Apophyge and Cavetto
Bill Long 10/06/04
Ever since I began my serious study of classical civilizations, I have been entranced by architectural terms and meanings. Architects seem to have such an elevated vocabulary and a precise word for every little thing that is projecting, stuck into walls or otherwise hangs or soars in a building. So, quite by accident as I was finishing my essay on "Apop," my eye fell on a term that I didn't know, derived from architecture. It has such a colorfol name and meaning that I thought I would write about it and illustrate it for you.
Apophyge
The word is apophyge. When I looked at the word I thought I saw something to do with "eating" in the root, but that would have been "phag" rather than "phyg." So, then I looked more closely, and saw that the word is derived from the Greek "apophyge," which literally means "fleeing from" or "escape." It is defined as "the part of a column where it springs out of its base, or joins its capital, usually moulded into a concave sweep or cavetto." The definition was helpful, but I felt I had to see both an apophyge and a cavetto for me to really understand what was going on. So, I found this picture of an apophyge online and give it here for your edification:
As we see from the picture, there are two apophyges in it. First of all, the column appears to be a Corinthian column, because of the rich foliation of the acanthus (above the top of the pillar). Often the acanthus (perennial small shrubs native to the Mediterranean) alternate with anthemia, an ornament of honeysuckle or palm leaves in a radiating cluster. The apophyge (either superior or inferior) is that part of the column where it bends outward toward the top or bottom. The next section of the top and bottom of the column can be called the fillets. Thus, the apophyges are "escaping" the straight and rather narrow course of the columns and "fleeing" to the edge of the fillets, which either support the acanthus or are standing on the base.
In Doric and Corinthian architecture the columns themselves are fluted, and the Doric column is also constructed in a slightly swollen convex manner, called entasis, so as to remove distortion when seen from a distance. Often atop a Doric column is an echinus, an ovolo molding, and atop that is the abacus, on which rests the "top" of the Doric temple, the entablature. It seems that in the Doric, the echinus (Greek for hedgehog or sea-urchin) corresponds to the apophyge in the Corinthian column depicted above.
Cavetto
But, as we noted in the OED definition, the apophage can join the capital (on top), and is usually molded "into a concave sweep or cavetto." The cavetto is the round concave molding continuing at least a quarter circle above the top of a column.
Ah, now we have it. The cavetto, as shown above is the molding that touches the top of the column (wall) and continues up and bends to meet the edge of the roof. Now, finally, the OED definition is clear or at least is getting clear. The apophyge can either "spring out of the base," though in the above picture it tends to "escape" inward from the fillet, or it can be "molded into a concave sweep or cavetto," meaning that it "flees" outward into the cavetto.
Fleeing Columns and Mountains
The Ancient Greeks didn't actually use the term in an architectural sense. It is first attested in English this way in 1563. But its use is reminiscent of other language of fleeing or escape to capture something else apparently immovable in the earth. In the Psalms the Psalmist gently chides nature for "fleeing" from the people of Israel as they made their exodus from Egypt. He says,
"The sea looked and fled; Jordan turned back. The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs. Why is it, O sea that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back? O mountains, that you skip like rams? O hills, like lambs?" Psalm 114:3-6.
In the imagination of the Hebraic writer, the parting of the Red Sea and the seeming movement of the mountains was a sign that the presence of God was near. No such deep theological motives seem to actuate the first English students of Greek temples. However, shafts escaping into the base or cavetto give the impression that not only nature, but also inanimate architectural wonders are alive. Indeed, they may be. Language may help to make them so.
Copyright © 2004-2007 William R. Long |