The Parthenon

Work on the Parthenon, or temple of Athena Parthenos (Virgin Athena), commenced in 447 BC. While Pheidias directed the works with a view principally to the general adornment and incorporation of sculpture, it was the architects Ictinos and (to a lesser extent) Callicrates who were responsible for the construction and architectural refinements of the building. In layout, the Parthenon was a `double temple' with two unconnected principal interior spaces, similar to the so-called Old Parthenon that preceded it, though it was lengthened by one and widened by two columns. Most of the building rests on the Old Parthenon's massive foundations that had been built on the south side of the Acropolis, with a slight shift to the north and west. Whether or not this influenced the precise proportions of the building, care nevertheless appears to have been taken to incorporate into its north colonnade a naiskos, or small shrine, and its round altar, which originally stood just beyond the Old Parthenon.

The Parthenon is a peripteral, octastyle Doric temple (ie wrapped by colonnades with eight columns on the short sides) which, like the other Periclean buildings on the Acropolis, is built of fine Pentelic marble. It measures 69.5x30.86 metres (228 x 101 feet), and its exterior columns stand 10.43 metres tall. Its length is determined according to the Doric formula of twice the number of columns on the pedimented fronts plus one, ie seventeen. This building displays the characteristic features of Doric temples, which are derivative of earlier, timber structures. These include three tall steps at the base, known as the crepidoma; fluted, baseless columns with simple capitals, consisting of a square abacus supported by a cushion-like echinut; an entablature, comprising an architrave (representing the principal beam), a frieze with metopes and triglyphs (representing the ends of secondary timber beams) and a cornice, comprising a projecting corona and antefixes. The pediments with their rich sculptures crowned the building's principal short elevations (Greek temples were typically oriented towards the rising sun). The most remarkable aspect of the Parthenon is its sculptures, considered to be among the greatest artistic achievements of the ancient world, and its architectural refinements, including the subtle curvature of the building's base and entablature, and the swelling of the columns.

As mentioned earlier, the Parthenon is a 'double temple' with two separate principal interior spaces, which are entered through colonnaded porches behind the building's exterior peristyle. The eastern porch, the Pronaos, led to the principal cells designed to hold Pheidias' colossal chryselephantine (gold-and-ivory) statue of Athena Parthenos. It is possible to reconstruct this statue on the basis of surviving descriptions and also miniature copies from the Roman period like the 'Varvakeion' and 'Lenormant' Athenas. It was similar in conception to Pheidias' other colossal figure on the Acropolis, the Bronze Athena. In the Parthenon the triple-crested, helmeted goddess stood in repose, extending a winged victory, or Nike, with her right hand and holding her shield with her left. She wore her famous serpent-fringed aigis with its gorgoneion (Medusa's head) affixed in the centre. An enormous snake, thought to represent Erichthonios in his role as guardian of the Acropolis, coils menacingly inside her shield. The statue was illuminated by two clerestory windows flanking the main cells door and a pool of water or oil in front of it reflected shimmering light back on to the statue.

Another unusual feature of the Parthenon's cells was the wrapping interior colonnade of superimposed columns. Flanking interior colonnades were not unusual in Doric temples but the returning colonnade at the far end of the cells, creating a continuous ambulatory, was an innovation intended to provide an appropriately rich architectural backdrop for the statue while permitting visitors to view it from all angles. The upper colonnade appears to have been accessed by a narrow stair tucked into the thickness of the cella's east wall. Either because it was almost 100 feet in length, or because it occupied the same site as a precinct or temple by the same name, the cells seems to have been referred to in antiquity as the Hecatompedon (Hundred-footer). The western room of the temple is believed to have been a treasury and was probably called 'Parthenon'. In the centre of the room were four tall Ionic columns forming a kind of atrium, though it is unlikely that this was open to the sky.

The incorporation of Ionic columns on the interior of the Parthenon is consistent with other, clearly Ionic influences on the building. These include the slender proportions of the Doric peristyle columns, its octastyle the sculpted frieze wrapping the outside of the cells wall. Both the Propylaia and Parthenon - the largest and most conspicuous buildings on the plateau - have a Doric exterior treatment, giving the impression that the Acropolis is a Dorian sacred ground. However, it is important to remember that the Athenians considered themselves to be Ionians, unlike most mainland Greek city states which claimed a Dorian ancestry. It is not surprising therefore that the Athenians chose to use the Ionic style for the Temple of Nike, the first building on the way up to the Acropolis, and the Erechtheion, which was the most sacred structure on the summit. Ionic features were deliberately used both in the Propylaia and the Parthenon, probably as expressions of ethnic pride.

Today the Parthenon frieze is the most celebrated feature of the ancient temple, though in antiquity it appears to have been less noticed (for example, the ancient traveller Pausanias in his description of the temple makes no mention of it). Its modern fame is due to the fact that little remains of the building's more spectacular pedimental sculpture. The frieze was removed to London between 1802 and 1811 by Lord Elgin, where it exerted a powerful influence on European art and taste. The subject of the frieze is thought to be the annual Panathenaic procession from the lower city to the Acropolis, culminating in the presentation of a new peplos, a sacred robe, to Athena at the temple of Athena Polias, or Erechtheion. Carved in relief by a team of sculptors under the direct supervision of Pheidias, the frieze depicts progressing ranks of mounted knights (probably youths from aristocratic families) with other celebrants and sacrificial animals. It concludes over the Parthenon's eastern door with the handing-over by a child of the sacred peplos, in the presence of a large assembly of the gods.
Other greatly admired sculptures from the Parthenon are the metopes, the best preserved of which are from the south side of the temple, depicting scenes from the a battle of the Lappish and Centaurs.

Little survives of the pedimental sculptures but we are able to reconstruct them from ancient descriptions and later sketches by Jacques Carrey, a 17th century French visitor who in 1674 was able to record many of the figures still in position. Thirteen years after Carrey's visit, the Parthenon was severely damaged in a huge explosion caused by cannon bombardment by Venetian troops of a Turkish garrison that had turned part of the Parthenon into a gunpowder magazine. The east pediment, over the front of the temple, showed the birth of Athena springing fully armed from the head of Zeus, while the west pediment depicted the contest between Poseidon and Athena for patronage of Athens and Attica.

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