Fountain Buildings

Fountain-houses, which were both public monuments and necessities of domestic life, deserve a place in any account of the Greek city’s architectural scheme. If I conclude with a brief appendix on them, it is not merely because I am committed to working through Pausanias’ list (p. xix). They were of vital importance and received special care. Ancient writers frequently include them among the interesting features and adornments of a city. Pausanias, besides adding them to his list of essential elements, shows a marked interest in fountains, their architectural form and the quantity and quality of their water. Secondly, they illustrate particularly well the severe restraint of Greek architecture, the way in which, in all their efforts to achieve beauty, the architects kept a firm hold on the practical and the functional. Fountains make a very natural appeal to the artistic imagination; and in other ages artists have often let their fancies run riot in designing architecture and sculpture for them. With the Greeks it was quite the contrary.