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The Parthenon ( Greek: Παρθενων, the Temple of Athena the Virgin) is the most famous surviving building of Ancient Greece and one of the most famous buildings in the world. The building has stood atop the Acropolis of Athens for nearly 2,500 years and was built to give thanks to Athena, the city's patron goddess, for the salvation of Athens and Greece in the Persian Wars. It replaced an older temple which had been destroyed by the Persians. As well as being a temple, the Parthenon was used as a treasury, and from 454 BC was the location of the treasury of the Delian League, which later became the Athenian Empire.1 Design and construction
The Parthenon was built at the initiative of Pericles, the leading Athenian politician of the 5th century BC. It was built under the general supervision of the sculptor Phidias, who also had charge of the sculptural decoration. The architects were Iktinos and Kallikrates. Construction began in 447 BCCenturies: 6th century BC 5th century BC 4th century BC Decades: 490s BC 480s BC 470s BC 460s BC 450s BC 440s BC 430s BC 420s BC 410s BC 400s BC 390s BC Years: 452 BC 451 BC 450 BC 449 BC 448 BC 447 BC 446 BC 445 BC 444 BC 443 BC 442 BC Events Athens begi and the building was substantially completed by 438 BCCenturies: 6th century BC 5th century BC 4th century BC Decades: 480s BC 470s BC 460s BC 450s BC 440s BC 430s BC 420s BC 410s BC 400s BC 390s BC 380s BC Years: 443 BC 442 BC 441 BC 440 BC 439 BC 438 BC 437 BC 436 BC 435 BC 434 BC 433 BC Births Deaths Even, but work on the decorations continued until at least 433 BCCenturies: 6th century BC 5th century BC 4th century BC Decades: 480s BC 470s BC 460s BC 450s BC 440s BC 430s BC 420s BC 410s BC 400s BC 390s BC 380s BC Years: 438 BC 437 BC 436 BC 435 BC 434 BC 433 BC 432 BC 431 BC 430 BC 429 BC 428 BC Births Deaths Even. Some of the financial accounts for the Parthenon survive, and show that the largest single expense was transporting the stone from Mount Pentelicus, about 16km from Athens, to the Acropolis. In 454 BC, the Delian League's treasury was moved from the Panhellenic sanctuary at DelosThe island of Delos ( Greek: , Dhilos , isolated in the centre of the roughly circular ring of islands called the Cyclades, near Mykonos, had a position as a holy sanctuary for a millennium before Olympian Greek mythology made it the birthplace of Apollo to the Acropolis.
Although the nearby Temple of HephaestusThe Temple of Hephaestus in central Athens, Greece, is the best-preserved ancient Greek temple in the world, but is far less well-known than its illustrious neighbour, the Parthenon. The temple is also known as the Hephaesteum and the Theseum ( Greek: thi is the most complete surviving example of a Doric order430 420 BC The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of Ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Greek Doric order was the earliest of these, known from the 7th centur temple, the Parthenon, in its day, was regarded as the finest. The temple, wrote John Julius NorwichJohn Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich (born 15 September 1929), known as John Julius Norwich is a British historian, travel writer and television personality and the son of the Conservative politician and diplomat Duff Cooper, who in 1952 was created V, "enjoys the reputation of being the most perfect Doric temple ever built. Even in antiquity, its architectural refinements were legendary, especially the subtle correspondence between the curvature of the stylobateIn Greek architecture, Stylobate is the immediate foundation of a row of classical columns. Also called stereobate''. Ancient Greek architecture., the taper of the naos walls and the entasis of the columns." The stylobate is the platform on which the columns stand. It curves upwards slightly for optical reasons. Entasis refers to the slight swelling of the columns as they rise, to counter the optical effect of looking up the temple. The effect of these subtle curves is to make the temple look even more symmetrical than it actually is.
Sir Bannister Fletcher wrote in A History of Architecture:
- "The temple stands on the conventional three steps... The cella [the body of the temple, as distinct from the columned porticoes] consisted of two rooms end to end with hexastyle prostyle porches [porches with internal rows of columns]... Inside the colonnades, towards the end, there stood the gold and ivory statue of Athena Parthenos [Athena the Virgin], the work of Phidias, representing Athena fully armed with spear, helmet, aegis [shield] and accompanied by a serpent, and holding in her extended right arm a statue of victory. The ceiling was of wood, with painted and gilded decoration. Light was admitted, as normally in Greek temples, only through the doorway when the great [bronze] doors were opened."
Measured at the top step, the dimensions of the base of the Parthenon are 30.9 meters by 69.5 metres. The cella was 29.8 metres long by 19.2 metres wide, with internal Doric colonnades in two tiers, structurally necessary to support the roof. On the exterior, the Doric columns measure 1.9 metres in diameter and are 10.4 metres high. The corner columns are slightly larger in diameter. The stylobate has an upward curvature towards its centre of 60 millimetres on the east and west ends, and of 110 millimetres on the sides.
