The famous ancient Greek temple, the Parthenon, is located on the famous Acropolis of Athens. This main temple in Ancient Athens is a magnificent monument of ancient architecture. It was built in honor of the patroness of Athens and all of Attica - the goddess Athena.
The construction date of the Parthenon is considered to be 447 BC. It was installed thanks to the found fragments of marble tablets, on which the city authorities presented resolutions and financial reports. Construction lasted 10 years. The temple was consecrated in 438 BC. on the festival of Panathenaia (which translated from Greek means “for all Athenians”), although work on decorating and decorating the temple was carried out until 431 BC.
The initiator of the construction was Pericles, an Athenian statesman, famous commander and reformer. The design and construction of the Parthenon was carried out by the famous ancient Greek architects Ictinus and Kallikrates. The decoration of the temple was made by the greatest sculptor of those times - Phidias. High quality Pentelic marble was used for the construction.
The building was built in the form of a peripterus (a rectangular structure surrounded by columns). The total number of columns is 50 (8 columns on the facades and 17 columns on the sides). The ancient Greeks took into account that straight lines are distorted at a distance, so they resorted to some optical techniques. For example, the columns do not have the same diameter along the entire length; they taper somewhat towards the top, and the corner columns are also inclined towards the center. Thanks to this, the structure seems ideal.
Previously, in the center of the temple there was a statue of Athena Parthenos. The monument was about 12 m high and made of gold and ivory on a wooden base. In one hand the goddess held a statue of Nike, and with the other she leaned on a shield, near which the serpent Erichthonius was curled up. On Athena's head there was a helmet with three large crests (the middle one with the image of a sphinx, the side ones with griffins). The scene of Pandora's birth was carved on the pedestal of the statue. Unfortunately, the statue has not survived to this day and is known from descriptions, images on coins and a few copies.
Over many centuries, the temple was attacked more than once, a significant part of the temple was destroyed, and historical relics were looted. Today, some parts of the masterpieces of ancient sculptural art can be seen in famous museums around the world. The main part of the magnificent works of Phidias was destroyed by people and time.
Restoration work is currently underway; reconstruction plans include maximum recreation of the temple in its original form in ancient times.
The Parthenon, part of the Acropolis of Athens, is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
One of the most revered goddesses by the ancient Greeks, Pallas Athena, was born in a rather unusual way: Zeus, her father, swallowed her mother, Metis (Wisdom), when she was expecting a child. He did this for one simple reason: after the birth of his daughter, he was predicted to have a son who would overthrow the Thunderer from the throne.
But Athena did not want to sink into oblivion - so after a while the Supreme God began to suffer from an unbearable headache: her daughter asked to come out. His head hurt so badly that the Thunderer, unable to bear it, ordered Hephaestus to take an ax and hit him on the head with it. He obeyed and cut his head, releasing Athena. Her eyes were full of wisdom, and she was dressed in warrior clothes, holding a spear in her hand, and an iron helmet on her head.
The goddess of wisdom turned out to be an active resident of Olympus: she came down to the people and taught them a lot, giving them knowledge and crafts. She also paid attention to women: she taught them to do needlework and weave, and took an active part in government affairs - she was the patroness of a just struggle (she taught them how to solve problems peacefully), taught them to write laws, thus becoming the patroness of many Greek cities. For such a majestic goddess it was necessary to build a temple, which, according to descriptions, would not be equal in the whole world.
The Parthenon is located in the capital of Greece, Athens, in the southern part of the Acropolis, an ancient architectural complex located on a rocky hill at an altitude exceeding 150 meters above sea level. m. You can find the Athenian Acropolis Parthenon at the address: Dionysiou Areopagitou 15, Athens 117 42, and on a geographical map you can find out its exact location at the following coordinates: 37° 58′ 17″ N. latitude, 23° 43′ 36″ e. d.
The Parthenon Temple, dedicated to Athena, began to be built on the territory of the Acropolis around 447 BC. e. instead of the unfinished sanctuary destroyed by the Persians. The construction of this unique architectural monument was entrusted to the architect Kallikrates, who erected the building according to the design of Iktin.
It took the Hellenes about fifteen years to build the temple, which at that time was a fairly short term, considering that construction and finishing materials were brought from all over Greece. Fortunately, there was enough money: Athens, whose ruler was Pericles, was just experiencing a period of greatest prosperity and was not only the cultural capital, but also the political center of Attica.
Callicrates and Iktinus, having access to considerable funds and opportunities, during the construction of the temple were able to implement more than one innovative design solution, as a result of which the architecture of the Parthenon turned out to be unlike any other structure of this type.
The main feature of the sanctuary was that the facade of the building from one point was perfectly visible from three sides at once.
This was achieved by installing the columns in relation to each other not parallel, but at an angle. Also, the fact that all the pillars had a different shape played a role: so that from a distance the central columns seemed slimmer and not so thin, all the pillars were given a convex shape (the outermost columns turned out to be the thickest), slightly tilting the corner columns towards the center, the central ones away from it .
Penelian marble, mined near the Acropolis, was used as the main building material; according to the description, it is a rather interesting material, since initially it is white, but after some time, under the influence of sunlight, it begins to turn yellow. Therefore, the Parthenon in Athens, upon completion of construction work, turned out to be unevenly painted, which gave it an original and interesting look: on the north side the temple had a gray-ash tint, on the south it turned out to be golden-yellow in color.
Another feature of the ancient temple was that when laying marble blocks, Greek craftsmen did not use either cement or any other solution: the builders carefully ground them around the edges and adjusted them to size to each other (at the same time, they did not trim the inside - this saved time and labor). Larger blocks were located at the base of the building; smaller stones were laid on them, fastened horizontally with iron fasteners, which were inserted into special holes and filled with lead. The blocks were connected vertically with iron pins.
Description
Three steps lead up to the temple, which was dedicated to Athena and is a rectangular building. The Athenian Acropolis Parthenon, about seventy meters long and a little more than thirty wide, was surrounded along the perimeter by ten-meter Doric columns about ten meters high. There were seventeen pillars along the side facades, and eight at the ends where the entrances were located.
