ointed vault, is a well-known specimen
of more regular yet archaic building. Its vault is constructed of stones
corbelling over one another, and is not a true arch (Figs. 52, 52a).
The treatment of an ornamental column found here, and of the remains
of sculptured ornaments over a neighbouring gateway called the Gate of
the Lions, is of very Asiatic character, and seems to show that
whatever influences had been brought to bear on their design were
Oriental.

[Illustration: FIG. 51.--ANCIENT GREEK WALL OF UNWROUGHT STONE FROM
SAMOTHRACE.]

[Illustration: FIG. 52.--PLAN OF THE TREASURY OF ATREUS AT MYCENAE.]

[Illustration: FIG. 52a.--SECTION OF THE TREASURY OF ATREUS AT
MYCENAE.]

[Illustration: FIG. 53.--GREEK DORIC CAPITAL FROM SELINUS.]

[Illustration: FIG. 53a.--GREEK DORIC CAPITAL FROM THE THESEUM.]

[Illustration: FIG. 53b.--GREEK DORIC CAPITAL FROM SAMOTHRACE.]

A wide interval of time and a great contrast in taste separate the
early works of Pelasgic masonry and even the chamber at Mycenae from
even the rudest and most archaic of the remaining Hellenic works of
Greece. The Doric temple at Corinth is attributed, as has been stated,
to the seventh century B.C. This was a massive masonry structure with
extremely short, stumpy columns, and strong mouldings, but presenting
the main features of the Doric style, as we know it, in its earliest
and rudest form. Successive examples (Figs. 53 to 53b) show
increasing slenderness of proportions and refinement of treatment, and
are accompanied by sculpture which approaches nearer and nearer to
perfection; but in the later and best buildings, as in the earliest
and rudest, certain forms are retained for which it seems impossible
to account, except on the supposition that they are reproductions in
stone or marble of a timber construction. These occur in the
entablature, while the column is of a type which it is hard to believe
is not copied from originals in use in Egypt many centuries earlier,
and already described (chap. II.).

We will now proceed to examine a fully-developed Greek Doric temple of
the best period, and in doing so we shall be able to recognise the
forms referred to in the preceding paragraph as we come to them. The
most complete Greek Doric temple was the Parthenon, the work of the
architect Ictinus, the temple of the Virgin Goddess Athene (Minerva)
at Athens, and on many accounts this building will be the best to
select for our