THE PARTHENON

Coloured as it was at its peak

WHERE IS IT? WHAT WAS IT? The Parthenon is a temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their patron.

GENERAL INFORMATION The Parthenon is part of the greater Periklean building project BEGINNING OF ITS CONSTRUCTION: 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was at the peak of its power. DURATION OF CONSTRUCTION: 9 years INAUGURATION: 438 BC ARCHITECTS: IKTINOS & KALLIKRATIS SCULPTORS: Phedias and his students Agorakritos & Alkamenis MATERIAL: Pentelic marble COLUMNS: 17 of Doric style on each side and 8 columns in each steni COLUMN HEIGHT: 10,43 m. METOPES: 92 ZOFOROS: 160 m.

The golden age & Pericles Best known as the leader of Athens during its Golden Age. During the Age of Pericles, Athens blossomed as a center of education, art, culture, and democracy. He also worked on reforming the Athenian democracy. For him democracy means equality of all the citizens to the law.

The Architects, Iktinos & Kallikratis at work

The Parthenon’s History Built between 447 and 438 BC, this so-called Periklean Parthenon (Parthenon III) replaced an earlier marble temple (Parthenon II), after the victory at the battle of Marathon at approximately 490 BC and destroyed by the Persians in 480 BC. This temple had replaced the very first Parthenon (Parthenon I) of c. 570 BC.

Converted into a church-5th century AD The Parthenon remained unchanged until the 5th century AD, when it was converted into a church dedicated first to Saint Sophia and later to the Panagia (Virgin Mary).

in 1687, during the siege of the Αcropolis by Μorozini, (head of Venetian flet) the parthenon was bombarded and largely destroyed UNDER TURKISH/ OTTOMAN (1453-1821) RULE IT BECAME A MOSQUE

Further serious damage was caused in the early 19th century by Lord Elgin, who looted much of the temple's sculptural decoration and sold it to the British Museum. Conservation and restoration of the Parthenon took place in 1896-1900 and again in 1922-1933.

ITS DESIGN in detail The Parthenon is a double peripteral Doric temple with several unique and innovative architectural features. The temple proper is divided into pronaos, cella (Naos) and opisthodomos, with a separate room at the west end, and is surrounded by a pteron with 8 columns on each of the short sides and 17 columns on the long ones.

Ground/floor plan

The interior inside the Cella/Naos a double pi-shaped colonnade established a background for the gold and ivory statue of Athena Parthenos, which showed the goddess in full armour carrying Nike (Victory) to the Athenians in her right hand.

The east & west pediment The east pediment depicted the birth of the goddess, who sprang from the head of her father, Zeus, before an assembly of the Olympian gods, while the west pediment showed Athena and Poseidon disputing for the possession of the city of Athens before the gods, heroes and mythical kings of Attica.

Μetopes Ninety-two metopes alternating with triglyphs were placed above the epistyle of the outer colonnade and under the architrave. All of them were adorned with reliefs.. Their themes were derived from legendary battles: the Gigantomachy was depicted on the eastern side, the Trojan War on the northern side, the Amazonomachy on the western side and the Centauromachy on the southern side

The frieze The frieze, an element of the Ionic order, brilliantly added to this Doric temple along the top of the cella, pronaos and opisthodomos, depicted the splendid procession of the Panathinaia, the greatest festival of Athens in honour of Athena.

Parthenon Design & Dimensions It was constructed using a 4:9 ratio in several aspects. The diameter of the columns in relation to the space between columns, the height of the building in relation to its width, and the width of the inner cella in relation to its length are all 4:9. Other sophisticated architectural techniques were used to combat the problem that anything on that scale of size when perfectly straight seems from a distance to be curved.

The illusion of true straight lines To give the illusion of true straight lines, the columns lean ever so slightly inwards, a feature which also gives a lifting effect to the building making it appear lighter than its construction material would suggest. Also, the stylobate or floor of the temple is not exactly flat but rises slightly in the centre. The columns also have a slight fattening in their middle, and the four corner columns are imperceptibly fatter than the other columns. The combination of these refinements makes the temple seem perfectly straight, symmetrically in harmony, and gives the entire building a certain vibrancy.

The cella consisted of two separated rooms The cella consisted of two separated rooms. The smaller room contained four Ionic columns to support the roof section and was used as the city’s treasury. The larger room housed the cult statue and was surrounded by a Doric colonnade on three sides. The roof was constructed using cedar wood beams and marble tiles and would have been decorated with akroteria (of palms or figures) at the corners and central apexes. The roof corners also carried lion-headed spouts to drain away water.  

The outer columns of the temple were Doric with 8 seen from the front and back and 17 seen from the sides. This was in contrast to the normal 6x13 Doric arrangement, and they were also slimmer and closer together than usual. Within, the inner cella (or opisthodomos) was fronted by 6 columns at the back and front. It was entered through large wooden doors embellished with decorations in bronze, ivory, and gold.

DIMENSIONS

Measured at the stylobate, the dimensions of the base of the Parthenon are 69.5 by 30.9 metres (228 by 101 ft). The cella was 29.8 metres long by 19.2 metres wide (97.8 × 63.0 ft), with internal colonnades in two tiers, structurally necessary to support the roof. On the exterior, the Doric columns measure 1.9 metres (6.2 ft) in diameter and are 10.4 metres (34 ft) high. The corner columns are slightly larger in diameter.

The Parthenon had 46 outer columns and 23 inner columns in total, each column containing 20 flutes. (A flute is the concave shaft carved into the column form.) The stylobate has an upward curvature towards its centre of 60 millimetres (2.4 in) on the east and west ends, and of 110 millimetres (4.3 in) on the sides. The roof was covered with large overlapping marble tiles.

A BRIEF VIDEO ON THE PARTHENON BY KOSTAS GAVRAS http://www.klik.gr/gr/el/greece/i-istoria-tou-parthenona-se-733-lepta-apo-ton-kosta-gabra/ And a longer one!!! https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=wm#search/the+parthen/151632998428fbac?projector=1