The emergence of the mathematical sciences was a breakthrough discovery for all of human civilization. Laws, orders, equations, and identities gradually took on a material meaning as man learned to transfer numbers and letters from papyrus to life. Ancient Greek architecture was not the least area that underwent significant metamorphosis because of the introduction of the mathematical sciences. This essay will briefly discuss what changes occurred and assess the overall impact of these sciences on the architecture of ancient Greece.
According to Pythagorean philosophy, the construction of ancient buildings was based on the profound use of numbers and equations. Based on the principle of symmetry, the exact ratio and distribution of geometric forms of an object became the norm for the architectural plan of ancient Greece. One of the most famous monuments of such heritage is the Parthenon, whose ratio of length to width and height to width is 4:9, respectively (Meisner, 2020). This raises such an aspect of mathematics as proportions. Moreover, the planning of the Parthenon used the Golden Ratio model, which is still in demand in the architectural sciences. For this reason, this ancient Greek temple looks perfectly flat and symmetrical objects.
The whole architecture of Ancient Greece is not reduced only to the figure of the Parthenon, although it is considered the brightest example of engineering and architectural thought of Greeks. For example, the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, who developed the basics of space geometry, is widely known. Euclid’s grid was often used by local architects in the construction of neighborhoods and roads. As advocates of order and system, the ancient Greeks built the city of Olynthus according to the criteria of the grid (Nevett et al., 2020). This means that houses, roads, streets, and blocks had a strict arrangement relative to each other, reflecting the ancient Greek attitude to order and convenience.
It is noteworthy that the use of mathematics in architecture involved mythological considerations of the ancient Greeks. For example, most of the regular polyhedrons, called Platonic solids, were ascribed particular philosophies and pearls of wisdom (Usvat, n.d.). For this reason, golden sections were present in the building dedicated to the deities, while civil construction consisted of flat, cubic, and parallelepipedic forms.
In addition, it should be understood that the ancient Greeks did not use mathematics in a way familiar to modern man. They had no algebra as such, and most of the computational problems requiring knowledge of algebra today were solved by geometry or diagrams (Goffin, 2016). The construction of the magnificent sculptures that adorned buildings, the Parthenon columns, or the regular three-dimensional figures as part of a facade was done either intuitively or by following the ratios and forms known at the time. For example, many trigonometric functions and identities today underlie the construction of indirect, non-linear figures in architecture that was available to the ancient Greeks only through chordal techniques. Thus, one can say that the Greeks used the mathematical sciences in a more applied, non-abstract form in matters of construction.
In conclusion, it should be noted that mathematics strongly influenced ancient Greece’s architecture. Architects used the geometrical and arithmetical foundations of Euclid and Pythagoras to give observable natural phenomena a form and copy them in construction. As such, algebra, however, was not at the disposal of the ancient Greeks, so it was challenging to find algebraic laws there. Among the most striking consequences of the mathematical influence on the architecture of ancient Greece are the use of symmetries and proportions, the construction of cities and streets according to the principles of the grid, and the use of trigonometric functions (implicitly) in the design of circular and non-linear forms.
References
Goffin, P. (2016). If Ancient Greeks did not have algebra, then how did they solve math problems needed for constructing buildings? Quora.
Meisner, G. (2020). The golden ratios of the Parthenon. Golden Number. Web.
Nevett, L. C., Tsigarida, E. B., Archibald, Z. H., Stone, D. L., Ault, B. A., Akamatis, N.,… & Valdambrini, C. (2020). Constructing the ‘urban profile of an ancient Greek city: evidence from the Olynthus project. Annual of the British School at Athens, 115, 329-378.
Usvat, L. (n.d.). Sacred geometry and the platonic solids. Mathematics Magazine.