Unfortunately, due to the fact that most of the pediments were destroyed (only thirty statues survived in very poor condition), there are very few descriptions of exactly what the Parthenon's exterior looked like.
It is known that all sculptural compositions were created with the direct participation of Phidias, who was not only the main architect of the entire Acropolis and developed the plan for this architectural complex, but is also known as the author of one of the wonders of the world - the statue of Zeus at Olympia. There is an assumption that the eastern pediment of the Parthenon contained a bas-relief depicting the birth of Pallas Athena, and the western pediment depicted her dispute with the god of the seas, Poseidon, about who would be the patron of Athens and the whole of Attica.
But the friezes of the temple are well preserved: it is absolutely known that on the eastern side of the Parthenon the struggle of the Lapiths with the centaurs was depicted, on the western side - episodes from the Trojan War, on the southern side - the battle of the Amazons with the Greeks. A total of 92 metopes with various high reliefs were installed, most of which have been preserved. Forty-two slabs are kept in the Acropolis Museum of Athens, fifteen in the British Museum.
Parthenon from inside
To get inside the temple, in addition to the external steps, it was necessary to overcome two more internal ones. The area in the middle of the temple was 59 meters long and 21.7 meters wide and consisted of three rooms. The largest, central one, was surrounded on three sides by 21 columns, which separated it from two small rooms located on either side of it. The inner frieze of the sanctuary depicted a festive procession from Athens to the Acropolis, when the maidens carried a gift to Athena.
In the center of the main platform was the statue of Athena Parthenos, made by Phidias. The sculpture dedicated to the goddess was a real masterpiece. The statue of Athena was thirteen meters high and showed a proudly standing goddess, with a spear in one hand and a two-meter sculpture of Nike in the other. Pallas wore a three-crested helmet on his head, and near his feet there was a shield on which, in addition to scenes from various battles, the initiator of construction, Pericles, was depicted.
It took Phidias more than a ton of gold to make the sculpture (weapons and clothes were poured from it); ebony from which the frame of the statue is made; Athena's face and hands were carved from ivory of the highest quality; precious stones shining in the eyes of the goddess; the most expensive marble was also used. Unfortunately, the statue did not survive: when Christianity became the ruling religion in the country, it was taken to Constantinople, where it was in the 5th century. burned during a strong fire.
Near the western entrance to the shrine there was an opisthodome - a closed room in the back where the city archives and the treasury of the maritime union were kept. The length of the room was 19 m and the width was 14 m.
The room was called the Parthenon (it was thanks to this room that the temple got its name), which translated means “house for girls.” In this room, selected maidens, priestesses, made peplos (sleeveless women's outerwear sewn from light material, which Athenians wore over a tunic), which was presented to Athena during a solemn procession that took place every four years.
Dark days of the Parthenon
The last ruler who favored and cared for this architectural monument was Alexander the Great (he even installed fourteen shields on the eastern pediment and presented the goddess with the armor of three hundred defeated enemies). After his death, dark days came for the temple.
One of the Macedonian rulers, Demetrius I Poliorcetes, settled here with his mistresses, and the next ruler of Athens, Lacharus, tore off all the gold from the sculpture of the goddess, and the shields of Alexander from the pediments, in order to pay off the soldiers. In III Art. BC e a major fire occurred in the temple, during which the roof and fittings collapsed, the marble cracked, the colonnade partially collapsed, the doors of the temple, one of the friezes and ceilings burned down.
When the Greeks adopted Christianity, they made a church out of the Parthenon (this happened in the 6th century AD), making appropriate changes to its architecture and completing the premises necessary for Christian rituals. The most valuable thing that was in the pagan temple was taken to Constantinople, and the rest was either destroyed or severely damaged (primarily this applies to sculptures and bas-reliefs of the building).
In the XV century. Athens came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, as a result of which the temple was transformed into a mosque. The Turks did not make any special alterations and calmly held services among Christian paintings. It was the Turkish period that turned out to be one of the most tragic events in the history of the Parthenon: in 1686, the Venetians shelled the Acropolis and Parthenon, where the Turks stored gunpowder.
After about seven hundred cannonballs hit the building, the shrine exploded, as a result of which the central part of the Parthenon, all the internal columns and rooms were completely destroyed, and the roof on the north side collapsed.
After this, the ancient shrine began to be robbed and destroyed by everyone who could: the Athenians used its fragments for domestic needs, and Europeans were able to take the surviving fragments and statues to their homeland (currently, most of the found remains are located either in the Louvre or in the British Museum ).
Restoration
The revival of the Parthenon began no earlier than Greece gained independence, in 1832, and two years later the government declared the Parthenon a monument of ancient heritage. As a result of the work carried out, already fifty years later on the territory of the Acropolis there was practically nothing left of the “barbarian presence”: absolutely all buildings that were not related to the ancient complex were demolished, and the Acropolis itself began to be restored according to the surviving descriptions of what the Parthenon looked like in ancient Greece (currently the temple, like the entire Acropolis, is under the protection of UNESCO).
In addition to the fact that the Parthenon was restored to the best of its ability, and the original statues were replaced with copies and sent to the museum for storage, the Greek government is actively working to return the exported fragments of the temple to the country. And here there is an interesting point: the British Museum agreed to do this, but on the condition that the Greek government recognizes the museum as their legal owner. But the Greeks do not agree with this formulation of the issue, since this would mean that they have forgiven the theft of the statues two hundred years ago and are actively fighting for the statues to be returned to them without any conditions.
For almost 2,500 years, the Parthenon has reigned over Athens, the Temple of the Virgin Athena - the symbol of the city, the pride of ancient architecture. Many experts consider it the most beautiful and harmonious temple of the Ancient World. And most tourists who see the Parthenon with their own eyes share this opinion.
History of construction
For many years after the destruction of the main temple of Athena, the Hekatompedon, by the Persians, there was no sanctuary in Athens worthy of the patroness of the city. Only after the end of the Greco-Persian wars in 449 BC. e. the Athenians had enough money for large-scale construction.
