The Parthenon is the most famous building from ancient Greece.
Great buildings, like great works of art, have a great deal to them; and this note considers the artistry, content, thinking, context of culture and society, interpretation and reception of this eminent structure.
What does the Parthenon look like ?
To get started, here are pictures of how the Parthenon looks today: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=parthenon&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi3gJqFme7jAhW5QUEAHT7yBLgQ_AUIESgB&biw=1504&bih=860
What was the Parthenon ?
The Parthenon was a temple to the goddess Athena in the centre of ancient Athens, on the top of a hill called the Acropolis (meaning ‘high city’). It is the most famous building from ancient Greece and was central to the city life of Athens. The name ‘Parthenon’ means ‘temple of the young women’, possibly referring to the young women who looked after the temple and lived and worked around it. One would expect the temple to be named after Athena, but it isn’t: if it was called ‘temple of the young woman’ (singular), then it might be.
The structure we see nowadays is a partial ruin: the original building was quite different. Even as a ruin, it still looks v good. Why is the Parthenon so celebrated ?
It was an important building, making a statement about the city of Athens at its cultural and political peak.
It was also very elegant, striking and uplifting. It achieved this through:
(a) Various sophisticated devices in the structure:
it combines grandeur with elegance. It is quite large, but not massive. (Other temples went for the massive, heavy look eg the celebrated Temple of Artemis in Ephesus (west coast of modern Turkey) or the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. The Parthenon has eight columns in width and seventeen in length, so is longer than most temples, which tend to look strong and solid, whereas the Parthenon looks more elegant.)
it appears light, not heavy. This is achieved by a clever and subtle technique called ‘entasis’: (a) the pillars leaning in slightly (b) a slight inward curve on each of the pillars. If the pillars were all straight up and down, they would appear heavy, and they would look wider at the top than the bottom, when the viewer was standing next to them: https://images.app.goo.gl/DvJqhgD7
location. It is on a hill in the middle of the city, so it can be seen from most of the city. Combined with the lightness of appearance, this can make the building appear to ‘float’ when seen from a distance in Athens, giving it a sense of being special, with divine presence. This would remind Athenians of the protection they received from the goddess Athena – the fact it could be seen from any part of the city meant they were regularly re-minded of the goddess.
(b) decorative and pictorial elements: - high quality relief statues around the building. These were also important statements about Athens. There is much debate about what exactly is depicted but a common view is the following:
friezes (along the side) depicting:
- the Panathenaia festival, with Athenian citizens processing on horses.
pediments (at the ends) depicting
- Poseidon and various water divinities. Poseidon was important to Athens (a) because he and Athena had competed to be the patron deity (b) because Athens were very sea-faring, and Poseidon was god of the sea.
- the Sun and the Moon, depicting the passage of time in a day
metopes (small squares along the side), depicting:
- various battles where civilisation triumphed over anarchic forces: fall of Troy, lapiths vs centaurs, Greeks vs Amazons, gods vs giants. Overall, this is saying that Athens stands for order and civilisation.
(c) the statue of Athena
Within the temple, there was a stunning statue of Athena, an image of the goddess, made of gold and ivory. It was designed by the celebrated sculptor Pheidias. The room would be quite dark, so when worshippers entered the room, the statue would appear gradually out of the dark, giving a sense of the awesome presence of a divinity.
Statue of Athena: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=athena+statue+parthenon&tbm=isch&source=hp&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi7gIrlmu7jAhWVoFwKHfCGD_IQsAR6BAgDEAE&biw=1504&bih=860
What was the role of the Parthenon in the life of Athens ?
It was the most important temple in Athens - Athena was the patron deity of the city of Athens.
Every summer the city had a major religious festival called the ‘Panathenaia’, in which a large procession of citizens paraded up the hill to the Parthenon.
The centre-piece of the procession was a robe (peplos) for Athena. A new robe was woven each year by the young women living around the temple.
Several other structures on the Acropolis were part of the cult of Athena:
the temple of Athena Nike (Athena the Victor) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Athena_Nike
the wooden image (xoanon) of Athena, which was believed to be v ancient. The robe (peplos) was placed on this image.
the Erechtheion templehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erechtheion famous for the Karyatid pillars which were statues of young women https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caryatid
When was it built ?
It was built in the mid-400s BC (447 to 432BC), during the golden age of Athens, as part of a wide programme of works in Athens, organised by Pericles.
The main architects were Iktinos and Kallikrates. Building works were organised by the sculptor Pheidias, who also designed the main statue of Athena.
There had been a previous Parthenon under construction on the Acropolis, but all the buildings on the hill had been destroyed when the Persians invaded in 480BC. The Athenians took a vow never to build on the hill again, so that they would remember what had happened. However, once peace was eventually made with Persia about 450BC, it was felt that oath no longer applied, and work on new buildings commenced.
In between 480BC and 450BC, a similar building to the Parthenon called a stoa (a colonnade) had been built near the city market-place, organised by Cimon, a political opponent of Pericles.
What was the design of the Parthenon ?
