The Acropolis is one of the most famous landmarks in the world, towering over smog-filled Athens and impelling millions of visitors each year to climb to its summit and marvel at its ancient ruins. The sacred rock’s star attraction is the Parthenon, built in the 5th century BC in honour of the goddess Athena who gave her name to the city.<\/p>\n
This once magnificent home of the gods has been ravaged by time, earthquakes and most of all by the barbarism of man. When all’s said and done, it’s little more now than a fairly impressive collection of crumbling monuments. But understand the history of the Acropolis and use a little imagination and you can’t fail to be awestruck by the tattered remnants of one of the greatest wonders of the ancient world.<\/p>\n
It’s a common mistake to confuse the Acropolis, one of the eight hills of Athens, with the Parthenon which is the main temple dominating the skyline for miles around. The place takes its name from the words “acro” meaning high point and “polis” meaning city. Prehistoric man naturally made a beeline for high places with steep slopes which afforded an ideal defence against invasion. The Acropolis of Athens was inhabited as far back as 3000 BC and by the year 1400 BC had become a powerful Mycenaean city.<\/p>\n
In the year 510 BC an oracle from the priestess of Delphi (whose job was to issue utterances on behalf of the god Apollo) decreed that the Acropolis should no longer be inhabited by man and should remain the province of the gods forever more.<\/p>\n
The 5th century BC was the golden era of the Acropolis when the ruler of the city state Pericles set about transforming his domain into one of the most spectacular cities the world had ever seen. Using taxes levied from all the other city states of ancient Greece, Pericles embarked on a no expense spared building programme, creating a truly monumental home of the gods. Marble temples were erected, lavishly painted and adorned with jewels, gargantuan statues and elaborate friezes.<\/p>\n
The showpiece was the Parthenon, the temple of the virgin Athena who according to Greek legend won the city in a contest against the god Poseidon, gave her name to Athens and was subsequently revered by the people of ancient Greece. The magnificent temple had eight fluted columns at either end and 17 on each side (these days often clad in scaffolding). The ceiling was painted blue and decorated with stars and a spectacular statue of the goddess, clad in a gold dress and bedecked with jewels, was erected on a pedestal in the inner sanctuary. The statue was lost after being taken to Constantinople in the year 426 AD.<\/p>\n
Mythology:<\/strong><\/p>\n The founder of Athens, according to mythology, was King Cecrops. He had been born of the earth and was half man and half snake. He taught the inhabitants many arts, as well as burial customs, and decided which god would protect the city.<\/p>\n There were two candidates: the goddess Athena and the god Poseidon. In order to prove their worth, and perhaps to bribe the people, each presented a gift.<\/p>\n Poseidon struck his trident on the rock of the Acropolis, and a spring of salt water gushed forth. The people ran to drink the water, but the water was not drinkable because it was seawater, since Poseidon was the god of the sea.<\/p>\n Then Athena touched the ground, and an olive tree grew. This turned out to be a much more useful gift than seawater and so Cecrops decided that Athena would be the protector of the city – thus the city got its name. The wooden statue of Athena that originally stood on the Acropolis was believed to have fallen from the sky.<\/p>\n\n The Parthenon is a temple, built in honor of the goddess Athena, patroness of the city of Athens. It was the result of the collaboration of important architects and sculptors in the mid-5th century BC. The era of its construction is associated with the ambitious expansionist plans of Athens and the political prestige that followed against its allies during the period of Athenian hegemony in Ancient Greece.<\/p>\n The ancient Greek word parthenon meant the apartment\/room of an unmarried woman (virgin) in a residence. In the case of the Parthenon, it seems to have been used initially only for one room of the temple. It is a matter of debate as to which room it was and how it acquired its name. The Greek-English Dictionary by Liddell-Scott-Jones states that this room was located in the western cella of the Parthenon.<\/p>\n Zamouri Green argues that the Parthenon was the place where the veil on the statue of Athena was worn by the arriphoria, a group of four girls chosen to serve their city each year during the Panathenaic Games.<\/p>\n Christopher Pelling argues that Athena Parthenos may have been a separate cult of Athena, closely related, though not identical, to that of Athena Polias. According to this theory, the name of the Parthenon means “temple of the virgin goddess” and refers to the cult of Athena Parthenos that was associated with the temple.<\/p>\n The term virgin, whose origin is unclear, means “pure and unmarried woman” and was used mainly for Artemis, the goddess of wild animals, hunting, nature, and Athena, the goddess of strategy and tactics, crafts and practical training. It has also been suggested that the name of the temple comes from the virgins, whose sacrifice ensured the safety of the city.