The construction of the Parthenon began during the reign of Pericles, one of the greatest political figures of Ancient Greece. This was the "golden age" of Attica. Recognition of the leading role of Athens in the fight against the Persians led to the creation of the Delian Maritime League, which included 206 Greek city-states. In 464 BC. e. The treasury of the union was transported to Athens. After this, the rulers of Attica had virtually no control over the funds of most of the states of Greece.
The money was used not only to fight the Persians. Huge amounts of money were spent by Pericles on grandiose construction work. During his reign, a magnificent temple ensemble grew on the Acropolis, the center of which was the Parthenon.
Construction of the Parthenon began in 447 BC. e. at the highest point of the Acropolis hill. Here back in 488 BC. e. The site for the new temple was prepared and work began on its construction, but at the initial stage they were interrupted by the renewed war.
The Parthenon project belonged to the architect Ictinus, and the progress of the work was supervised by Callicrates. The great sculptor Phidias took an active part in the construction of the temple, who was engaged in the external and internal decoration of the building. The best craftsmen of Greece were involved in the construction, and the general control of the work was carried out by Pericles himself.
The consecration of the temple took place in 438 at the annual Panathenaic Games, but the finishing work on the building was finally completed only in 432 BC. e.
Architectural appearance of the Parthenon
Architecturally, the temple is a classical peripterus with one row of Doric columns. There are 50 columns in total - 8 on the end and 17 on the sides. The width of the end sides is larger than the traditional one - 8 columns instead of 6. This was done at the request of Phidias, who sought to achieve the maximum width of the cella, the interior space. The height of the columns was 19.4 meters with a diameter at the bottom of 1.9 m. The corner ones were somewhat thicker - 1.95 m. Towards the top, the thickness of the columns decreased. Each column has 20 longitudinal grooves - flutes - machined into it.
The entire building rests on a three-stage base 1.5 m high. The size of the upper platform of the base, the stylobate, is 69.5 by 30.9 meters. Behind the outer row of columns, two more steps with a total height of 0.7 m were built, on which the walls of the temple stand.
The main entrance to the Parthenon was located on the side opposite the main entrance to the Acropolis - the Propylaea. Thus, to get inside, the visitor had to walk around the building on one side.
The total length of the temple (without the colonnade) is 59 m, width 21.7. The eastern part of the temple, where the sanctuary of Athena itself was located, had an external size of 30.9 m and was called the hecatompedon, “one hundred feet” (Attic foot - 30.9 cm). The length of the cella was 29.9 m. The cella was divided into three naves by two rows of 9 Doric columns. In the middle nave there was an altar of the goddess, as well as the famous statue of Athena Parthenos, the creation of Phidias.
The western part of the building was occupied by an opisthodome - a room in which offerings to Athena and the state archive were kept. The dimensions of the opisthodome were 13.9 x 19.2 m. It was here that the treasury of the Delian League was transported. The name of the opisthodome, Parthenon, was subsequently transferred to the entire temple.
The building was built from marble quarried from Mount Pentelikon, 20 km away. from Athens. The peculiarity of Pentelicon marble is that, being almost white immediately after extraction, over time it acquires a yellowish color. This explains the golden hue of the Parthenon. The marble blocks were held together with iron pins, which were inserted into drilled grooves and filled with lead.
Unique project Iktina
Art historians consider the Parthenon to be a standard of harmony and harmony. His silhouette is flawless. However, in reality there are practically no straight lines in the outlines of the temple.
Human vision perceives objects somewhat distorted. Iktin took full advantage of this. Columns, cornices, roofing - all lines are slightly curved, thereby creating the optical illusion of their ideal straightness.
A building as significant as the Parthenon, located on a flat area, would visually “press through” the base, so the stylobate was made rising towards the center. The temple itself was moved away from the center of the Acropolis to the south-eastern corner, so as not to overwhelm the visitor entering the citadel. The sanctuary seems to grow as you approach it.
The solution to the colonnade is interesting. Ideally straight columns would seem too thin, so they have an imperceptible thickening in the middle. To create a feeling of lightness of the building, the columns were installed slightly inclined towards the center. The corner columns were made slightly thicker than the others, which gave the building visual stability. The spans between the columns increase towards the center, but to the viewer walking along the colonnade it seems that they are exactly the same.
By using this feature of human perception in the Parthenon project, Iktin thereby discovered one of the fundamental principles on which the architecture of subsequent centuries grew.
Parthenon sculptures
The best craftsmen of Greece took part in the work on the sculptures of the temple. The general supervision of the sculptural decoration of the sanctuary was carried out by Phidias. He is also the author of the main shrine of the Parthenon - the statue of Athena the Virgin.
The best preserved is the bas-relief frieze that encircled the entire temple above the colonnade. The total length of the frieze is 160 meters. It depicts a solemn procession in honor of Athena. Among the participants in the procession are elders, girls with palm branches, musicians, horsemen, chariots, and young men leading sacrificial animals. Above the entrance to the temple is depicted the final act of Panathenaia - the priest of Athena, surrounded by gods and the most prominent citizens of Attica, accepts peplos (a type of women's outerwear) woven by the Athenians as a gift to the goddess.
Remarkable works of art are the Parthenon metopes - relief images that were located above the frieze. Of the 92 metopes, 57 have survived to this day. The reliefs are grouped thematically and are dedicated to subjects common in Hellas. Above the eastern entrance was depicted the battle of the gods with the giants, above the entrance to the opisthodome in the west - the battle of the Hellenes with the Amazons. The metopes of the south reproduced the battle of the Lapiths with the centaurs. The metopes of the northern part, which told about the Trojan War, suffered the most.
The pediment sculptures have survived only in fragments. They depicted key moments for Athens. The eastern group reproduced the scene of the birth of Athena, and the western pediment depicted the dispute between Athena and Poseidon for the right to become the patron of Attica. Legendary figures from the history of Athens are depicted next to the gods. Alas, the condition of the sculptures does not allow us to accurately determine the identity of most of them.