It had the same general form as most ancient Greek temples: - pillars round the outside - an inner room (the ‘naos’ or actual holy room), surrounded by pillars, with an image of the deity. (The entrance to the inner room was at the back of the temple.)
- a v-shaped roof, with friezes round the high parts of the building. The friezes would be painted.
What did the temple look like originally ?
It looked quite different from the structure we see now, which is a partial ruin. It had the roof, friezes and inner room, which are now missing. Also, it is likely the relief statues were painted bright colours.
Original look: https://www.midweststudios.com/pages/project/2406/Parthenon/ and https://www.flickr.com/photos/87320276@N08/7989540704
Also, the hill top of the Acropolis was not as empty as it is now: it was actually crowded with other small temples and monuments:
Who was Athena ?
Athena was one of the major Greek deities, one of the main twelve who lived on Mount Olympus at the court of Zeus.
She was goddess of wisdom, crafts, arts, learning and ordered warfare (as opposed to Ares, the god of chaotic, destructive warfare). She was usually depicted with a robe, a helmet and a spear.
Athena was a daughter of Zeus (and perhaps of Metis ‘Order’). She sprang fully formed from the forehead of Zeus. She is unmarried and a young adult about thirty (the Greek gods were all fixed in their age). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athena
The gods Poseidon and Athena had a contest to become patron deity of Athens, which Athena won. Poseidon threw his trident into the ground, creating a spring; but Athena planted an olive tree. Olives were an important crop for Athens and the surrounding area (Attica). Did the ancient Greeks believe in their gods and myths ?
For most people at most times, probably yes. But it depends who and when.
Most people believed in the gods and that it was important to keep on good terms with them, by holding festivals and making offerings. This was the ‘conservative’ view, and most Athenians subscribed to it.
Among the more educated, however, there was increasing scepticism from about 500BC, about the nature of the gods. In particular, they found it problematic that the gods displayed negative behaviours such as destruction, jealousy, trickery. Some people disbelieved the myths but continued to believe in the Olympian gods; while others went further and disbelieved in the gods entirely. However, many moved on to a more philosophical belief in the divine, as with Plato, then the Stoics. Many people increasingly followed philosophy but outwardly practised the Olympian religion, which was seen as a civic duty. Total non-belief in the divine was probably not common, though it may have been under-reported, with non-believers judging it safer to keep quiet about it. In Athens, there was increasing tension between the conservative majority and the more questioning educated. This was an underlying cause of the philosopher Socrates being put on trial for ‘leading people to believe in other gods’ about 400 BC.
What is the history of the Parthenon building ? What has happened to it ?
Like many ancient Greek temples, the Parthenon has survived over 2,000 years. (The temples look quite flimsy, with rows of pillars, but clearly are v strong.)
It has been used as a church, a mosque and even a store-room for munitions (which exploded in the 1680s, causing extensive damage). There have been many additions to the Parthenon over the centuries, but they were all taken away in the early 1800s, in order to return, as far as possible, to the structures from the 400s BC.
Did you know ? There is a complete replica of the Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenon_(Nashville)
Footnotes:
The Elgin Marbles controversy
Most of the friezes from the sides and ends of the Parthenon are currently exhibited in the British Museum.
They were taken by a British aristocrat, Lord Elgin, about 1810, he claimed with permission; and transported to the UK. This is why they are called the Elgin Marbles.
There is controversy about whether Lord Elgin did a good or bad thing in taking the Parthenon marbles:
- on a pro-Elgin point, it’s worth noting that lots of people were helping themselves to parts of the Parthenon at the time, often to use as building materials; and Lord Elgin at least ensured the Marbles were preserved.
- on an anti-Elgin point, some would say it’s uncertain how much permission he really had; and it was not appropriate to take culturally important artefacts away from their homeland. It is very controversial that these key artefacts from ancient Greece are kept in a museum in another country. There is a long-standing debate about whether they should stay in the UK or be returned to Greece. Greece has asked for them to be returned, as an important national artefact. Some argue it is better for them to be in the British Museum, where more people will see them.
Greece recently built an Acropolis museum, leaving space for the Parthenon friezes.
Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elgin_Marbles Statement by the British Museum about the Elgin Marbles: https://www.britishmuseum.org/parthenon-sculptures-trustees-statement Website of the UK campaign to return the Elgin Marbles, or as they express it, to re-unify the Parthenon Marbles: https://www.parthenonuk.com/
What is an Acropolis ?
Ancient Greek towns had a hill which included some of their most important civic buildings, including temples or meeting places. ‘Acropolis’ means ‘high part of city’.
It was usually surrounded by a wall could be used as a place of refuge, for example if the city was attacked. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acropolis
Further reading:
webpage from British Museum: ttps://blog.britishmuseum.org/an-introduction-to-the-parthenon-and-its-sculptures/
The Parthenon by Mary Beard A wide-ranging overview, covering the history, meaning and cultural impact of the building. It’s more about how people's response to the building, rather than description of the building itself. https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-parthenon/professor-mary-beard/9781846683497
The Parthenon by David Stuttard A detailed narrative of the history surrounding the creation of the building in the 400s BC https://www.waterstones.com/book/parthenon/david-stuttard/9780714122847
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