Since childhood I dreamed of visiting Greece. The mysterious country from a school history textbook I read long ago always attracted me and seemed like an amazing place. But what do we really know about her?
Probably, each of us, when we hear the word “Greece,” imagines the bright sun, the sound of the sea, the taste of olives and majestic ancient ruins. And most people probably remember the same ruins of the ancient Parthenon, located on a rocky hill - a huge structure with high marble columns and a crowd of tourists nearby. Which, however, is not surprising, since this is the most recognizable temple in Greece and must have been one of the most famous buildings of antiquity. In a word, this is a unique place, next to which I feel as if I am going back in time.
A little history of the Parthenon
As I already said, the Parthenon is located on the Acropolis of Athens - an ancient city on a high rocky hill. It was built in 447-438 BC. e. by order of the Athenian ruler Pericles by the architect Callicrates and decorated in 438-431 BC. e. under the leadership of Phidias, the great ancient Greek sculptor. The same one who is the author of one of the wonders of the world - the statue of Zeus in Olympia.
The Parthenon was built in honor of the patroness of the city, the goddess of wisdom and just war. During the heyday of the Athenian state, it was the main temple of the city, and the treasury was also kept there. But as the years passed, in the Middle Ages the Parthenon was first a Catholic and then an Orthodox church, and after the conquest of Greece by the Ottoman Empire, a mosque was built inside.
In general, when I climbed the Acropolis and stood at the steps of the Parthenon, an unforgettable sight opened up: at the foot of the hill a huge city stretched for many kilometers, surrounded by small mountains on one side and the sea on the other. In ancient times, when the Parthenon in Athens was just being built, the sea was much closer, and if you give free rein to your imagination, removing the chimneys of factories on the outskirts and power lines above houses, you can try to see Greece as the ancient Greeks saw it - with the endless blue sea and green hills around. I was there in May, and the picture was complemented by the incredible smell of oranges growing in the gardens at the foot.
The Parthenon itself is a building 70 meters long and 30 meters wide, it is surrounded by a colonnade of 8 columns in the facades and 17 on the sides. Another unique architectural feature is that the Parthenon is built in such a way that it looks perfectly rectilinear, but in reality it has practically no straight lines in its contours. Needless to say, the ancients knew how to build - there are no other similar buildings in the world. The temple was once decorated with high reliefs, many of which have survived - some in the Acropolis Museum (a large glass building next to the entrance to the Acropolis), some in (and this is already in London). But, unfortunately, you won’t be able to get inside the Parthenon - the temple is under restoration.
How to get to the Parthenon
The Parthenon is located at the southern end of the Acropolis of Athens, a huge rocky hill that is visible from almost everywhere in the city center. Exact address: Dionysiou Areopagitou 15, Athens 117 42.
Now I will talk about the most convenient way to get to the Parthenon:
- On foot. If you are staying in the center, then, as mentioned above, the Parthenon is visible from everywhere, and finding it will not be a problem. The nearest residential areas are Plaka and Anafiotika. Not a bad option for those who are staying in the city center or just like to walk around beautiful places, like me.
- Metro. The nearest station is Akropoli. A ticket costs 1.2 euros, people over 65 years old and under 18 years old - 0.6 euros, they are sold in special terminals. For 70 minutes, the pass will also be valid for the tram, so this method will be convenient if you are coming from the outskirts of the city. I recommend this option: it is cheaper and faster.
- By taxi. There are a lot of them in Athens, they are yellow and can be found almost everywhere. The price starts from 1 euro and then 0.34 euros/km, which makes a taxi a fairly inexpensive mode of transport. But remember that traffic jams and rush hours have not yet been canceled, and not every driver can deny himself the pleasure of making extra money on tourists by raising the price.
Conditions for visiting the Parthenon
The Parthenon is open daily from 8.00 to 18.30 from April to October, from 8.00 to 17.00 from November to March.
