THE ORIGINS OF THE ATHENIAN IONIC CAPITAL

A LTHOUGH NOT A PRIMARY CENTER for the development ofthe Ionic order dur1~ ing the 6th century, by 450 B.C. Athens had produced a local form of the Ionic capital with characteristics distinct from those of capitals from Ionia proper.1 The 6th-century Ionic capitals developed in East Greece and the Aegean islands differ from one another in details from region to region. All, however, share two principal elements: (1) the horizontal volute member, of which each end curls under to form a spiral or volute, and (2) under the volute, the echinus, a torus-shaped piece with a half-round or ovolo profile, decorated first with pendent leaves in relief, and later, by the end of the 6th century, with egg-and-dart.2 The 5th-century Athenian Ionic capital differs from the eastern examples in two distinct ways. First, the echinus is no longer torus shaped but designed in two degrees. On the earliest examples the lower tier, where the echinus meets the top of the column shaft, has a cyma-reversa profile.3 On later versions the profile of the bottom tier is more often an