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November 22, 2005
The difficulty of difference
One of those things teachers have to overcome constantly is the urge to normalize everything on the part of our students. Is that clear? Probably not.
Every time I teach Greek architecture (which means every year, since it comes up in 101) I have to find ways to convince them that the Greeks weren't so very interested in symmetry as commonplace wisdom holds, that the Greeks didn't have any such thing as a perfect Doric temple, that the Greeks accepted irregularity.
The Erectheum on the Acropolis is the best example for this. Here is a link to some good photos, opens in a new window. Here's a plan. Here's a reconstruction.
The building is horribly confusing -- it has 3 porches (East, North, and the Caryatid porch to the South). It has a row of attached columns (most students seem to think those are a Roman invention -- don't blame me for that opinion). It has courtyards and rooms that don't open into one another. However, in the midst of all this mess it is richly decorated. Obviously it wasn't in any way thought to be unimportant. What are they to make of it?
The simple answer is this -- Greek temples weren't about architecture. That's our idea. They were canopies for statues of the gods. This building is so confusing because it is an attempt (remarkably successful at that) to roof over a welter of very significant cult sites that are very close together and on rising ground. My students have to let go of the modern idea that people build buildings as an art form and accept that the function was more important than purity of style -- even in the Athens of Pericles.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at November 22, 2005 7:40 AM