Ionic
The architectural order developed and employed regularly in the regions that spoke an Ionian dialect of Greek. The Ionic capital, unlike the Doric capital, has different front and side views, and is meant to be seen chiefly from the front or back. In the Ionic order the most distinctive features of the capital are the projecting ornamental scrolls called volutes, which rest atop the echinus molding. The Ionic capital, including its abacus, volutes, and echinus, was usually carved from a single block, but in some buildings, the echinus and the necking are carved as part of the shaft.The character of the Ionic dialect, in its several subdivisions, gives striking evidence of its long-continued employment in literature. Its smoothness and harmony, its rich and full vowel system, its variety and plasticity, all mark it out as eminently fitted for noble and expressive utterance in both prose and verse. It was used by the Greeks of Attica and Ionia and in most of the islands of the Aegean Sea.
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