Temple of Apollo Interior
Trees in a Sacred Grove
The Bassae temple is the temple we know to combine all three types of classical columns in one building. The Doric type of column is severe, no ornament on top, ‘masculine’, like a soldier marching into battle. The Ionic column, has a graceful scroll ornament at the top in the form of a spiral, is ‘feminine’, graceful, more slender than the earlier Doric. The Corinthian column, which is known to us for the first time in this temple, has a more ornate scroll at the top, with acanthus leaves. The Greeks saw their temple columns as trees in a sacred grove, but also as people with generic personalities expressed both by their costume and their posture.