The ticket costs 12 euros, sold at the box office at the entrance to the Acropolis. There are several ticket offices, as well as entrances. There, for 20 euros, they sell a comprehensive ticket, which includes visits to the Kerameilos cemetery, the Temple pf Olympian Zeus, the Roman Agora, the Ancient Agora of Athens and the Theater of Dionysus. Dionysus). This ticket allows you to save a pretty penny on seeing all these places (and they are worth it), and, apparently, for this reason, information about its existence is given in small print in the corner of the ticket office.
There are a lot of tourists at any time of the day, so I recommend coming early to avoid standing in line in the heat.
Note
I will give some more tips that may be useful to you:
Take water with you. Although there are tents with drinks and food on the territory of the acropolis, the path from the top to them is not short.
Be sure to take a hat with you - you will have to climb to the top of the hill, it will be hot.
Like other Greek landmarks, the Parthenon is closed on public holidays: January 1, January 6, March 25, May 1, August 15, October 28, December 25–26. It is also closed on religious Orthodox holidays: Easter, Clean Monday, Good Friday, Spiritual Day, Ascension of the Lord, Trinity.
There is no need to leave trash behind - there are no employees only at first glance, but they are there and they see everything.
The Parthenon Temple is one of the symbols of Greece, a monument of ancient architecture, located in the central part of the Athens Acropolis.
The Parthenon is an ancient temple, the main symbol of the capital of Greece, Athens, and the entire country. Together with other buildings of the Athens Acropolis, the Parthenon is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The temple is dedicated to the patroness of the city, Athena the Virgin, who is also considered the patroness of the entire Attica - the area around the city.
Translated from ancient Greek, the Parthenon means “most pure”, “virgin”. Athena was awarded this epithet for her virginity, which was one of the fundamental qualities of the goddess. Scientists believe that the Christian cult of the Virgin Mary subsequently grew from the cult of the warrior maiden Athena.
The temple is located in the center of the Acropolis of Athens - the upper city of Athens. The Acropolis of Athens is a hill in the center of the city, which is a rock 150 m high above sea level with a flat top. On the upper platform of the acropolis, measuring 300 m by 170 m, various temples, palaces and sculptures have been located since archaic times.
Parthenon architecture
Thanks to the developed culture of the Athenian polis, history has brought down to this day the names of the people who built the temple. The marble tablets on which the city authorities wrote down their decrees indicate who built the Parthenon. The author of the project is the architect Iktinus, the architect Callicrates supervised the construction of the temple, the great sculptor Phidias carried out the external decoration of the building and was the author of the sculptures that decorated the pediments and the interior of the temple. The general leadership was carried out by the great statesman and founding father of Athenian democracy, Pericles.
The Parthenon is a classical ancient Greek temple, rectangular in its base, surrounded on all sides by a Doric colonnade. The central facades have 8 columns, the side facades have 17, the total number of columns in the Parthenon is 50.
The Parthenon is interesting primarily for its unique architectural design used in the construction of the temple. In order to avoid optical distortions, the authors of the project resorted to innovative architectural techniques: the columns were thicker in the central part, and the corner columns were also inclined towards the center of the temple and had a slightly larger volume. During the construction of the temple, the principle of the golden ratio was used. Thanks to the techniques used by the architects, the impression of absolutely straight lines of the temple and its perfect appearance is created.
The temple was almost entirely built from expensive Pentelic marble, and gold was widely used in the initial decoration. The temple stands on three steps one and a half meters high; from the central western façade of the building, the steps used to enter the building were cut out. The total length of the building is 70 m, width - 31 m, height - 14 m.
Not all the treasures of the Parthenon have survived to this day: such a masterpiece of the temple as the 13-meter statue of Athena Parthenos by the great sculptor Phidias, which once stood in the center of the Parthenon, has been lost forever to humanity. Of the many sculptural groups representing scenes from the life of ancient gods and decorating the pediments of the building, only 11 have survived to this day; another 19 sculptures were barbarously cut down in the 19th century and taken to Great Britain, where they are now kept in the British Museum.