<\/p>\n The first source in which the entire building is described as the Parthenon is a text by the orator Demosthenes, from the 4th century BC. In documents from the 5th century BC. the building was referred to as “the temple”. The architects Iktinos and Callicrates seem to have referred to the building as “Ekatompedos” in their lost treatise on Athenian architecture, and during the 4th century onwards, the building is referred to as “Ekatompedos” or “Ekatompedon” as well as “Parthenon”. In the 1st century AD Plutarch referred to the building using the name “Ekatompedos Parthenon”.<\/p>\n Since the Parthenon was dedicated to Athena, it was sometimes referred to as the Temple of Minerva, the Roman name for Athena, especially in the 19th century.<\/p>\n At least two temples preceded the Parthenon. The archaic temple, which was built of Piraeus Aktite stone and had bright colors, which are preserved in many of its parts, and the Proparthenon, which began to be built after the Battle of Marathon with Pentelic marble in the same position that the classical one later occupied.<\/p>\n The porphyry sculptures of the western pediment that one sees as soon as one climbs the grand staircase of the Acropolis Museum come from the archaic temple:<\/p>\n Two lions devouring a bull, Hercules fighting a sea creature at one end and the three-bodied demon at the other, ensembles that largely preserve their original colors.<\/p>\n It is the era when, at least on the Acropolis, many new things are happening in architecture. Thus, the archaic Parthenon becomes the first monumental stone temple in Attica, while some of its technical construction methods match those used in the Parthenon.<\/p>\n It was a Doric peripteran, like the Parthenon, but with a smaller number of columns on all sides. Also, morphologically, the epistyles and triglyphs have some details that recall forms of the Periclean Parthenon, while similarities between the two temples also exist in terms of technique, corrections and economy of labor.<\/p>\n How the first Parthenon was destroyed<\/strong><\/p>\n The Athenians themselves destroyed the first Parthenon, with the aim of building in its place a larger temple of marble, the first monumental temple where Pentelic marble is systematically used in architecture.<\/p>\n Architectural members of the first temple are used to build the southern wall, some of them on the foundations of the Parthenon, but also around it to the south and east. Its sculptures are buried in the mosque, because they belong to the deity. Whatever belongs to her remains in her sacred space and is not allowed to leave.<\/p>\n Architectural members from other great temples of the Acropolis also found a second use. Such as the two sanctuaries destroyed by the Persians, the Ancient Temple of Athena Polias and the Pro-Parthenon. The marble, unfinished vertebrae of the Proparthenon were incorporated into the eastern section of the northern wall, while the porphyry epistyles, triglyphs and cornices on the western section of the northern wall come from the Ancient Temple of Athena Polias, dating back to around 520 BC.<\/p>\n\n The Parthenon is the most magnificent monument of the Athenian state and the pinnacle of the Doric order. Its construction began in 448\/7 BC and was inaugurated in 438 BC at the Great Panathenaea, while the sculptural decoration was completed in 433\/2 BC. According to the sources, the architects who worked were Iktinos, Kallikrates and possibly Phidias, who was also responsible for the sculptural decoration.<\/p>\n It is one of the few all-marble Greek temples and the only Doric one with all its metopes in relief. Many parts of the sculptural decoration, the epistyle and the ceiling panels were decorated with written decoration in red, blue and gold. Pentelic marble was used, except for the stylobate, which was made of limestone.<\/p>\n The pterygota had 8 columns in width and 17 in length. The placement of the columns is unusually dense with a ratio of column diameter to post-column spacing of 1:2.25 (cf. the ratio of 1:2.32 in the temple of Zeus at Olympia and 1:2.65 in the temple of Aphaia at Aegina).<\/p>\n On the narrow sides there was a second row of 6 columns that created the illusion of a dipteral temple. Another peculiarity was the existence of a frieze that ran around the cella along its entire length and is perhaps the most obvious of the Ionic influences. The metopes on the east side depict the Gigantomachy. In the west, the Amazon War is depicted, in the south, the Centaurs’ War, and in the north, scenes from the Trojan War.<\/p>\n\n The frieze depicts the procession of the Panathenaic Games, the largest religious festival in Athens. It was 160 meters long and almost a meter wide. There is evidence that the frieze was completed after the stones that made it up had been raised to the building. Although the frieze was carved by a large number of craftsmen, the overall design was drawn up by a single artist. This name is not known, but we assume that it was Phidias or one of his students. The theme of the frieze is innovative, because it does not narrate a mythological but a real event.