Metopes and triglyphs constitute the frieze.
The temple is surmounted with a triangular pediment adorned with
statues.
Greek temples were polychrome, that is to say, were painted in several
colors, yellow, blue, and red. For a long time the moderns refused to
believe this; it was thought that the Greeks possessed too sober taste
to add color to an edifice. But traces of painting have been
discovered on several temples, which cannot leave the matter in doubt.
It has at last been concluded, on reflection, that these bright colors
were to give a clearer setting to the lines.
=Characteristics of Greek Architecture.=--A Greek temple appears at
first a simple, bare edifice; it is only a long box of stone set upon
a rock; the facade is a square surmounted by a triangle. At first
glance one sees only straight lines and cylinders. But on nearer
inspection "it is discovered[89] that not a single one of these lines
is truly straight." The columns swell at the middle, vertical lines
are slightly inclined to the centre, and horizontal lines bulge a
little at the middle. And all this is so fine that exact measurements
are necessary to detect the artifice.
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