Greek buildings were erected according to the rules of three systems or orders, of the origin and character of which Vitruvius gives the following account, which, if not strictly accurate, is at least as reasonable as some of the versions which have been advanced. “Dorus, King of the Peloponnesus, having had a temple erected to Juno, in Argos, it was built by chance in the manner which we call Doric; afterward, in several other towns, other temples were built in this same order, having no established rule for the proportions of their architecture. About the same period the Athenians established several colonies in Asia Minor under the guidance of Ion, and they called the country which he occupied Ionia. These colonists built Doric temples there at first, of which the chief was that of Apollo, but as they did not know what proportion to give to the columns, they sought the means of making them at once strong enough to sustain the building, and of rendering them at the same time agreeable to the eye. For this they took the measure of a man’s foot as the sixth part of his height, and on this measure formed their column, giving it six diameters.[1] [1] We have already seen that there are columns at Beni Hassan, in Egypt, resembling so closely the Greek Doric, that it is reasonable to suppose that the Greeks borrowed their conception of the order from the Egyptians and refined it. “Some time afterward, wishing to build a temple to Diana, they endeavoured to find a new method, equally beautiful and more appropriate to their purpose. They imitated the delicacy of a woman’s form; they heightened the columns, gave them a base like the twisted cords which bind a sandal; they carved volutes in the capital to represent that portion of the hair which falls to the right and left of the head; they put circles and rings on the columns to imitate the rest of the hair which is braided and caught up on the back of women’s heads; and by flutings they imitated the folds of the dress. And this order, invented by the Ionians, took the name of Ionic.