I have always been fascinated with ancient Greece. And what better structure defines the ancient Greeks than the Parthenon? The Parthenon is one of the most famous structures ever built. As famous as the pyramids, as well known as the Eiffel Tower, people know the Parthenon just from looking at a photograph. However, the Parthenon in its heyday took on a more important role than only a magnificent work of architecture. For this was the period when the city-state Athens wielded its power during the age of Classical Greece.
During the fifth century B.C., Athens was the largest and most powerful of all the city-states of Greece. It was the leader of the Delian League, a confederation numerous city-states created to defend against the Persians (Curlee 4). To show its political as well as its cultural superiority, Pericles, the general and political leader who dominated Athens, began a building program upon the Acropolis, the highest point in Athens. The main jewel in this construction feat would be the Parthenon, a temple to be built in honor of Athena Parthenos, the patron goddess and protector of the city (Nardo 28).
Made of the finest white marble and similar in design to many Greek temples, the construction of the Parthenon was an incredible achievement. A massive undertaking, this ancient works project employed numerous people. According to the Greek historian Plutarch:
There were smiths and carpenters, moulders, founders and braziers, stonecutters, dyers, goldsmiths, ivory-workers painters, embroiderers, turners; and those that conveyed them to the town for use, merchants and mariners and shipmaster by sea, and by land, cartwrights, cattle-breeders, waggoners, rope-makers, flax-workers, shoemakers and leather-dressers, road-makers, and miners. And every trade had its own hired company of journeymen and laborers (Curlee 6).
To supervise construction, Pericles chose the sculptor Phidias. Considered the greatest sculptor of his day, Phidias would later create the statue of Zeus housed at the temple at Olympia (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) (Nardo 33). To execute the actual design and construction of the Parthenon, Phidias appointed Ictinus and Callicrates, noted architects for their day. And being practical, the Parthenon was built upon an existing foundation from a previous temple that was destroyed by the Persians, saving both time and money (Curlee 8).
Standing 65 feet high with a base 110 feet wide and 237 feet long and made with over 22,000 tons of Pentelic marble (Nardo 40), what first catches the eye of this incredible piece of architecture is the massive outer columns. The columns, like most of the Parthenon, were styled using the Doric Order. This is a type of architectural style in which the columns swell in the middle and narrow towards the top, have no bases, and the topmost sections of the columns, the capitals, were cushioned with plain slabs (Sutton 13). Though most other large Doric temples had only six columns on each end and thirteen on the sides, the Parthenon had eight columns on each end, and seventeen along each side. Forty-eight in all, these marble columns stretch over thirty-four feet in height and weigh in excess of one hundred tons each (Nardo 41).
Resting upon these monstrous columns was the Parthenon's roof, or entablature. With a height ratio of one to three with the columns, the entablature consisted of numerous components. Made of marble blocks, the lowest part was the epistyle, or architrave, which functioned as a beam to hold up the building's upper sections (Nardo 45). Directly above this was the frieze, consisting of alternating triglyphs, panels consisting three vertical bars, and metopes, panels carved in relief (Sutton 371-372). The three-dimensional metopes depicted Greek myths and legends. On the Parthenon's east side, the metopes depicted the Gigantomachy, the war between the Olympian gods and the Giants, the west side showed the Amazonomachy, the battle between the Athenians the Amazons, the south end showed the Centaurmachy, the conflict between the Lapiths (an early Greek tribe) and Centaurs, and the north side bore reliefs with epic scenes of the Trojan War (Nardo 46).
The topmost section of the entablature was the cornice. Angling up from the cornice were the raking sima (Nardo 48). These beams met at the apex of the Parthenon, and at the east and west sides of the temple created pediments, or gables. The east pediment showed the birth of Athena while the west pediment portrayed the contest between Athena and Poseidon as to who would control the Acropolis (Curlee 16).
And on top of everything was a roof made of marble that was laid upon a latticework of wooden rafters (Nardo 49). Large marble ornaments, called acroteria, in the shape of floral arrangements decorated the apexes of the pediments as well as the four corners of the structure. And marble antifixes were placed on the temple's side. These ornamental fan-shaped leaves called palmettes hid the unsightly ends of the ridge tiles that covered the joints of the regular flat roofing tiles (Nardo 54).