<\/p>\n It is the moment of the procession and the delivery of the veil by the people of Athens to the patron goddess Athena. On the west side of the frieze, the preparation in the Kerameikos is visible. On the eastern side, where the entrance to the temple was, Athena, Zeus, Hera and other gods were represented, who came to take part in the procession and among them a child appears who hands the priest the veil. The composition, the course and the finish are represented by 400 figures of humans and gods, 200 figures of animals, such as sheep, oxen and horses.<\/p>\n The great variety of the figures, the attractive modesty of the virgins, the free and effortless attitude of the men in conversation, the liveliness of the horses, the strength of the awkward oxen and finally the grace of all the figures and movements make the frieze, not only an authentic film of the religious procession of the Panathenaic Games and a lasting monument to the glory of Athens, but also a masterpiece of the great artist of the Parthenon.<\/p>\n On the west side of the frieze, which depicts the preparation scenes, there is a slab, on which there is only a man and a horse. Their features are extremely detailed and it is believed that this slab is the work of Phidias himself. On the east pediment, above the entrance, the birth of Athena was presented. On the west pediment, the one that was visible from the Propylaea, was the dispute between Athena and Poseidon for the possession of the Attic land. Athena offered the olive tree and Poseidon caused seawater to gush from the rock. Men and gods decided that Athena had made the best gift and so she became the patron goddess of the city.<\/p>\n Inside, there was a two-story Doric colonnade in the shape of a \u201cP\u201d, which created a gallery, from which visitors could admire the gold and ivory statue of Athena from various points. In the back dome, the treasury, that is, the precious offerings of Athena, were kept. Its roof was supported by four Ionic columns. The roof of the entire temple, together with the sleepers, the covers and the cornices, was marble, but it was supported by large wooden beams.<\/p>\n The Parthenon exhibits perfectly harmonious proportions down to the smallest detail; although this temple was larger than other Doric temples of its time (with 8\u00d717 columns, instead of the 6\u00d713 that were common in the 5th century BC), its proportions were so harmonious that they gave it a surprising homogeneity of form, monumental grandeur and unprecedented grace compared to its heavier Doric predecessors.<\/p>\n The temple’s fame also contributed to its inconceivable refinements, its imperceptible deviations from the vertical and horizontal directions and its harmonious proportions. The stylobate presented a slight tympanic curvature, the radian columns deviated from the vertical towards the center of the temple and the overall design was pyramidal.<\/p>\n In this way, an inward and upward movement was achieved that transformed the Parthenon into a pulsating organic whole. The tension of the columns (a subtle “bulging” in their middle section) visually conveyed the fact that the columns were lifting a great weight. These innumerable subtleties were designed with great genius and executed with mathematical precision.<\/p>\n\n The Propylaea is the luxurious gate of the Acropolis. Etymologically, the word is the combination of the prefix pro- with the word gate, which simply means that the building was the central gate of the Acropolis.<\/p>\n The Propylaea is a Doric style building. It consists of three aisles. The main Stoa and two wings. The Stoa is an imposing space, measuring 24 by 18 meters. The north wing, 8.5 meters long, consists of a stoa and a room, the gallery, which hosted painting exhibitions. The west facade is supported by three Doric style columns that allowed plenty of light to enter. The south wing was left unfinished. Three Ionic style columns, 9.26 meters high, separate the Stoa from the wings on each side. The eastern facade of the portico is supported by six Doric columns. They form three gates, of which the middle one is wider than the others and has no steps, because the hecatomb, the hundred animals intended for sacrifice, passed through there. The marble roof was decorated with panels.<\/p>\n The Propylaea of \u200b\u200bthe Acropolis of Athens were built on the western side of the rock, in the same place as the gate of the fortress of the Mycenaean acropolis. The first Propylaea were built by Peisistratos and his successors (600 \u2013 527 BC). They were located further north than the later ones built by Mnesicles. Around the middle of the 6th century. BC, during the time of the Peisistratids and while the area had already been transformed into a sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Athena, the first propylaeum was built. A new propylaeum was constructed between 510-480 BC, but was destroyed by the Persians in 480 BC. After the Persians, it was repaired or rebuilt during the implementation of the Acropolis walling program, by Themistocles and Cimon. The monumental Propylaea of \u200b\u200bthe classical period, which the visitor sees today, are part of the grandiose building program carried out on the Acropolis by Pericles. They were built between 437-432 BC, after the completion of the Parthenon, to designs by the architect Mnesicles. The original design of the building was innovative from an architectural and artistic point of view, but it was never completed in its entirety. The architecture of the building imitated the Great Propylaea of \u200b\u200bEleusis.