthus leaves and four scrolls.5 Also, the frieze of both the Ionic and Corinthian orders lacks the Doric triglyph/metope pattern, thus leaving this area free to hold ornamental sculpture.

While many examples of ancient Greek architecture are composed of a mixture of order characteristics, the Parthenon (fig. 2) is the "perfect embodiment of Classical Doric architecture".6 Dedicated to Athena Parthenos, the virgin Athena, and located in the Acropolis, Athens, construction of the Parthenon began in 447 b.c. and was completed in 432 b.c. Constructed of marble, Ictinus and Callicrates were the architects, and Phidias was the master sculptor.

The Parthenon was a temple built to honor the goddess Athena, after whom the city was named. It was essentially a display place for a great statue of Athena by the sculptor Phidias. The principal doorway on the east led into the naos, which was 63 feet wide and had 10 rows of Doric columns (fig. 3). To the west of the naos was the Parthenon, or virgin’s chamber, from which the temple took its name, and differentiated this temple from most others. This chamber appears to have been used as the hieratic treasury, and was entered from the opisthodomos by a large doorway corresponding to the eastern one, and its roof was supported by four Ionic columns.7 Both pronaos and opisthodomos were also used as treasuries, and metal grilles were fixed between the columns in order to make them secure. Finally, near the western end of the naos stood the statue of Athena Parthenos (fig. 4), a "chryselephantine", or gold and ivory statue about 40 feet high.

Externally, the Parthenon breaks the barrier of dull, lifeless immobility presented by traditional Doric architecture. "The Dominant impression it creates is one of festive, balanced grace within the austere scheme of the Doric order."8 This impression is created by both a lightening and readjustment of proportions and by the Parthenon’s "refinements".

Many refinements were practiced in the great period of Greek architecture, in order to correct optical illusions. These intentional departures from the strict geometric regularity of the design for aesthetic reasons are another feature of the Classical Doric style that can be observed in the Parthenon better than anywhere else9 (fig. 5). The long horizontal lines of such features as stylobates, architraves, and cornices, if straight in reality, would appear to drop in the middle of their length. Thus, they were constructed with slight convex outlines.

In the Parthenon, the stylobate has an upward curvature toward its center of 2.61 inches on the east and west facades, and of 4.34 inches on the lateral facades.10 The entablature is also curved up in the center, with every capital of the colonnade slightly distorted to fit the curve. Vertical features were also inclined inward toward the top to correct the appearance of falling outward. Thus, the axes of the Parthenon’s columns lean inward 2.65 inches, and if continued, would meet at a distance of a mile above the ground.11 Finally, the most noticeable refinement of the Parthenon is that the spacing between the corner columns is less than that of the colonnade as a whole. While it is still unsure whether these refinements were practiced as optical corrections, many believe they were added merely as a positive element that contributed to its beauty.

Today, the influence of ancient Greek architecture can be found everywhere. Countless municipal buildings, memorials, monuments, and others reflect the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders of architecture, although most combine aspects of each. The "perfect embodiment of Classical Doric architecture", the Parthenon, has a modern counterpart, which could be called the "perfect embodiment of the virtues of the Parthenon."

The Lincoln Memorial (fig. 6) is a tribute to President Abraham Lincoln and the nation he fought to preserve during the Civil War (1861-1865). It was also meant to honor "the virtues of tolerance, honesty, and constancy in the human spirit."12 Construction began at the end of the mall in Washington, DC on February 12, 1915, and the memorial was dedicated on May 30, 1922. Built entirely of marble, Henry Bacon was the architect and Daniel Chester French was the sculptor. Henry Bacon was an admirer of Greek architecture and purposefully sought to employ this idiom whenever he could.13 Using the design of the Parthenon of over 2000 years prior as his guide, he created one of the most beautiful memorials of the 1900’s.

From the stylobate up to the architrave, the Lincoln Memorial is almost identical to the Parthenon. Both sit directly on a stylobate of three steps, with a section of smaller steps added for easier climbing. The colonnade of the Lincoln Memorial is the feature that bears the most striking resemblance to the Parthenon. Both structures utilize pure Doric columns, which sit directly on the stylobate with no base, have a simple capital consisting of abacus and echinus, and are slightly tapered with 20 shallow flutes. However, the Lincoln Memorial has a colonnade of only 36 columns, one for each state of the Union at the time of Lincoln’s death, versus the 46 columns of the Parthenon.

While the lower portion of the Lincoln Memorial is very similar to the Parthenon, its entablature also has similar features, but they are presented in a slightly different manner. Still conforming to the Doric Order, they both have architraves whose face is in one plane. Above the architrave, however, the Lincoln Memorial begins to break free from the constraints of Doric architecture. In place of the triglyph/metope pattern of the Doric frieze, the Lincoln Memorial substitutes dedallions composed of a double wreath of leaves for the triglyphs, with the names of the 36 states carved in the metope area.14 The cornice above is decorated with a carved scroll interspersed at regular intervals with a projecting lions head. Finally, crowing the Lincoln Memorial, instead of a raking cornice with a pediment, is a rectangular attic. On the attic walls are carved the names of the 48 states at the time of the dedication of the memorial, in 1922. Beneath the state names in both the frieze and attic wall, the date of admission to the Union is carved in Roman numerals. At the very top of the attic walls of the Lincoln Memorial is a continuous string of garlands supported by the wings of elaborately carved eagles.

The interior of the Lincoln Memorial is also similar to that of the Parthenon. Both temples are divided into chambers, with the statue of whom the respective temples are dedicated as the focal point. The Lincoln Memorial is divided into three chambers, with Daniel Chester French’s statue of Lincoln in the center chamber (fig. 7), an engraving of the Gettysburg Address in the south chamber, and that of Lincoln’s second inaugural speech in the north chamber. Also in the chambers are two large murals, entitled Emancipation of a Race and Reunion and Progress.

As was undoubtedly his intent, Henry Bacon designed the Lincoln Memorial as more than just a memorial to Abraham Lincoln, but as a temple that is meant as a tribute to its own underlying virtues. It is a representation of the virtues that Classical architecture has had on architecture throughout the ages, those of harmony, freedom, and order. As the crowning achievement of Greek architecture, and the perfect embodiment of these ideals, what better temple to model the Lincoln Memorial after than the Parthenon? This marvel of architecture has influenced men through all the ages, and more than justifies the poetic description of Ralph Waldo Emerson:

1 Fletcher, Sir Banister. A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Son’s, 1958), 72.
2 History of Western Architecture, The. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. http://www.eb.com, 1
3 Fletcher, 76.
4 Hamlin, Talbot. Architecture Through the Ages. (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Son’s, 1953), 124.
5 Hamlin, 126.
6 Janson, H.W. Vol. 1 of History of Art. 2 vols. (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1995), 131.
7 Fletcher, 96.
8 Janson, 131.
9 Janson, 133.
10 Fletcher, 75.
11 Fletcher, 75.
12 Lincoln Memorial. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. http://www.eb.com, 1.
13 National Parks Service. Lincoln Memorial Virtual Visitor’s Center. http://nps.gov/state names, 1. 14 National Parks Service, 2.