Walking inside the Parthenon one would enterthe cella, the temple's main room (Sutton 372). Looking towards the ceiling and you would see the inner frieze. This frieze was Ionic, meaning that unlike the outer frieze, this one was a continuous band of sculpted reliefs extending 524 feet inside the entire temple (Nardo 51). The frieze narrated a two-part parade of humans, horses, and chariots. To this day scholars do not know what the inner frieze represented (Nardo 53-54). What is known is that due to the height as well as the lack of illumination, the inner frieze was difficult to view. Scholars believe the reason for this was that the frieze was to be viewed by both mortals as well as the gods (Nardo 53). Most likely Athena herself.
But what was most impressive about the cella was what is housed. For here stood the Athena Parthenos created by Phidias. Stretching nearly forty feet in the air, this gold and ivory sculpture showed the goddess standing wearing a tunic as well as her helmet. In one hand Athena holds the figure of the goddess Victory, and in the other a spear (Curlee 20). At her feet is her shield. On the inside of the shield Phidias carved the battle scenes of the Gigantomachy, and on the outside were the battle scenes of the Amazonomachy. And two of the figures fighting the Amazons looked exactly like Phidias and Pericles (Nardo 58).
There was one more room in the Parthenon. Behind the cella was a rear chamber called the opisthodomos. This was Athens's treasury. Here were stored the city's valuables (Curlee 10). Most Greek temples were treasuries, and the Parthenon was no different.
Though we in modern times see Ancient Greek ruins as being only white marble, the temples were actually painted upon. Though the roof and the columns were left alone, the entablature was painted with red horizontal bands. The triglyphs were colored blue. Designs colored with gold and blue paint decorated the raking sima. The Ionic frieze inside was painted with colors of gold, blue and red (Nardo 55-56).
Begun in 447 B.C. and completed in 432 B.C., the Parthenon became the main spectacle of the Acropolis. Every four years it was the backdrop for the Panathenaea, Athens's largest and most important religious festival (Nardo 84). People from all over the region attended, giving Athens the opportunity to show off its power and influence. Athens was definitely the center of Greek culture.
But it was not to last. In 431 B.C., war broke out between Athens and Sparta. In 429 B.C., Pericles died when a plague overwhelmed Athens, and in 404 B.C., Athens was defeated by the Spartans (Nardo 66).
Two and a half centuries later the Roman Empire controlled all of Greece. With the occasional orgy held by Mark Antony in the Parthenon, Romans respected Athens and its temples (Nardo 68). For several centuries the Parthenon was mostly intact.
But this all changed in the third century A.D. when the wooden rafters caught fire, and the massive marble roof caved in (Curlee 28). During the sixth century, the Parthenon was turned into a Greek Orthodox church. The conversion of the temple to a church involved the removal or destruction of some of the sculptures (Nardo 71). In 1204 the Franks seized control of Athens and two years later converted the Parthenon into a Catholic church (Nardo 71).
A quarter of a millennium later Athens was conquered by the Ottoman Empire, and in 1458 the Parthenon was changed into an Islamic mosque with a minaret built on it (Curlee 30). Then on September 26, 1687, during a war between the Ottoman Turks and the Venetians a Venetian mortar shell penetrated the roof of the Parthenon, igniting gunpowder being store there (Curlee 30). The explosion caused more damage to the Parthenon and its sculptures than the previous two thousand years. And in 1801, Lord Elgin, British Ambassador to Constantinople, with the permission of the Ottoman Turks, removed some of the surviving sculptures. These sculptures are currently displayed in the British Museum (Curlee 32).
Greece gained its independence from the Ottoman Turks and gained control of Athens in 1833 (Nardo 76). National pride kicked in, and slowly the Parthenon, piece by piece, began to get restored. Restoration is occurring to this day. Greece is even attempting to recover the sculptures Lord Elgin brought to Britain. So far, no luck.
Arguably the most important surviving piece of architecture in all of Classical Greece, the Parthenon has mesmerized people for over two and a half millennium. Yes, it is a majestic work of art, but the Parthenon is much more than that. It is a lasting symbol not only for the first democracy in history, but for the birthplace of Western civilization as well.
