The Archaic; from 650 to 500 B.C.
The Transitional; from 500 to 460 B.C., or to the revival of prosperity after the Persian wars.
The Periclean; from 460 to 400 B.C.
The Florid or Alexandrian; from 400 to 300 B.C.
The Decadent; 300 to 100 B.C.
The Roman; 100 B.C. to 200 A.D.
These dates are, of course, somewhat arbitrary; it is impossible to set exact bounds to style-periods, which must inevitably overlap at certain points, but the dates, as given above, will assist in distinguishing the successive phases of the history.
ARCHAIC PERIOD. The archaic period is characterized by the exclusive use of the Doric order, which appears in the earliest monuments complete in all its parts, but heavy in its proportions and coarse in its execution. The oldest known temples of this period are the Apollo Temple at Corinth (650 B.C.?), and the Northern Temple on the acropolis at Selinus in Sicily (cir. 610–590 B.C.). They are both of a coarse limestone covered with stucco. The columns are low and massive (4⅓ to 4⅔ diameters in height), widely spaced, and carry a very high entablature. The triglyphs still appear around the cella wall under the pteroma ceiling, an illogical detail destined to disappear in later buildings. Other temples at Selinus date from the middle or latter part of the sixth century; they have higher columns and finer profiles than those just mentioned. The great Temple of Zeus at Selinus was the earliest of five colossal Greek temples of very nearly identical dimensions; it measured 360 feet by 167 feet in plan, but was never completed. During the second half of the sixth century important Doric temples were built at Pæstum in South Italy, and Agrigentum in Sicily; the somewhat primitive temple at Assos in Asia Minor, with uncouth carvings of centaurs and monsters on its architrave, belongs to this same period. The Temple of Zeus at Agrigentum (Fig. 33) is another singular and exceptional design, and was the second of the five colossal temples mentioned above. The pteroma was entirely enclosed by walls with engaged columns showing externally, and was of extraordinary width. The walls of the narrow cella were interrupted by heavy piers supporting atlantes, or applied statues under the ceiling. There seem to have been windows between these figures, but it is not clear whence they borrowed their light, unless it was admitted by the omission of the metopes between the external triglyphs.
