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The legendary Minotaur, a creature half man, half bull, has long been associated with the palace of Knossos on the island of Crete. One and the same are the labyrinth of the myth and the random, irregular plan of Knossos, made up of numerous interconnected rooms and narrow passages. In reality, Knossos was a Minoan city, continuously inhabited from Neolithic times up until five centuries after the arrival of the Greek-speaking peoples, when the island was finally abandoned. Knossos palace was rebuilt and altered by each successive generation. In fact, multiple buildings in a large section of the town underwent a gradually condensation process to be linked under one roof. Streets became corridors and a large middle section was left open to form a courtyard.
While the Minoan labyrinth may have been an architectural fluke, other elements of Cretan building were take as good design and incorporated by the Mycenaeans, and later, by the Greeks in the construction of home and temple. The Knossos palace contains the royal living quarters, dedicated shrines, and ceremonial rooms, but also storerooms, workshops, potteries, washrooms, and dining halls. Three other such palaces are known to have existed on Crete. Characteristically, they all featured peristyle columns and pillared gateways.
Minoan architecture was primarily domestic. Religious temples were simple shrines or dedicated rooms within the house itself. By comparison, the Greeks believed their gods to be of the same nature as man, and so built entire houses for them - houses that were quite similar to their own, only finer and larger. Rectangular in plan and flanked by colonnades on either two or all four sides, a “house for the gods” had a single entranceway allowing access to a roomy interior. There inside might have stood a carved, imagined likeness of the particular deity.
Greek temples were never intended for the assembly of worshippers, who were permitted to gather only outside the structure. An amply spaced porch-section held an altar, or had an altar placed in front of it for purposes of blood sacrifice. At latter periods of history, the Greeks appeased their gods by slaughtering animals - at earlier periods, by the slaughtering of human beings, as suggested by Greek literature which described and forbade the practice.
In matters of religion, the Greeks had something in common with the ancient Egyptians and the Phoenicians. Long before the Greeks began carving their beliefs in stone houses, and as early as the 8th century, the practice of temple building was already common in the Near East. Influence from the peoples of Egypt and the Levant manifests in facets of Greek art and architecture. And yet, the religious monuments of the Greeks are a thing entirely separate and inspiring in its own right. Unsurpassed in the beauty of simple elegance, the Greek temple is a true architectural wonder.
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According themselves no uncertain likeness to their chosen divinities, the Greeks lived in pillared houses, the same as their ‘gods.’ Still, even in Athens during the classical period, most houses were fairly plain. Like Greek temples, Greek houses were initially made of wood. Later, they were built from set stones or clay brick, and then covered with plaster. Houses were typically roofed over with timber beams and then overlaid with terracotta tiles.
The shape of domestic structures varied, taking the form of a circle, semi-circle, oval, or oblong rectangle. An appropriately fitted open courtyard sat at the center of the dwelling, and often at the back of it as well. The outer courtyard served multiple uses as a work area for women, living quarters for slaves, and stall for animals. While most Minoan houses might contain only one room with columns to differentiate between spaces, Greek houses held a number of divided rooms, all of which faced onto the inner courtyard.
In the home of the wealthier Greek, the banquet room might resemble a small temple lined with Doric columns. This home might also have a tile mosaic floor. By comparison, the average Greek would pave his floors with small stone pebbles, which functioned almost as well tile. As protection from the elements, the ancients did not have windows that faced the street. Nor did they have an engineered plumbing system as did their future neighbors, the Romans. A house might have a well, or if it did not, water would be gotten from the nearest public fountain, and carried back in clay jugs.
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