Over the past three decades the field of Greek architectural history has made significant progress with the incorporation of new, interdisciplinary methodologies and theoretical frameworks that consider the relationship between architecture and its physical and socio-historical contexts. Z.'s work, which focuses on the development of Doric temples and how this architectural style expressed the major social, political and economic transformations occurring during the sixth century bce, is an eloquent and thought-provoking contribution to the field.
The monograph emerges out of recent scholarship (B. Barletta, Origins of the Greek Architectural Orders [2001]; C. Marconi, Temple Decoration and Cultural Identity [2007]; M. Wilson-Jones, Origins of Classical Architecture [2014]) that seeks to understand the Doric order via the social and cultural factors that shape and are shaped by the architectural form. These approaches differ from the evolutionary model derived from Vitruvius, that Doric architecture evolved from wooden predecessors into stone structures, that guided most twentieth-century studies of the Doric order. By contrast, Z. argues that Doric architecture was a radical innovation that should be contextualised against the major societal changes occurring at the beginning of the sixth century bce. However, Z. does not clearly state what drove these changes nor how a standardised Doric style emerged so quickly. The question Z. asks is less ‘why Doric?’ (i.e. why does the use of triglyph and metope friezes grow in this period? etc.), and more ‘why do monumental, formulaic temples of this kind develop at this time?’ Z. argues that the Doric style came to signify an ‘architecture of power’ (p. 4) that embodied and promoted the socio-political agendas of elites in western and central Greece.
What distinguishes Z.'s book from others on the Doric order is his emphasis on examples in the Greek colonies, providing insight into the development of the order beyond the areas of traditional focus. He asserts that societal transformations are especially evident in the Greek West, where the erection of Doric temples occurred alongside other new patterns of migration, urbanisation and land reclamation that had a profound, often violent impact on the physical and societal landscapes. He acknowledges that the aforementioned forces of societal change were also present in what he terms ‘homeland’ (p. xiii) sites with early examples of Doric temples (e.g. Olympia, Corinth, Athens etc.), but purposefully directs his focus to colonial sites because it is in the colonies that the especially ‘innovative, even disruptive’ (p. xiv) elements of Doric architecture emerge most clearly.
The book is divided into chapters centred around specific sites (Korkyra, Foce del Sele, Selinous, Delphi), each of which highlights some of the phenomena of change Z. mentions in the introduction, particularly colonisation and urbanisation, which go hand in hand with the reorientation of religious space and ritual, new mechanisms of the management and usage of land, novel socio-political formations and, above all, architectural innovation.
Z.'s lengthy introduction is wide-ranging in scope. He articulates his primary arguments and the methodological and theoretical underpinnings of the book, but he first takes time to address how Doric architecture has been studied in the past. Z.'s discussion of Vitruvius’ legacy regarding our understanding of the Doric order and how it came to be provides a useful overview of the scholarship and key topics in the study of the Doric order. Z.'s methodology emphasises the importance of context – physical, social, cultural and ritual, incorporating aspects of geocriticism, philosophical hermeneutics and sculptural analysis into his framework.
The introduction concludes with a section on chronology, which first argues that the establishment of a chronology of early Doric buildings has been weighed down by typological and narratological considerations. Informed by the work of I. Malkin (A Small Greek World: Networks in the Ancient Mediterranean [2011]), Z. proposes a network theory approach that not only provides a hypothesis for the ‘genesis and diffusion of the Doric order, but also fits into the broader context of elite networks and increasing mobility’ (p. 34) during the beginning of the sixth century bce. Such a model de-emphasises the importance of a precise chronology of single buildings and of the ideal ‘first’ Doric temple, and Z. argues that alternative dates for various temples would not change the arguments he makes about them. Z.'s approach here feels somewhat obscure and provokes more questions about what kind of alternative he is advancing and how it interfaces with other relevant scholarship.
Chapter 2, on the island of Korkyra, considers the physical and social environment in which the Temple of Artemis on Korkyra was created. Pulling from a variety of literary sources, the iconography on the Temple's pediment and evidence of colonisation, Z. presents two main arguments: first, that the standardisation of Doric architecture and iconography furthered the creation of ‘supralocal networks’ (p. 47), utilised by local elites and tyrants to augment their power and to incorporate themselves into a Panhellenic order, or at the very least, embody an ideal of ‘Greekness’; second, that early Doric temples replaced and took over pre-existing religious sites that were not architecturally articulated and, once the temples were built, much of the remaining land from those original sites was utilised for (primarily) agriculture as an elite response to population growth and social upheaval.
Chapter 3, on Foce del Sele near Paestum/Poseidonia, where Z. served as director from 2015 to 2021, is the longest chapter of the book. It expands further on the arguments Z. presents in Chapter 2 through a colonial case study, primarily regarding how the standardisation of Doric architecture and mythological iconography displaces Doric temples from their local contexts and landscapes and how changing settlement patterns served as both a cause and a result of colonisation and land reclamation. Z.'s new reconstruction hypothesis of the Hera I temple at Foce del Sele, which incorporates new archaeometric analysis of the metopes, is a highlight of this chapter, as is the nuanced discussion around colonisation (see also Z.'s Colonization and Subalternity in Classical Greece [2018]), although it lacks specificity as regards the ways in which the Doric order was utilised as a factor of internal colonisation beyond the fact that it appears as part of changing landscapes.
Chapter 4, on Selinous, considers urbanisation and Doric temple building as transformative forces upon the landscape and argues that Doric architecture and sculptural decoration play a part in a movement from ritual performance to artistic representation, changing how sixth-century Greeks experienced and understood the divine and the sacred. Standardised Doric architecture and iconography provided a way for urban elites to convey and define, both symbolically and spatially, sacredness and non-sacredness in the creation of urban and rural grids.
Chapter 5 considers Delphi and how it fostered the development of an aristocratic Panhellenic identity, culture and visual language centred around competition, as expressed through athletic contests, statuary and architecture. Z. dedicates half of this chapter to testing his hypothesis, exploring whether the Ionic order is also a ‘social phenomenon linked to sixth-century elite culture and society’ (p. 207), although in a different geographic area: the Cyclades and Asia Minor. While this section is interesting, it has little to do with Delphi or Panhellenic culture and feels somewhat out of place in this chapter and at the end of the book as it distracts from the otherwise strong narrative that Z. builds from the beginning of the monograph.
The Making of the Doric Temple is expansive yet clearly articulated and structured in such a way that the nuances of Z.'s arguments are easy to follow throughout the book. The images, plans and maps are of excellent quality, and the book is for the most part well-edited and proofread. One can appreciate how Z. deftly handles a variety of archaeological, literary and architectural material, making for a compelling read and a welcome addition to the field of Greek architectural history.
