triglyphus

• an ornament in the frieze of the Doric order, a triglyph, Vitr. 4, 2 med.

TRIGLYPHUS(τρίγλυφος, or -ον) is the name given to one of the alternating members of the frieze of the Doric order, the other being called METOPAE. The triglyph is divided by two vertical cuts (canaliculi) into three bars (μηροί, femina); hence its name. It also has a semi-canaliculus at each side. The canaliculi have in early specimens a curved or ogier termination; later they are included by straight lines. Properly there should be one triglyph over each column, and one over each intercolumnium in the Doric order; at the corners this arrangement is slightly modified, so that the triglyph may adjoin the corner of the building. The triglyph seems always to have been painted blue. Triglyphs are supposed to have originated from an imitation of the visible ends of projecting beams in a wooden structure (Vitr. 4.2, 4).

(τρίγλυφος, “three-channelled”). A name given in the Doric frieze to surfaces which, projecting over every column and between every two columns, are ornamented with three parallel channels, two complete ones in the middle and two halves at the corners. Between the triglyphs are the metopes. See architectura; Parthenon.