ARCHITEKTŪRA IR GARSAS ANTIKOJE
Architecture and Sound in Antiquity

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with the relation of antique cosmology and its impact upon the architectural structures of Antiquity. Metaphysical beliefs shared by Orphics and eventually Pythagoreans who adopted the doctrines of their predecessors were strongly associated with mathematical analogies between the structure of Cosmos and music. Correspondences between sound, mathematics and architecture, expressed in this ancient esoteric thinking, gave an impetuus to their practical application in architecture. The treatise of Vitruvius in which he contemplates the concept of harmony designed by the Greeks, demonstrates that harmonics, as a branch of science, entered Roman architectural theory and practice as something that was taken as a dogma that was taken for granted and held beyond dispute. Though Vitruvius' "Ten Books on Architecture" is the only docummentation of architectural thought during the Roman period, its implications and explicit statements allow us to conclude that harmonic arrangements of architectural elements as well as acoustic principles employed in architectural constructions manifest a close connection between the Pythagorean tradition, its earlier sources and Roman architectural concepts.

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