Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Triglyphus

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

TRI'GLYPHUS (τρίγλυφος). A triglyph; a member of the frieze in a Doric entablature, consisting of three parallel channels with drops (guttae) underneath, arranged at regular intervals throughout the frieze, and intended to represent on the external face of the building the ends of the tie-beams (tigna) as they are ranged above the architrave. (Vitruv. iv. 2.) The literal meaning of the word is thrice slit or grooved; and it is supposed that the ends of the tiebeams in the old wooden buildings were actually cut into three parallel channels, either for the purpose of conducting the rainwater from the cornice above them, or to prevent the beams from splitting. Others are of opinion that these grooves were not positively cut out on the beam heads, but naturally produced by the gradual effects of the rainwater trickling over them; but in either case the sculptured slab or triglyph would represent correctly a real or artificial feature in the original timber roof. The illustration (Triglyphus/1.1) shows a part of the frieze now remaining on the theatre of Marcellus at Rome.

• 
  Triglyphus/1.1