The Doric Order

The Doric Order exists in the Greek and Roman forms. In the Greek version it consists of a stylobate supporting a base-less column (usually fluted with sharp arrises between the flutes, but sometimes unfluted) with a pronounced entasis ; a distinctive capital with annulets or horizontal fillets (from three to five in number) stopping the vertical lines of the arrises and flutes of the shafts, an echinus or cushion over them, and a plain square abacus; and an entablature (usually one quarter the height of the Order) with plain architrave or principal beam over which are the frieze and cornice. Greek Doric architraves may project slightly in front of the faces of the tops of columns below, but because of the pronounced entasis, do not project beyond the faces of columns at the bases. The frieze is separated from the cornice by a plain moulding called the taenia under which, at intervals under each triglyph, is a narrow band with six guttae called the regulus. The Doric frieze is composed of alternate metopes (often ornamented with sculpture) and triglyphs (vertical elements with two V-shaped incised channels and two half-V channels at the edges producing three flat verticals and a flat band across the top). Above is the crowning cornice consisting of a cyma recta with mutules and guttae on the soffites of the corona under the cymantium. Greek Doric mutules are placed over triglyphs and metopes, slope downwards with the soffites and project beneath it. They do not often occur under the raking cornices of pediments.

The Roman Doric Order nearly always has a base, while the Greek version never has one. In the Roman version the triglyphs at the corners of the building are set on the center-line of the columns, leaving a portion of metope on the corner, but in the Greek Doric Order the triglyphs join at the corner of the frieze, with the result that the corner columns are closer to their neighbors than elsewhere in the colonnade, so the corners of the Greek buildings appear to be more solidly proportioned. Roman Doric often has bucrania or paterae in the metopes, and moulded abaci, rosettes or other ornaments in the neck of the capital between the capital proper and the astragal, so the Order is quite distinct from the Greek version. Channels at the tops of the Greek triglyphs are rounded, but in the Roman versions they are rectangular. Roman Doric mutules, usually set over triglyphs only, are very slightly inclined, and do not project beneath the soffites except in the so-called "mutule" Order of Vignola, also used by Chambers. Roman Doric Orders often feature dentils, but in Greek Doric these never appear. The ornaments of the Roman Doric soffites between the mutules do not drop down lower than the soffites, and are usually shallowly cut with thunderbolts, rosettes, lozenges and other patterns, while guttae are correctly conical, but are often carved as truncated pyramids. Greek Doric mutules occur over metopes as well as triglyphs, so the spaces between the mutules are usually too small for any ornamentation, except at the corners of buildings, where anthemion or other ornaments may sometimes be found on the soffites. Roman architraves do not project beyond the faces of the columns below.