Here are several designs for Ancient Greek meanders that should meet the requirements of almost any graphic designer.

In art, the term ‘meander’ means a type of orthogonal ornament consisting of continuous lines broken at right angles. In modern art, meander ornaments are also called ‘Greek fret’ or ‘Greek key’. Meanders were very popular repeating geometric ornaments in various ancient cultures such as the Etruscan, Ancient Greek, Ancient Roman and Byzantine. The popularity of the meander ornament has been restored during Classicism. The name ‘meander’ was given after the Meander River (also Maeander) in Asia Minor. For the ancient peoples the meander pattern had a deep meaning and symbolized the flow of human life; for the ancient Greeks in particular, the meander pattern symbolized eternity achieved through reproduction, i.e., the disappearance of something old and the birth of something new.

 

Ancient Greek meanders
Available file formats

The meander patterns can be downloaded as a 2D CAD draft in .dwg file format or as a vector image in .svg or .eps file formats.

 

It is one of the most used patterns throughout human history, and has been applied in architecture, on various items such as pottery, on clothing, and even the shield of Alexander the Great was decorated with meander patterns. Some art history books have stated that the meander pattern can also be understood as the well-known ancient frieze pattern in the form of a continuous line having the shape of successive water waves (spiral curved wave tops).

The collection contains 12 precisely drawn meander patterns found in various books that focused on Ancient Art. It can be concluded that these repeating patterns are several thousand years old. If you like them, try not to use them just for projects related to Antiquity, but feel free to use them as your imagination dictates.

And remember that meander patterns have been popular for 2-3 millennia now! Meander patterns can be used as frieze patterns, but by drawing corners they can be turned into frame borders. On our website there is one more collection of meander patterns called ‘Ancient Greek key patterns‘,  and on the Architectural meander borders page you can find examples of meander patterns transformed into borders. 

 

Download DWG 2D CAD file format
Download EPS vector file format
Download SVG vector file format

Submitted by Ceh Jan

 

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