<\/p>\n The building is constructed mainly of Pentelic marble and is divided into three sections. The central rectangular section is the main propylaeum. On the eastern and western sides it has two six-column Doric arcades, between which a transverse wall with five doors is inserted. The passage to the Acropolis was through the central door, which is framed, between the western arcade and the transverse wall, by three Ionic columns on each side. The central building followed the slope of the ground and the eastern arcade was higher than the western one, as was the gabled roof, while the two side buildings were lower. The problem of the slope of the ground was also addressed inside the building, with steps on the facade and the transverse wall.<\/p>\n The north wing of the Propylaea consists of a room, known from the description of the traveler Pausanias as the Gallery, because the room was decorated with paintings, among which were works by the painters Polygnotus and Aglaophon. Also, on the north side of the wing was placed the cult statue of Hermos Propylaeus, protector of the entrances and the propylaea. In front of it is a small Doric portico of three columns and the entrance to it was through a door flanked by two windows. According to some scholars, this room was a resting or dining area for visitors to the Acropolis and it is likely that there were beds inside.<\/p>\n The southern wing of the Propylaea initially appears to have been designed similarly to the northern one, but the existence of the earlier sanctuary of Nike forced the architect not to implement the original plan. For this reason, only one portico was constructed, corresponding to the northern one, consisting of three columns. From its western side, access to the temple of Athena Nike was possible. The original plan of the building seems to have foreseen the construction of side rooms on the eastern side as well, but these were never built.<\/p>\n The form of the Propylaea remained the same until the early Christian period (4th-7th centuries), when the southern wing was converted into a church, while in the 10th century the central section also functioned as a church dedicated to the Taxiarches. During the Frankish rule (13th-14th century) the Propylaea was the residence of the Frankish ruler, and at the same time, to strengthen the fortification of the Acropolis, a tower was built on the right wing of the building, known as Koulas, which does not exist today. During the period of the Turkish rule (1458-1830) the Propylaea became the seat of the Turkish garrison commander.<\/p>\n The central building was used as a gunpowder store and it caused the first major destruction of the monument, which was blown up by an explosion in 1640. After the liberation from the Turks, the medieval and Turkish additions were demolished and excavations were carried out in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Propylaia.<\/p>\n\n The Temple of Athena Nike or (as it was called in Roman times) the Temple of Winged Nike is a small amphiprostyle Ionic temple on the Acropolis of Athens. The statue of the goddess Athena Nike, the “wingless”, i.e. without wings, was kept here, so that she would never leave the city of Athens.<\/p>\n The temple is located on a tower-shaped bastion, in the south (right) wing of the Propylaea of \u200b\u200bthe Acropolis. The dangerous side of the bastion was closed by a marble breastplate (parapet). From this breastplate some slabs were saved, which are exhibited in the Acropolis Museum and depict Nikes leading cows to sacrifice.<\/p>\n Among them, the famous Nike untying her sandal. The message of these representations was clear: Athens was and will be victorious. It is an amphiprostyle four-column temple in the Ionic style, that is, with four columns on the facade and four more behind. The cella is a simple single-aisled one, of extremely small dimensions, in which the pronaos is also incorporated.<\/p>\n This reduction was dictated by the change in design, which resulted from the lack of space in the bastion. The eastern side of the cella was open. The frieze on the western side was decorated with relief representations of battles between Greeks and mounted orientals or other Greeks, possibly intentionally leaving the vague impression that these are Athenians defeating Persians or other Greek city-states.<\/p>\n The eastern frieze depicted an assembly of the Olympian gods with Zeus and Athena in the middle. Inside the cella was the archaic statue of Athena, who held in her hands, according to the writer Harpocration, her helmet and a pomegranate, a symbol of power and fertility. In front of the temple was an altar.