In the central nave of the temple there was a statue of Athena 12 meters high. Phidias used the chrysoelephantine technique, when he first created a wooden frame for the sculpture, and plates of gold, representing clothing, and ivory, imitating open parts of the body, were fixed on it.
Descriptions and copies of the statue have been preserved. The goddess was depicted wearing a comb helmet and standing at full height, but otherwise eyewitness accounts differ. Famous geographer of the 2nd century AD. e. Pausanias claimed that Athena held a spear in one hand, and in the palm of her other hand stood the messenger of victory, Nike. At Athena’s feet lay a shield, and on the goddess’s chest was an aegis - a shell with the head of Medusa the Gorgon. In the copies, the goddess rests on a shield, but there is no spear at all.
On one side of the shield the battle of the gods with the giants was depicted, on the other - the battle of the Greeks with the Amazons. Ancient authors passed on the legend that Phidias depicted Pericles and himself on the relief. He was later accused of blasphemy for this and died in prison.
The further fate of the Parthenon
The temple was highly revered throughout Greece even after the decline of Athens. Thus, Alexander the Great made rich donations to the Parthenon.
However, the new rulers of Attica treated the sanctuary with much less respect. In 298 BC. e. By order of the tyrant Lahar, the golden parts of the statue of Athena were removed. In the 2nd century AD e. There was a severe fire in the Parthenon, but the building was restored.
Timeline of changes in the appearance of the Parthenon from the moment of construction to the present day
In 426, the Parthenon became the Temple of Hagia Sophia. The statue of Athena was transported to Constantinople, where it was destroyed in a fire. In 662, the temple was reconsecrated in honor of the Mother of God, and a bell tower was added to it.
The Turks, who conquered Athens in 1460, built a mosque in the Parthenon, rebuilding the bell tower into a minaret, and in 1687 tragedy struck. During the siege of Athens by the Venetians, a Turkish gunpowder warehouse was set up in the temple. The cannonball hitting the barrels of gunpowder caused a powerful explosion, which destroyed the middle part of the building.
The destruction of the temple continued in peacetime, when city residents stole the marble blocks for their own needs. At the beginning of the 19th century, the bulk of the sculptures were exported to England with the permission of the Sultan. Nobody cared about the building itself until Greece gained independence. The Parthenon was recognized as part of the historical heritage of Greece, and restoration work began in the 20s of the 20th century. The Foundation for the Preservation of the Parthenon, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has been established.
Work to restore the Parthenon is ongoing. Alas, there is no hope of seeing the temple in its original form - too much has been lost. However, even in its current state, the Parthenon is a masterpiece of ancient architecture and leaves no doubt about the genius of the architects and builders who once erected it.
The Parthenon is one of the most famous monuments of ancient architecture. This 2,500-year-old magnificent temple on the Acropolis in Athens has survived earthquakes, fires, explosions and repeated looting attempts. And although the Parthenon was in no way an engineering breakthrough in construction, its style became the paradigm of classical architecture.
1. Acropolis in Athens
Sacred rock.
The Acropolis in Athens, where the Parthenon is located, is also called the "sacred rock" and was used for defensive purposes.
2. Cultural layers
Ancient history of the Parthenon.
Cultural layers discovered on the slopes of the Acropolis indicate that there were settlements on the hill since 2800 BC, that is, long before the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures.
3. The Acropolis was a sacred place
The Acropolis is a sacred place.
Long before the construction of the Parthenon, the Acropolis was a sacred place and there were other temples on it. The Parthenon replaced the old Temple of Athena, which was destroyed during the Persian invasion in 480 BC.
4. House Parthenos
House of Parthenos.
The name "Parthenon" is derived from one of the many epithets of Athena (Athena Parthenos), and it means ""house of Parthenos"". This name was given to the temple in the 5th century BC because a cult statue of Athena was installed inside it.
5. Construction of the Parthenon
Construction of the Parthenon.
Construction of the Parthenon began in 447 BC. and was completed in 438 BC, but the final decoration of the temple continued until 432 BC.
6. Ictinus, Callicrates and Phidias
Ictinus, Callicrates and Phidias are the architects of the Parthenon.
The Parthenon, which was built by the architects Ictinus and Callicrates under the supervision of the sculptor Phidias, is considered by most modern architects and historians to be the highest expression of ancient Greek architectural genius. The temple is also considered the culmination of the development of the Doric order, the simplest of the three classical Greek architectural styles.
7. 192 Greek warriors
192 Greek warrior heroes.
Several modern historians (including art historian John Boardman) believe that the frieze above the Doric columns of the Parthenon depicts the 192 Greek soldiers who died at the Battle of Marathon against the Persians in 490 BC.
8. Stones from Pentelikon
Stones from Pentelikon.
Some of the financial records of the construction of the Parthenon have been preserved, which show that the largest expense was the transportation of stones from Pentelikon, which was located sixteen kilometers from the Acropolis of Athens.
9. The Greek government and the EU have been restoring the Parthenon for 42 years
Restoration of the Parthenon.
The Parthenon restoration project (which is funded by the Greek government and the European Union) has been ongoing for 42 years. It took the ancient Athenians only 10 years to build the Parthenon.
10. 12-meter statue of the goddess Athena
Statue of the goddess Athena.
The rectangular building, 31 meters wide and 70 meters high, was built of white marble. Surrounded by forty-six columns stood a 12-meter statue of the goddess Athena, made of wood, gold and ivory.
11. Tyrant Lahar
Tyrant Lahar.
Although much of the structure remains intact, the Parthenon has suffered significant damage over the centuries. It all started in 296 BC, when the Athenian tyrant Lacharus removed the gold covering from the statue of Athena in order to pay the debt of his army.
12. In the fifth century AD, the Parthenon was converted into a Christian church
The Parthenon became a church.
In the fifth century AD, the Parthenon was converted into a Christian church, and in 1460 a Turkish mosque was located in the Parthenon. In 1687, the Ottoman Turks placed a gunpowder warehouse in the temple, which exploded when the temple was shelled by the Venetian army. At the same time, part of the temple turned into ruins.
13. 46 external columns and 23 internal
Columns of the Parthenon.