History of the Athens Parthenon
Marble tablets, on which the city authorities wrote down their decrees and orders, have preserved for us the exact date when the Parthenon was built. The start of construction was 447 BC. e. The construction of the temple took 10 years, after which in 438 BC. e. it was open. The construction of the temple dedicated to the goddess Athena cost the city treasury 700 talents - more than 18 tons of silver.
In the 3rd century BC. e. Athens survived the Heruli invasion, during which the Parthenon was sacked and burned. The roof, ceilings and doors of the temple were damaged. During the restoration, ancient builders did not strive to restore the Parthenon to its original form, so architectural distortions were introduced into it.
For about a thousand years, the Parthenon was a pagan temple, however, after the collapse of the Roman Empire and the formation of Byzantium, it was converted into a Christian church, presumably in the 6th century AD. e. During the turbulent medieval history of the Balkans and Athens in particular, the Parthenon either became a Catholic church or returned to the disposal of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople.
In the 15th century, Athens and all of Greece were conquered by the Ottoman Turks, after which the Parthenon was turned into a mosque, and a military garrison, a pasha's palace and even a harem were located on the territory of the Athenian Acropolis. The Great Turkish War between the Christian states of Europe and the Ottoman Empire was a heavy blow to the Parthenon. During the storming of Athens by the Venetians in 1687, the Parthenon was destroyed. The territory of the acropolis was fired from cannons, after which the temple, in which the gunpowder warehouse was located, exploded.
The Venetians who captured the city noted the colossal damage caused to the Parthenon by their own artillery. Three dozen columns were destroyed, the roof collapsed, some of the sculptures were destroyed, and the central section of the building collapsed. From that time on, the Parthenon fell into ruins and was never used as a temple again.
Throughout the 18th century, the Parthenon slowly collapsed: local residents used the ruins of the building as building material, and numerous European hunters for antique values exported elements of sculptures and decoration of the building to their countries. The picture of the destruction of the Parthenon was completed by the British ambassador to Turkey, Thomas Bruce, who at the beginning of the 19th century took to Great Britain more than 200 boxes with sculptures, fragments of columns and other artifacts of the Parthenon.
As a result, it is impossible to give a definite answer to the question “Who destroyed the Parthenon?” The destruction of the great temple was the work of many people: from the Ottoman rulers of Greece and the inhabitants of Athens to connoisseurs of ancient art from Europe.
After Greece gained independence in the first half of the 19th century, the area of the acropolis was cleared of later buildings such as a minaret, a medieval palace and even sculptures from the Roman period. The restoration of the temple began in the 19th century, but it was prevented by the earthquake of 1894, which further destroyed the building. The reconstruction of the Parthenon by Greek architects continued from the beginning of the 20th century until the middle of the century, after which the temple acquired its modern appearance. However, restoration and archaeological work did not stop after this and continues to this day.
What now
Nowadays, the Parthenon is the main attraction of Athens, one of the national shrines of Greece and the heritage of all mankind. The ideal appearance of the temple, although not completely preserved to this day, not only gives an idea of the cultural and technical achievements of ancient Greece, but is also a symbol of the possibilities of human genius. The Parthenon annually attracts millions of tourists to Athens, and since 1987, together with the entire territory of the Acropolis of Athens, it has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Where is the Parthenon
The Parthenon is located on the territory of the Acropolis of Athens in the very center of the Greek capital. In order to get to the Upper Town Hill, you need to get to the center of Athens. When traveling by Athens Skytrain, you need to get off at Akropolis station on the Athens Metro Red Line. Also, the large pedestrian street Dionysiou Areopagitou leads to the hill with the temple located on it.
Excursions to the Acropolis
You can visit the territory of the acropolis on your own; to do this, you need to purchase a ticket at the ticket office at the entrance to the territory of the archaeological site.
Opening hours of the Acropolis of Athens: 8:00 - 20:00, seven days a week.
Ticket price: 12 EUR, ticket is valid for 4 days from the date of purchase.
When visiting the acropolis, it is strictly forbidden to touch ancient buildings with your hands, including columns.