<\/p>\n The architects had disagreed on the proposed designs of the temple of Nike and the Propylaea, and the result of their compromise was the construction of the tower-like bastion of Nike, which on one side would frame the staircase leading to the Propylaea. On the other side, it followed the orientation of the pre-existing (and also the classical) archaic temple of Athena Nike.<\/p>\n The design of the temple was considered successful in antiquity, as evidenced by its copying in five other buildings, all in Attica.<\/p>\n The decorative elements of the column bases, the capitals and the entablature, together with the relief frieze, all made of excellent quality Pentelic marble, make the temple look like a jewelry box.<\/p>\n\n The Erechtheion is an ancient temple on the north side of the Acropolis in Athens. The temple is dedicated to Athena and Poseidon. According to some sources, the statue was a dipetes, that is, it had fallen from the sky. Of course, there is also the opinion that the statue of the goddess was brought by Erichthonius.<\/p>\n The current form of the temple dates back to between 421 and 406 BC. Its architect was probably Mnesicles and the building owes its name to an altar dedicated to the legendary hero Erichthonius. The sculptor of the building was Phidias, who had been appointed by Pericles to decorate the Erechtheion and the Parthenon.<\/p>\n There are some who argue that the temple was built in honor of King Erechtheus, who is believed to have been buried nearby. Erechtheus is mentioned in Homer’s Iliad as a great king and ruler of Athens during the Archaic Period, and Erechtheus and Erichthonius were often identified. It is believed that the temple replaced the Sanctuary of Athena Polias, which was built under the Peisistratids and destroyed by the Persians in 480 BC.<\/p>\n The need to preserve many objects related to sacred rituals explains the complex design. The main building consists of four parts. The largest of these is the eastern cella, with an Ionic portico as a propylon at its eastern end.<\/p>\n Other modern views consider that the entire interior space on the lowest NW level and in the eastern propylon was used for access to the altar of Athena Polias via a propylon and steps, as well as for a public viewing platform.<\/p>\n The entire temple is built on a slope, so that the northwestern side is about 3 meters lower than the southeastern side. It was built exclusively of Pentelic marble, with lintels of black limestone from Eleusis, which bear relief sculptures of white marble.<\/p>\n It had elaborately carved windows and doors, and the columns were elaborately decorated (more so than is seen today). They were painted, gilded, and accented with gilded bronze and inlaid colorful beads. The building is known for its early examples of egg-and-arrow and “linework” decorative patterns.<\/p>\n\n On the north side, there is a large entablature with six Ionic columns and on the south side the famous \u201cProtection of the Maidens\u201d, which are six clothed female figures (Caryatids) that function as supporting columns. This entablature was constructed to conceal the gigantic section required to support the Cecropia, as the size and construction budget of the building were significantly reduced after the Peloponnesian War.<\/p>\n The Erechtheion was associated with the most ancient and sacred relics of the Athenians: The Palladium, which was the xoan (a wooden bust of Athena that fell from the sky \u2013 not made by man) of Athena Polias (Protectress of the City), the marks from Poseidon’s trident and the well with seawater that resulted from Poseidon’s blow, the sacred olive tree that sprouted when Athena struck a rock with her spear, during her successful dispute with Poseidon for the city, the supposed burial places of the mythical kings Cecrops and Erechtheus, the sacred shrines of Cecrops’ three daughters, Ersis, Pandrossos and Aglaurus, and those of the tribal heroes, Pandion and Butes. An olive tree still stands on the west side of the Erechtheion, but was planted in modern times by Queen Sophia, granddaughter of Queen Victoria, in honor of the Athenians.<\/p>\n The eastern part of the building was dedicated to Athena Polias, while the western part was the place of worship of Poseidon and Erechtheus. There were altars to Hephaestus and Butes, brother of Erechtheus. According to legend, the sacred snake of Athena lived in the area. The snake was fed with honey by Canephorus, priestess of Athena Polias, according to the tradition of the women of the ancient family of the Eteobutae, the supposed heirs of the hero Butes. The snake’s refusal to be fed was interpreted as a bad omen.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Parthenon<\/h3>\n
The monument<\/h3>\n
The frieze of Parthenon<\/h3>\n
On the north side, figures such as the apobates, musicians, boatmen, thallophoroi, canephoroi and hydriaphoroi are presented.<\/p>\nPropylaea<\/h3>\n
Temple of Athena Nike<\/h3>\n
Erechtheion<\/h3>\n
It has has been described as the most elegant and at the same time the most peculiar building of the Athenian Acropolis. Here was located the cult statue of Athena, the sacred bretas or edos or idol or even xoan, but also the statue of the springs.<\/p>\nThe Caryatids<\/h3>\n