‹‹‹ Vitr. 4.3.4 | Table of Contents | Vitr. 4.3.6 ›››
5The width of a triglyph is divided into six parts, of which five are left in the middle, and of the two halves of the remaining part, one is placed on the right and the other on the left extremity. In the centre a flat surface is left, called the femur (thigh), by the Greeks μηρὸς, on each side of which channels are cut, whose faces form a right angle; and on the right and left of these are other femora; and, lastly, at the angles are the two half channels. The triglyphs being thus arranged, the metopæ, which are the spaces between the triglyphs, are to be as long as they are high. On the extreme angles are semi-metopæ half a module wide. In this way all the defects in the metopæ, intercolumniations, and lacunaria, will be remedied.
5The width of the triglyph should be divided into six parts, and five of these marked off in the middle by means of the rule, and two half parts at the right and left. Let one part, that in the centre, form a “femur” (in Greek μηρὁς). On each side of it are the channels, to be cut in to fit the tip of a carpenter’s square, and in succession the other femora, one at the right and the other at the left of a channel. To the outsides are relegated the semichannels. The triglyphs having been thus arranged, let the metopes between the triglyphs be as high as they are wide, while at the outer corners there should be semimetopes inserted, with the width of half a module.
In these ways all defects will be corrected, whether in metopes or intercolumniations or lacunaria, as all the arrangements have been made with uniformity.