DORIC, in Architecture, is the second of the five orders; being that between the Tuscan and Ionic. It is usually placed upon the Attic base, though originally it had no base. See ARCHITECTURE, No 43.
At its first invention it was more simple than at present; and when in after times it was more adorned and enriched, the appellation Doric was restrained to this richer manner, and the primitive simple manner was called by a new name, the Tuscan order, which was chiefly used in temples; as the former being more light and delicate, was for porticoes and theatres. The tradition is, that Dorus, king of Achaia, having first built a temple of this order at Argos, which he dedicated to Juno, occasioned it to be called Doric; though others derive its name from its being invented or used by the Dorians.
The moderns, on account of its solidity, use it in large strong buildings; as in the gates of cities and citadels, the outside of churches, and other massy works, where delicacy of ornament would be unsuitable. The gate of Burlington house in Piccadilly is of the Doric order.
The most considerable ancient monuments of this order, are the theatre of Marcellus at Rome, wherein the capital, the height of the frieze, and its projecture, are much smaller than in the modern architecture; and the Parthenon, or temple of Minerva at Athens, in which the short and massy columns bear upon the pavement without a base; and the capital is a simple torus, with its cincture, and a square, plain, and solid abacus.
Doric Cymatium. See CYMA.
Doric Dialect. one of the five dialects, or manners of speaking, which obtained among the Greeks.
It was first used by the Lacedæmonians, and particularly those of Argos; thence it passed into Epirus, Libya, Sicily, the islands of Rhodes and Crete. In this dialect, Archimedes and Theocritus wrote, who were both of Syracuse; as likewise Pindar.
In strictness, however, we should rather define Doric, the manner of speaking peculiar to the Dorians, after their recess near Parnassus and Asopus; and which afterwards came to obtain among the Lacedæmonians, &c. Some even distinguish between the Lacedæmonian and Doric; but in reality, they were the same; setting aside a few particularities in the language of the Lacedæmonians; as is shown by Rulandus, in his excellent treatise De Lingua Græcæ ejusque Dialectis, lib. v.
Beside the authors already mentioned to have written in the Doric dialect, we might add Archytas of Tarentum, Bion, Callinus, Simonides, Bacchylides, Cypselas, Alcmæon, and Sophron.
Most of the medals of the cities of Græcia Magna, and Sicily, savour of the Doric dialect in their inscription: witness, ΑΜΒΡΑΚΙΩΤΑΝ, ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝΙΑΤΑΝ, ΑΧΕΟΦΟΝΤΑΝ, ΑΧΥΡΙΤΑΝ, ΗΡΑΧΛΕΩΤΑΝ, ΤΡΑΧΙΝΙΩΝ, ΘΕΡΙΜΙΤΑΝ, ΚΑΥΛΟΝΙΑΤΑΝ, ΚΟΙΝΙΑΤΑΝ, ΤΑΥΡΟΜΕΝΙΑΤΑΝ, &c. Which shows the countries wherein the Doric dialect was used.
The general rules of this dialect are thus given by the Port Royalists.
D'î Hra d'w grand, d'î d'î et d'î l'z fait le Dore.
D'u fait xra; d'î, w; et d'î w ay fait encore.
Oste i de l'infini: et pour le singulier
Se sert au féminin du nombre pluriel.
But they are much better explained in the fourth book of Rulandus; where he even notes the minuter differences of the dialects of Sicily, Crete, Tarentum, Rhodes, Lacedæmon, Laconia, Macedonia, and Thessaly.
The w abounds everywhere in the Doric; but this dialect bears so near a conformity to the Æolic, that many reckon them but one.
Doric Mode, in Music, the first of the authentic modes of the ancients. Its character is to be severe, tempered with gravity and joy; and is proper upon religious occasions, as also to be used in war. It begins D, la, sol, re. Plato admires the music of the Doric mode, and judges it proper to preserve good manners as being masculine; and on this account allows it in his commonwealth. The ancients had likewise their subdoric or hypodoric mode, which was one of the plagal modes. Its character was to be very grave and solemn; it begins with re, a fourth lower than the Doric.