Dorians and Ionians

According to historians, the ancient Greek people were made up of Dorians and Ionians; tribes who migrated from the north into Greece during the Mycenaean Era. The Peloponnese was Dorian while the Attica Peninsula and the western coast of Asia Minor were populated by Ionians. Dorians had their own dialect of Greek and observed their own festival-laden calendar.

Most people who know a little Greek history are familiar with the Dorian and Ionic columns of Greek Architecture.

The Greeks used these designations to relate each type to its ancient race, although it is not clear whether there was any connection. Doric columns were used in mainland Greece and Sicily: Ionic in western Asia Minor. The most famous Greek temple, The Parthenon, is constructed in the Doric style.

The Doric order is older and more simple than the Ionic. The use of a Metope (square block of stone between Triglyphs) may have been part of a transition from wooden buildings which the space occupied by the Metope was the opening between two roof beams.