The Parthenon had 46 outer columns and 23 inner columns, but not all remain today. In addition, the Parthenon used to have a roof (it currently does not).
14. The Parthenon's design is earthquake resistant
Earthquake resistant design.
The Parthenon's design is earthquake-resistant, even though the temple's columns are quite thin.
15. The Parthenon was used as a city treasury
The Parthenon as a city treasury.
The Parthenon was also used as the city's treasury, like many other Greek temples of the era.
16. The construction of the Parthenon was not financed by the Athenians.
Parthenon as a national project.
Even though the Parthenon is the most popular Athenian building of all time, its construction was not financed by the Athenians. After the end of the Persian Wars, Athens became, in 447 BC, the dominant power in what is now Greece. Funds for the construction of the temple were taken from the tribute paid to Athens by other city-states of the Delian League.
17. Delhi League deposits were kept in an opisthodome
Opisthodom is a place where cash deposits are stored.
The money deposits of the Delian League, which was ruled by Athens, were kept in the opisthodome - the rear closed part of the temple.
18. The Parthenon, Erechtheion and the Temple of Nike were built over the ruins of the Acropolis.
Ancient new buildings.
During the "classical period" not only the Parthenon, but also the Erechtheion and the Temple of Nike were built over the ruins of the Acropolis.
19. The first theater in history
Theater of Dionysus - the first theater in history
Besides these structures, another important monument at the foot of the Acropolis is the "Theater of Dionysus", which is considered to be the first theater in history.
20. The Parthenon had a multi-colored facade
Facade of the Parthenon.
While modern media depicts Greek temples and structures with a white facade, the Parthenon most likely had a multi-colored facade. The paint has worn off over the centuries.
21. The Parthenon appeared thanks to Pericles
Pericles is the initiator of the construction of the Parthenon.
Pericles was probably the most outstanding Athenian statesman in history. It was thanks to him that the city got the Parthenon.
22. Temple sculptures were sold to the British Museum
The Parthenon sculptures are in the British Museum.
From 1801 to 1803, part of the remaining sculptures of the temple were taken away by the Turks (who controlled Greece at that time). These sculptures were subsequently sold to the British Museum.
23. A full-scale replica of the Parthenon is located in Nashville, Tennessee.
Copy of the Parthenon.
The Parthenon is the most copied building in the world. There are many buildings around the world that were created in the same style. There is also a full-size replica of the Parthenon located in Nashville, Tennessee.
24. The opening of the Acropolis Museum took place in 2009
Acropolis Museum.
More than half a million people visited the new Acropolis Museum within the first two months of its opening in 2009.
25. Golden Rectangle of the Parthenon
Golden Rectangle of the Parthenon.
A rectangle's length to width ratio of 1.618 was considered most pleasing to the eye. This ratio was called the "golden ratio" by the Greeks. In the world of mathematics, this number is called "phi" and it was named after the Greek sculptor Phidias, who used the golden ratio in his sculptures. From the outside, the Parthenon is a perfect “golden rectangle”.
Predecessors of the Parthenon
Main articles: Hecatompedon (temple), Opisthodomos (temple)
The interior (59 m long and 21.7 m wide) has two more steps (total height 0.7 m) and is amphiprostyle. The facades have porticoes with columns that are just below the columns of the peristyle. The eastern portico was a pronaos, the western one a posticum.
Plan of the Parthenon sculptural decoration (north right). Antiquity period.
Material and technology
The temple was built entirely from Pentelic marble, mined nearby. During production, it is white in color, but when exposed to the sun's rays it turns yellow. The northern side of the building is exposed to less radiation - and therefore the stone there has a grayish-ashy tint, while the southern blocks have a golden-yellowish color. The tiles and stylobate are also made of this marble. The columns are made of drums fastened together with wooden plugs and pins.
Metopes
Main article: Doric frieze of the Parthenon
The metopes were part of the triglyph-metope frieze, traditional for the Doric order, which encircled the outer colonnade of the temple. There were a total of 92 metopes on the Parthenon, containing various high reliefs. They were connected thematically along the sides of the building. In the east the battle of the centaurs with the Lapiths was depicted, in the south - the Amazonomachy, in the west - probably scenes from the Trojan War, in the north - the Gigantomachy.
64 metopes survive: 42 in Athens and 15 in the British Museum. Most of them are on the eastern side.
Bas-relief frieze
East side. Plates 36-37. Seated gods.
Main article: Ionic frieze of the Parthenon
The outer side of the cella and opisthodome was surrounded at the top (at a height of 11 m from the floor) by another frieze, Ionic. It was 160 m long and 1 m high and contained about 350 foot and 150 mounted figures. The bas-relief, which is one of the most famous works of this genre in ancient art that has come down to us, depicts a procession on the last day of the Panathenaia. On the north and south sides horsemen and chariots, just citizens, are depicted. On the south side there are also musicians, people with various gifts and sacrificial animals. The western part of the frieze contains many young men with horses, mounting or already mounted. In the east (above the entrance to the temple) the end of the procession is represented: the priest, surrounded by gods, accepts the peplos woven for the goddess by the Athenians. The most important people of the city are standing nearby.
96 frieze plates have survived. 56 of them are in the British Museum, 40 (mostly the western part of the frieze) are in Athens.
Pediments
Main article: Pediments of the Parthenon
Pediment fragment.
Giant sculptural groups were placed in the tympanums of the pediments (0.9 m deep) above the western and eastern entrances. They have survived very poorly to this day. The central figures almost didn't make it. In the center of the eastern pediment in the Middle Ages, a window was barbarically cut through, which completely destroyed the composition located there. Ancient authors usually avoid this part of the temple. Pausanias, the main source on such matters, mentions them only in passing, paying much more attention to the statue of Athena. Sketches by J. Kerry dating back to 1674 have been preserved, which provide quite a lot of information about the western pediment. The Eastern one was already in a deplorable state at that time. Therefore, the reconstruction of the gables is mostly just guesswork.
