The earliest capital seems to have been the bell or seed vessel, simply
copied without alteration, except a little expansion at the bottom to
give it stability. The leaves of some other plant were then added to it,
and varied in different capitals according to the different meanings
intended to be signified by the accessory symbols. The Greeks decorated
it in the same manner, with the foliage of various plants, sometimes of
the acanthus and sometimes of the aquatic kind, which are, however,
generally so transformed by excessive attention to elegance, that it is
difficult to distinguish them. The most usual seems to be the Egyptian
acacia, which was probably adopted as a mystic symbol for the same
reasons as the olive, it being equally remarkable for its powers of
reproduction. Theophrastus mentions a large wood of it in the “Thebaid,”
where the olive will not grow, so that we reasonably suppose it to have
been employed by the Egyptians in the same symbolical sense. From them
the Greeks seem to have borrowed it about the time of the Macedonian
conquest, it not occurring in any of their buildings of a much earlier
date; and as for the story of the Corinthian architect, who is said to
have invented this kind of capital from observing a thorn growing round
a basket, it deserved no credit, being fully contradicted by the
buildings still remaining in Upper Egypt.
The Doric column, which appears to have been the only one known to the
very ancient Greeks, was equally derived from the Nelumbo; its capital
being the same seed-vessel pressed flat, as it appears when withered and
dry—the only state probably in which it had been seen in Europe. The
flutes in the shaft were made to hold spears and staves, whence a
spear-holder is spoken of in the “Odyssey” as part of a column. The
triglyphs and blocks of the cornice were also derived from utility, they
having been intended to represent the projecting ends of the beams and
rafters which formed the roof.
The Ionic capital has no bell, but volutes formed in imitation of
sea-shells, which have the same symbolical meaning. To them is
frequently added the ornament which architects call a honeysuckle, but
which seems to be meant for the young petals of the same flower viewed
horizontally, before they are opened or expanded. Another ornament is
also introduced in this capital, which they call eggs and anchors, but
which is, in fact, composed of eggs and spear-heads, the symbols of
female generation and male destructive power, or in the language of
mythology, of Venus and Mars.—_Payne Knight._