Ordering an individual tour of the Acropolis and visiting the main attractions with a Russian-speaking guide will cost 320 EUR. This excursion also includes a sightseeing tour of Athens. Duration of the excursion: from 2 to 5 hours.
For almost 2,500 years, the Parthenon has reigned over Athens, the Temple of Athena the Virgin - 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 classic 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. Later for this he was accused of blasphemy 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 main part of the sculptures was 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.
When we think about the great civilizations in human history, it is impossible not to think of the ancient Greeks. Many centuries ago, Western culture was born on their land, from law and politics to athletics and architecture. Remnants of the former glory of one of the most advanced civilizations in the world still excite the imagination, and it is unlikely that there will be such an iconic architectural monument that will be more reminiscent of Ancient Greece than the Parthenon.
As one of the most famous landmarks in the world, the Parthenon attracts millions of tourists every year who seek to see its majestic form with their own eyes. Naturally, with such a long history of existence, there will always be interesting facts that it would be nice for a modern person to know about in order to have an idea about this iconic architectural structure.
A little history: Situated on the Acropolis in Athens, the Parthenon was built during the greatest period of the Greek Empire. Its construction began back in 447 BC, in 9 years the main work was completed, but it took another 6 years to decorate it with decorative elements. Despite the fact that the construction method cannot be called innovative, nevertheless, the proportions of the Parthenon have been studied for centuries and have become the canon of classical architecture.
1. The temple was built in honor of the Greek goddess Athena
The Parthenon was built in honor of the goddess Pallas Athena, who was considered not only the patroness of Athens, but also of crafts, art, knowledge and science. She was also revered as the goddess of wisdom, victorious war, and defender of justice and law. Taking into account all the virtues of their patroness, the Greeks built the majestic Parthenon on the site of the old temple of the goddess as a sign of gratitude for their victory over the Persian invaders.
2. Origin of the name Parthenon
The name Parthenon comes from the Greek word παρθενών, which translates as “apartments for unmarried women.” The word is believed to refer specifically to one room in the Parthenon, although historians still debate which room it was. At the moment, there are different theories, it is quite possible that the name of the temple refers to the maidens (parthenoi), who participated in sacrifices to the goddess Athena, it was this action that guaranteed the safety of the city.
3. The Parthenon is located on a sacred site
The history of the Acropolis goes back much further than the Parthenon itself. In fact, the temple is located on the site of a much older temple dedicated to Athena, which is now called the Prethephenon or Old Parthenon. This old temple was destroyed during the Persian War in 480 BC, and it was destroyed during the construction stage, so even the ancient Greeks could not see the shrine in its finished form. Only 30 years later, after a devastating war, the Greeks decided to revive this place again and still build a majestic structure, the ruins of which we can see even after more than one millennium.
4. The Parthenon is one of the best examples of Greek architecture
The Parthenon became one of the iconic examples of architecture of the ancient Greeks, who created it in the form of a peripterus - a temple surrounded by columns in the Doric order. The structure of the building measures 30.9 by 69.5 meters and consists of two internal chambers (cells). A 12-meter statue of the goddess Athena was installed in the eastern cella. In the western chamber the main treasury of the Union of Greek city-states (Delian League) was located; only priests could be in it, who were responsible for the safety of the treasury.
Considering that the Parthenon was built in the best traditions of the architectural canons of the Doric order, which means that its columns have carved shafts and simple capitals. The impressive pediments that crowned each corner of the building were decorated with sculptures, and a continuous frieze ran around each inner chamber and column spandrels.
5. The Parthenon did not serve as a temple
Although we are accustomed to talking about the Parthenon as a temple - and it looks like a religious building, in ancient times the main cult image of Pallas Athena was located in another area of the Acropolis. While inside the Parthenon there was a majestic statue of Athena, which was created by the famous sculptor Phidias, but it was not associated with any specific cult and therefore was not worshiped.
