/**************************************************************************
 Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer Scene Description File
 File name   :  IonicOrderColumn
 Version     : 3.5
 Description : Ionic Order column based on the "blueprint" engravings found at the Temple of Apollo, in Didyma, Turkey.
 Date        :  March 2004
 Author      : Thomas A. M. de Groot
 E-mail      : t.degroot@inter.nl.net
 
 Copyright (C) 2004. All rights reserved. You may however use it freely for non-commercial purposes. Mention of author is appreciated.
**************************************************************************/
There always comes a moment when you want something specific. Despite the fact that there is a column plugin for Moray (thanks to Keith Hull), and an include for Pov-Ray (13_col.inc by Nathan O'Brien), I wanted something that followed closely the architectural criteria of the ancient Greek. Thanks to the reference below, I was able to approximate that.

Noteworthy for ancient Greek columns is that the shafts are not cylinders, nor cones, but (very elongated) sphere sections. This gives them that soaring and elegant look you can observe in ancient temples. Also the bases are responding to very strict rules of proportions.

I tried to follow this as much as possible.

For the spirals of the column's capital, I decided to use a heightfield based on the scan of a real capital. The heightfield is included in the zip package. 

References:
Haselberger, L. (1999): Les plans de construction du temple d'Apollon  Didyme.- Pour la Science (French edition of Scientific American), Dossier Hors-Srie, Octobre 1999, p.50-57.
Cole, E. (ed.) (2002): The Grammar of Architecture.- The Ivy Press Limited, 352pp.
