A meander or meandros is a decorative border constructed from a continuous line, shaped into a repeated motif. Among some Italians, these patterns are known as "Greek Lines". Such a design may also be called the Greek fret or Greek key design, although these terms are modern designations even though the decorative motif appears thousands of years before that culture, thousands of miles away from Greece, and among cultures that are continents away from it. Usually the term is used for motifs with straight lines and right angles and the many versions with rounded shapes are called running scrolls or, following the etymological origin of the term, may be identified as water wave motifs.
Meander (or Greek key) on a stove in the Dimitrie Sturdza House (Strada Arthur Verona no. 13), Bucharest, Romania, unknown architect, 1883
Meander motif in the streets of Rhodes, Greece, in pavement made from beach stones
Geometric bowl decorated with a meander, 730–720 BC, ceramic, Kinský Palace, Prague, Czech Republic
A typical Attic red-figure cup with meander pattern at borders, by the Eretria Painter, c. 440–435 BC, red-figure pottery, Louvre
Didyma was an ancient Greek sanctuary on the coast of Ionia in the domain of the famous city of Miletus. Apollo was the main deity of the sanctuary of Didyma, also called Didymaion. But it was home to both of the temples dedicated to the twins Apollo and Artemis. Other deities were also honoured within the sanctuary. The Didymaion was well renowned in antiquity because of its famed oracle. This oracle of Apollo was situated within what was, and is, one of the world's greatest temples to Apollo. The remains of this Hellenistic temple belong to the best preserved temples of classical antiquity. Besides this temple other buildings existed within the sanctuary which have been rediscovered recently; a Greek theatre and the foundations of the above-mentioned Hellenistic temple of Artemis, to name but two.
The ruins of the Temple of Apollo at Didyma
Bust of a marble kouros from the Sacred Way at Didyma, now in the British Museum, 550 BC
The lighthouse and the remains of the altar of Poseidon
The temple of Apollo southwards.