6. Statue of Athena in the Parthenon
Despite the fact that the Parthenon was not a cult temple, it was created so that it could accommodate the 12-meter statue of Athena Parthenos, which was created by Phidias. The legendary sculptor and architect depicted Athena as the goddess of war. The patroness's head was decorated with a golden helmet, in her right hand she holds a statue of the winged Nike, and in her left hand she leans on a shield. The frame of the statue, made of wood, is lavishly decorated with ivory and gold. Unfortunately, Phidias’s creation has been lost, but in Nashville (USA) you can see a full-scale copy of Athena Paladas in a modern interpretation.
7. During Ancient Greece, the Parthenon was bright and colorful
There is an opinion that the architectural structures of antiquity had the natural color of untouched stone or marble, but this is a misconception. The Parthenon - like most Greek architecture and even sculptures were originally painted. While historians debate how much of the structure was covered in color, archaeologists using ultraviolet light discovered pigments that had simply faded away over time and lost their color completely. Research has shown that all the sculptures and carved elements on the pediments, frieze and roof were painted in ultra blue, red and gold tones.
8. Transformation of an ancient temple into a Christian church
The Parthenon served as a treasury depository and was the temple of the goddess Athena for a thousand years. But when Athens lost its former power and glory, turning into a dilapidated provincial city of the Roman Empire, which could not protect its shrine from the greed of the emperor, who seized all the treasures and took them to Constantinople.
After all these sad events, around the 5th century AD, Patriarch Paul III of Constantinople ordered it to be rebuilt into the Church of St. Sophia. For almost 1 thousand years it served as a place of worship for Christians, until the Ottoman Empire came to these lands.
9. For almost 200 years, the Parthenon acted as... a mosque
It is not surprising that the Parthenon has undergone several transformations over its long history, as this is quite common for many ancient structures. In the 1460s, when Greece was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, the temple was converted into a mosque and served as such for almost 200 years. As the authors of the site learned, the minaret was formed from a tower that was previously used as a bell tower, because before that a Catholic church was created here.
10. Some Parthenon sculptures are kept in the British Museum
At a time when Greece was still under Ottoman rule, the Scottish nobleman Thomas Bruce removed half of the Parthenon sculptures that had survived at that time. The British claim that he received permission from the Ottomans, and in 1800-1803. they were transported by sea to Great Britain and are now in the British Museum.
But most experts agree that the Parthenon marbles, the greatest example of classical Greek fine art, were sold by enterprising Turks. But be that as it may, for more than a decade Greece has been calling on the British to return unique ancient sculptures to their homeland, but no agreement has been reached on this issue.
Any work of art that has been the main attraction of the country in which it is located for many centuries is surrounded by rumors and legends. Truth and fiction are closely intertwined in traditions and legends passed on from mouth to mouth. The ever-falling Leaning Tower of Pisa was no exception, which for many years has undergone not only the pilgrimage of millions of tourists, but also reconstruction, because
On the Athenian Acropolis stands the temple of the Virgin Athena Parthenos, dedicated to the patroness of the city of Athens (daughter of the supreme god Zeus) during the reign of Pericles.
Work on its construction began in 447 BC and ended mainly in 438 BC. e., and finishing and sculptural work was carried out even before 434 BC. e.
The architect of the Parthenon is Ictinus, his assistant is Callicrates. The creator of the Parthenon is the famous ancient Greek sculptor Phidias, based on sketches and under whose general supervision work was carried out to create sculptures: the Virgin Athena Parthenos, the marble frieze, metopes, dandies of the Parthenon by the best masters of the 5th century BC.
The Parthenon in Athens was built in honor of the victory of the Greeks over the Persians, which was expressed in the solemnity of the forms of the Doric columns of the temple, in its harmony and harmony, in its proportions.
The interior of the temple was given a majestic appearance by a two-story colonnade. At the same time, the Parthenon inside was divided into the eastern part (a larger room), where there was a statue of Athena Parthenos, made in the chrysoelephantine technique, and the western part, called, in fact, the Parthenon, in which the Athenian treasury was kept.