The eastern group depicted the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus. Only the side parts of the composition have been preserved. A chariot driven, presumably, by Helios, enters from the south side. Dionysus sits in front of him, then Demeter and Kore. Behind them stands another goddess, perhaps Artemis. From the north, three seated female figures have reached us - the so-called “three veils” - which are sometimes considered as Hestia, Dione and Aphrodite. In the very corner there is another figure, apparently driving a chariot, since in front of it is the head of a horse. This is probably Nyux or Selena. Regarding the center of the pediment (or rather, most of it), we can only say that there, definitely, due to the theme of the composition, there were the figures of Zeus, Hephaestus and Athena. Most likely, the rest of the Olympians and, perhaps, some other gods were there. A torso survives, attributed in most cases to Poseidon.
The western pediment represents the dispute between Athena and Poseidon for the possession of Attica. They stood in the center and were located diagonally to each other. On both sides of them there were chariots, probably in the north - Nike with Hermes, in the south - Iris with Amphitryon. Around were figures of legendary characters of Athenian history, but their exact attribution is almost impossible.
28 statues have reached us: 19 in the British Museum and 11 in Athens.
Athena Parthenos statue
The statue of Athena Parthenos, standing in the center of the temple and being its sacred center, was made by Phidias himself. It was upright and about 11 m high, made in the chrysoelephantine technique (that is, from gold and ivory on a wooden base). The sculpture has not survived and is known from various copies and numerous images on coins. In one hand the goddess holds Nike, and with the other she leans on the shield. The shield depicts Amazonomachy. There is a legend that Phidias depicted himself (in the image of Daedalus) and Pericles (in the image of Theseus) on it, for which (as well as on charges of stealing gold for the statue) he went to prison. The peculiarity of the relief on the shield is that the second and third plans are shown not from behind, but one above the other. In addition, its subject matter allows us to say that this is already a historical relief. Another relief was on Athena's sandals. A centauromachy was depicted there.
The birth of Pandora, the first woman, was carved on the pedestal of the statue.
Other finishing details
None of the ancient sources recalls the fire in the Parthenon, but archaeological excavations have proven that it occurred in the middle of the 3rd century. BC BC, most likely during the invasion of the barbarian tribe of the Heruli, who sacked Athens in 267 BC. e. As a result of the fire, the roof of the Parthenon was destroyed, as well as almost all the internal fittings and ceilings. The marble is cracked. In the eastern extension, the colonnade, both main doors of the temple and the second frieze collapsed. If dedicatory inscriptions were kept in the temple, they are irretrievably lost. Reconstruction after the fire did not aim to completely restore the appearance of the temple. The terracotta roof was installed only over the internal premises, and the external colonnade was unprotected. Two rows of columns in the eastern hall were replaced with similar ones. Based on the architectural style of the restored elements, it was possible to establish that the blocks in an earlier period belonged to various buildings of the Acropolis of Athens. In particular, 6 blocks of the western doors formed the basis of a massive sculptural group depicting a chariot drawn by horses (scratches are still visible on these blocks in the places where the horses' hooves and chariot wheels were attached), as well as a group of bronze statues of warriors, which Pausanias described. The other three blocks of the western doors are marble tablets with financial statements, which establish the main stages of the construction of the Parthenon.
Christian temple
Story
The Parthenon remained a temple to the goddess Athena for a thousand years. It is not known exactly when it became a Christian church. In the 4th century, Athens fell into disrepair and became a provincial city of the Roman Empire. In the 5th century, the temple was robbed by one of the emperors, and all its treasures were transported to Constantinople. There is information that under Patriarch Paul III of Constantinople the Parthenon was rebuilt into the Church of St. Sophia.
In the early 13th century, the statue of Athena Promachos was damaged and destroyed during the Fourth Crusade. The Athena Parthenos statue probably disappeared as early as the 3rd century BC. e. during a fire or earlier. Roman and Byzantine emperors repeatedly issued decrees banning pagan cults, but the pagan tradition in Hellas was too strong. At the present stage, it is generally accepted that the Parthenon became a Christian temple around the 6th century AD.
Probably, under the predecessor of Choniates, the building of the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Athens suffered more significant changes. The apse in the eastern part was destroyed and rebuilt. The new apse was closely adjacent to the ancient columns, so the central slab of the frieze was dismantled. This slab depicting the "peplos scene", later used to build fortifications on the Acropolis, was found by agents of Lord Elgin and is now on display in the British Museum. Under Michael Choniates himself, the interior decoration of the temple was restored, including the paintings Judgment Day on the wall of the portico where the entrance was located, there are paintings depicting the Passion of Christ in the narthex, a number of paintings that depict saints and previous Athenian metropolitans. All the Parthenon paintings from the Christian era were covered with a thick layer of whitewash in the 1880s, but in the early 19th century the Marquis of Bute commissioned watercolors from them. It was from these watercolors that researchers established the plot motifs of the paintings and the approximate time of creation - the end of the 12th century. Around the same time, the apse ceiling was decorated with mosaics, which collapsed within a few decades. Glass fragments of it are also on display in the British Museum.
On February 24 and 25, 1395, the Italian traveler Nicolo de Martoni visited Athens, who left in his Pilgrim's Book (now in the National Library of France, Paris) the first systematic description of the Parthenon since Pausanias. Martoni presents the Parthenon as a landmark of exclusively Christian history, but considers the main wealth not the numerous relics and the revered icon of the Virgin Mary, painted by the Evangelist Luke and decorated with pearls and precious stones, but a copy of the Gospel written in Greek on thin gilded parchment by Saint Helen Equal to the Apostles, mother of Constantine the Great, the first Byzantine emperor to officially convert to Christianity. Martoni also talks about the cross scratched on one of the columns of the Parthenon by Saint Dionysius the Areopagite.