Architectural and structural solution of the Parthenon
The Parthenon in ancient Greece is a temple of the Doric order, the architecture of the Parthenon is such that in plan it has the shape of a rectangle, its height is 24 m. Its base is the flat top of a huge rock of the acropolis, which seems to serve as a natural pedestal.
The optimal dimensions of the Parthenon, which was supposed to stand on a rock, were determined according to the principle of the “golden ratio”, namely: the ratio of the mass of the temple and the rock should correspond to the proportions of the temple - this ratio, by the way, was considered harmonious in the times of ancient Greece.
The Parthenon in Athens is surrounded on all sides by columns: the architecture of the Parthenon included 8 columns on the short sides and 14 on the long sides. Parthenon columns were placed more often than in the earliest Doric temples.
The entablature is not so massive, so it seems that the columns easily support the ceiling. The columns of the Parthenon are not strictly vertical, but slightly inclined into the building. And they are not all the same thickness. The corner ones are made thicker than the others, but against a light background they appear thinner.
By slightly tilting the columns, making them of different thicknesses, the creators of the temple thereby corrected optical distortions that violated the harmony and plasticity of the building, giving it harmony.
The Parthenon column is divided by vertical grooves - flutes, which make the horizontal seams between the parts of the column almost invisible and seem to eliminate its closedness.
Artistic and decorative design of the Parthenon
The structures that decorated the Parthenon are of significant value to us: a marble frieze, 92 metopes located on the four sides of the temple, two pediments.
Frieze of the Parthenon. On the upper part of the temple wall behind the outer colonnade you can see a frieze - zophorus. It is a continuous multi-figure 160-meter bas-relief marble ribbon, which depicts 350 people and 250 animals from various angles.
The Parthenon frieze was dedicated to the Great Panathenaia festival, which was held in Athens every 4 years in honor of the patroness of the city, the goddess Athena.
At the beginning of the frieze, a competition of horsemen is shown, then there are slaughtered animals, they are replaced by a procession of festively dressed people of Athens, carrying to the Parthenon the festive robe of Athena (peplos), woven by Athenian girls.
At the end of the procession, the end part of the frieze shows the feast of the 12 gods of Olympus. The frieze groups are small in size, but expressive, never repeating the many hundreds of figures of people and animals.
The architecture of the Parthenon involved the placement of metopes above the colonnade, on the outside of the temple, the plots of which were built on the mythological stories of Attica, depicting the minor exploits of Athena.
There were 92 metopes in total - 14 on the front sides and 32 on the side walls. They were carved in high relief - high relief. On the eastern pediment, a scene of a battle between gods and giants is depicted. On the western side there is a scene of the Greeks fighting the Amazons.
On the metopes on the northern side of the temple is the fall of Troy, on the southern side is the struggle between the Lapiths and the centaurs. But the pediment groups are dedicated to the main and most important events in the life of the goddess.
- eastern and western. The eastern pediment, which is better preserved, depicts the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus, according to ancient Greek myth.
In the right corner of the eastern pediment there are three female figures, perhaps these are three Moiras (goddesses of fate). The smooth softness and warmth of chiaroscuro in the folds of clothing of the female figures are interestingly conveyed.
The western pediment depicts a dispute between Athena and Poseidon over dominance over Attica.
Parthenon painting, cladding. The Parthenon was built entirely from squares of dry-laid white Pentelic marble. The properties of this marble are such that, due to the presence of iron in it, over time it acquired a golden patina, which gave the slabs a warm, yellowish tint.
However, some of the Parthenon slabs were painted when it was necessary to highlight some individual elements. Thus, the triglyphs, which were obscured by the cornice, were covered with blue paint. Blue paint was also used for the background of the metopes and pediments.
Gilding was used to paint the vertical slabs of the pediments. The upper parts of the temple were painted dark red, sometimes occasionally shaded with narrow strips of gilding.
The Parthenon in Athens in its original form existed for about two millennia. The following have survived to this day: on the territory of the acropolis - destroyed columns of the temple, a few fragments of metopes, friezes, pediments - are stored in various museums around the world.