Martoni's journey coincided with the beginning of the reign of the Acciaioli family, whose representatives proved themselves to be generous benefactors. Nerio I Acciaioli ordered the doors of the cathedral to be inlaid with silver; in addition, he bequeathed the entire city to the cathedral, giving Athens into the possession of the Parthenon. The most significant addition to the cathedral from the Latinocracy period is the tower near the right side of the portico, built after the city was captured by the Crusaders. For its construction, they used blocks taken from the back of the tomb of a Roman nobleman on the hill of Philopappou. The tower was supposed to serve as the bell tower of the cathedral, in addition, it was equipped with spiral staircases that rose to the roof. Since the tower blocked the small doors to the narthex, the central western entrance of the Parthenon of the ancient era began to be used again.
During the reign of Acciaioli in Athens, the first and earliest drawing of the Parthenon that has survived to this day was created. It was executed by Ciriaco di Pizzicoli, an Italian merchant, papal legate, traveler and lover of the classics, better known as Cyriacus of Ancona. He visited Athens in 1444 and stayed in the luxurious palace into which the Propylaea had been converted to pay his respects to Acciaioli. Chiriacus left detailed notes and a number of drawings, but they were destroyed by a fire in 1514 in the library of the city of Pesaro. One of the images of the Parthenon has survived. It depicts a temple with 8 Doric columns, the location of the metopes - epistilia - is accurately indicated, and the frieze with the missing central metope - listae parietum - is correctly depicted. The building is very elongated, and the sculptures on the pediment depict a scene that is not similar to the dispute between Athena and Poseidon. This is a 15th century lady with a pair of rearing horses, surrounded by Renaissance angels. The description of the Parthenon itself is quite accurate: the number of columns is 58, and on the metopes, which are better preserved, as Cyriacus correctly suggests, a scene of the struggle of the centaurs with the Lapita is depicted. Cyriacus of Ancona also owns the very first description of the sculptural frieze of the Parthenon, which, as he believed, depicts the Athenian victories of the era of Pericles.
Mosque
Story
Reconstructions and decoration
The most detailed description of the Parthenon from the Ottoman period is by Evliya Çelebi, a Turkish diplomat and traveler. He visited Athens several times throughout the 1630s and 1640s. Evliya Celebi noted that the conversion of the Christian Parthenon into a mosque did not greatly affect its internal appearance. The main feature of the temple remained the canopy over the altar. He also described that the four columns of red marble that supported the canopy were polished to a shine. The floor of the Parthenon is made of polished marble slabs up to 3 m each. Each of the blocks that decorated the walls was masterfully combined with the other in such a way that the border between them is invisible to the eye. Celebi noted that the panels on the eastern wall of the temple are so thin that they are able to transmit sunlight. This feature was also mentioned by Spohn and J. Wehler, who suggested that in fact this stone is phengite, a transparent marble, which, according to Pliny, was the favorite stone of the Emperor Nero. Evliya recalls that the silver inlay of the main doors of the Christian temple was removed, and the ancient sculptures and paintings were covered with whitewash, although the layer of whitewash was thin and the subject of the painting could be seen. Next, Evliya Celebi gives a list of characters, listing the heroes of pagan, Christian and Muslim religions: demons, Satan, wild animals, devils, sorceresses, angels, dragons, antichrists, cyclops, monsters, crocodiles, elephants, rhinoceroses, as well as Cherub, archangels Gabriel, Seraphim, Azrael, Michael, the ninth heaven, on which the throne of the Lord is located, the scales weighing sins and virtues.
Evliya does not describe the mosaics made of gold pieces and shards of multi-colored glass, which would later be found during excavations on the Acropolis of Athens. However, the mosaic is mentioned in passing by J. Spon and J. Wehler, describing in more detail the images of the Virgin Mary in the apse behind the altar, which survived from the previous Christian era. They also talk about a legend according to which the Turk who shot at the fresco of Mary lost his hand, so the Ottomans decided not to harm the temple anymore.
Although the Turks had no desire to protect the Parthenon from destruction, they also had no intention of completely distorting or destroying the temple. Since it is impossible to accurately determine the time of overwriting the Parthenon metopes, the Turks could continue this process. However, overall they carried out less destruction of the building than the Christians did a thousand years before Ottoman rule, who turned the magnificent ancient temple into a Christian cathedral. As long as the Parthenon served as a mosque, Muslim worship took place surrounded by Christian paintings and images of Christian saints. The Parthenon was not subsequently rebuilt and its present appearance has remained unchanged since the 17th century.
Destruction
The peace between the Turks and the Venetians did not last long. A new Turkish-Venetian war began. In September 1687, the Parthenon suffered its most terrible blow: the Venetians, under the leadership of Doge Francesco Morosini, captured the Acropolis fortified by the Turks. On September 28, the Swedish general Koenigsmark, who was at the head of the Venetian army, gave the order to fire at the Acropolis from cannons on Philopappou Hill. When the cannons fired at the Parthenon, which served the Ottomans as a gunpowder storehouse, it exploded, and part of the temple instantly turned into ruins. In previous decades, Turkish gunpowder magazines were repeatedly blown up. In 1645, a warehouse built in the Propylaea of the Acropolis was struck by lightning, killing Disdar and his family. In 1687, when Athens was attacked by the Venetians together with the army of the allied Holy League, the Turks decided to locate their ammunition, as well as hide children and women, in the Parthenon. They could rely on the thickness of the walls and ceilings or hope that the Christian enemy would not fire at the building, which had served as a Christian temple for several centuries.
Judging by the traces of shelling on the western pediment alone, about 700 cannonballs hit the Parthenon. At least 300 people died, their remains were found during excavations in the 19th century. The central part of the temple was destroyed, including 28 columns, a fragment of a sculptural frieze, and interior spaces that once served as a Christian church and mosque; the roof in the northern part has collapsed. The western pediment turned out to be almost undamaged, and Francesco Morosini wanted to take its central sculptures to Venice. However, the scaffolding used by the Venetians collapsed during the work, and the sculptures collapsed, falling to the ground. Several fragments of fragments were nevertheless taken to Italy, the rest remained on the Acropolis. From this time on, the history of the Parthenon becomes the history of ruins. The destruction of the Parthenon was witnessed by Anna Ocherjelm, lady-in-waiting of the Countess of Königsmarck. She described the temple and the moment of the explosion. Shortly after the final surrender of the Turks, while walking along the Acropolis, among the ruins of a mosque, she found an Arabic manuscript that was transferred by Anna Ocherjelm's brother to the library of the Swedish city of Uppsala. Therefore, after its two-thousand-year history, the Parthenon could no longer be used as a temple, since it was destroyed much more than one can imagine from its current appearance - the result of many years of reconstruction. John Pentland Magaffee, who visited the Parthenon several decades before restoration work began, noted:
From a political point of view, the destruction of the Parthenon had minimal consequences. A few months after the victory, the Venetians gave up power over Athens: they did not have enough forces to further defend the city, and the plague epidemic made Athens completely unattractive to invaders. The Turks again established a garrison on the Acropolis, albeit on a smaller scale, among the ruins of the Parthenon, and erected a new small mosque. It can be seen in the first known photograph of the temple, created in 1839.
From destruction to reconstruction
Early explorers of the Parthenon included the British archaeologist James Stewart and architect Nicholas Revett. Stuart first published drawings, descriptions and drawings with measurements of the Parthenon for the Society of Dilettantes in 1789. In addition, it is known that James Stewart collected a considerable collection of ancient antiquities from the Acropolis of Athens and the Parthenon. The cargo was sent by sea to Smyrna, after which the trace of the collection is lost. However, one of the fragments of the Parthenon frieze, removed by Stuart, was found in 1902 buried in the garden of the Colne Park estate in Essex, which was inherited by the son of Thomas Astle, an antiquarian and trustee of the British Museum.
The legal side of the matter still remains unclear. The actions of Lord Elgin and his agents were regulated by the Sultan's firman. Whether they contradicted him is impossible to establish, since the original document has not been found, only its translation into Italian, made for Elgin at the Ottoman court, is known. In the Italian version, it is allowed to measure and sketch sculptures using ladders and scaffolding; create plaster casts, dig up fragments buried under the soil during the explosion. The translation does not say anything about permission or prohibition to remove sculptures from the facade or pick up those that have fallen. It is known for certain that already among Elgin’s contemporaries, the majority criticized at least the use of chisels, saws, ropes and blocks for removing sculptures, since in this way the surviving parts of the building were destroyed. The Irish traveler, author of several works on ancient architecture, Edward Dodwell wrote:
| I felt an unspeakable humiliation as I witnessed the Parthenon being deprived of its best sculptures. I saw several metopes being removed from the south-eastern part of the building. To raise the metopes, the wonderful cornice that protected them had to be thrown to the ground. The same fate befell the southeast corner of the pediment.
Original text(English) I had the inexpressible mortification of being present, when the Parthenon was despoiled of its finest sculptures. I saw several metopes at the south east extremity of the temple taken down. They were fixed in between the triglyphs as in a groove; and in order to lift them up, it was necessary to throw to the ground the magnificent cornice by which they were covered. The south east angle of the pediment shared the same fate. |
Independent Greece
Duveen Hall at the British Museum, which displays the Elgin Marbles| It is extremely limited to see in the Athenian Acropolis only a place where, like in a museum, you can only see the great creations of the era of Pericles... At least, people who call themselves scientists should not be allowed to cause senseless destruction on their own initiative.
Original text(English) It is but a narrow view of the Akropolis of Athens to look on it simply as the place where the great works of the afe of Perikles may be seen as models in a museum… At all events, let not men callins themselves distinguished lend themselves tj such deeds of wanton destruction. |
However, official archaeological policy remained unchanged until the 1950s, when a proposal to remove a staircase from a medieval tower at the western end of the Parthenon was abruptly rejected. At the same time, a program to restore the appearance of the temple was unfolding. Back in the 1840s, four columns of the northern facade and one column of the southern facade were partially restored. 150 blocks were returned to their place in the walls of the interior of the temple, the rest of the space was filled with modern red brick. The work was most intensified by the 1894 earthquake, which largely destroyed the temple. The first cycle of work was completed in 1902, its scale was quite modest, and it was carried out under the auspices of a committee of international consultants. Until the 1920s and for a long time after, chief engineer Nikolaos Balanos worked without external control. It was he who began the restoration program, designed for 10 years. It was planned to completely restore the internal walls, strengthen the gables and install plaster copies of the sculptures removed by Lord Elgin. In the end, the most significant change was the reproduction of the long sections of colonnades that connected the east and west facades.
Diagram showing blocks of individual columns from the ancient era, Manolis Korres
Thanks to the Balanos program, the destroyed Parthenon acquired its modern appearance. However, since the 1950s, after his death, his achievements have been repeatedly criticized. First, no attempt was made to return the blocks to their original location. Secondly, and most importantly, Balanos used iron rods and clamps to connect the antique marble blocks. Over time, they rusted and warped, causing the blocks to crack. In the late 1960s, in addition to the problem of the Balanos fastenings, the effects of environmental influences became clear: air pollution and acid rain damaged the sculptures and reliefs of the Parthenon. In 1970, a UNESCO report proposed a variety of ways to save the Parthenon, including enclosing the hill under a glass cover. Eventually, in 1975, a committee was established to oversee the preservation of the entire complex of the Acropolis of Athens, and in 1986 work began to dismantle the iron fastenings used by Balanos and replace them with titanium ones. In the period -2012, the Greek authorities plan to restore the western facade of the Parthenon. Some elements of the frieze will be replaced with copies, the originals will be transported to the exhibition of the New Acropolis Museum. The chief engineer of the work, Manolis Korres, considers the first priority to be to patch up the holes left by bullets fired at the Parthenon in 1821 during the Greek Revolution. Also, restorers must assess the damage caused to the Parthenon by strong earthquakes in 1999. As a result of the consultations, it was decided that by the time the restoration work was completed, the remains of the apse from the Christian era could be seen inside the temple, as well as the pedestal of the statue of the goddess Athena Parthenos; Restorers will pay no less attention to the traces of Venetian cannonballs on the walls and medieval inscriptions on the columns.
In world culture
The Parthenon is one of the symbols not only of ancient culture, but also of beauty in general.
Modern copies
Nashville Parthenon
