Parthenon: The Religious Center of Athens

The Parthenon is a temple that was built in the mid-5th century BCE and was dedicated to Athena Parthenos, also known as “Athena the Virgin”. It is located on the hill of the Acropolis at Athens and was built by Ictinus and Callicrates, who were architects and supervised Phidias, a sculptor. The temple was completed by 438 BCE after construction on it began around 447 BCE.

The Parthenon has been damaged over the years, losing most its sculpture, but the basic structure of it still remains unimpaired. Its structure consists of a row of baseless columns with square capitals that are placed on a three-stepped base supporting the roof. The roof consists of a architrave, a main beam resting across on the top of the columns, a band of alternating triglyphs and metopes, plain blocks in between the triglyphs. At the ends of the left and right, there is a triangular upper part on the sides of the building, however most of it has been removed by now. The temple consists of eight columns on the left and right and 17 on the north and south. Combined, it creates a walled interior rectangular cell. The only light that comes through the building is through the doorway at the east or some that is filtered through the marble tiles in the roof and ceiling. From the top step of the base, the temple is approximately 101,34 feet wide and 228.14 feet long.

The foundations of this building made of limestone, and the materials used to make the columns were Pentelic marble, which was a material used for a long time. The ideal goal for the temple was to protect and shelter the monumental statue of Athena made of gold and ivory, which was sculpted by Pheidias. The Parthenon creates an established ratio of 9:4 with its 8 columns at the front of the building and seventeen columns at the side. This ratio helps establish the vertical and horizontal proportions of the temples and relationships of the building such as the spacing between the columns and their height.

In addition the cella, the inner area of the ancient temple, was enormous to accommodate the large stature of Athena. Six Doric columns with support the front and back porch are lined while a 23 smaller Doric columns surround the statue. The room in the back of the temple protected the treasure of Athena and four columns of ionic order supported the roof of it. This temple had the mix of doric and ionic elements which was not a new development in the architecture of the Greeks but it was not common. The fact that it was used in the building of the Parthenon shows a delicate balance between delicate and austere visual characteristics.

The temples in Greece were created to be viewed only from the exterior. The viewers could see glimpses of the statues on the inside through the open doors and never entered a temple. The Parthenon was formed in a way that utilized the aesthetic elements of the temple to create a smooth transition from the outside of the building to the inside that held the chryselephantine statue of Athena.

There are three main types of columns used in the temples of the Greeks: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. The main difference between these columns is the proportions. For example, Doric columns are thicker and shorter, and ionic columns are taller and slimmer. They may also be distinguished by the tops of the columns, their capitals. For example, the Doric capital has the simplest design and the ionic has curlicues called volutes, while the Cornithian has the acanthus leaves.

The subjects of the sculpture in the Parthenon depicted the chaotic times that Athens faced. After defeating the Persians, Salamis, and Plataea, the Parthenon was symbolic of the superiority of Greek culture against “barbarian” foreign forces. The rollercoaster between order and chaos was represented in the selected by the sculptures on the metopes around the outside of the temple, 32 along the long sides and 14 on each of the short. These illustrated the Olympian gods fighting entaurs, Amazons and the Fall of troy.

The Parthenon fulfilled its duty as the religious center of Athens for over ten centuries. Eventually, Hhowever, the temple was converted into a church by Christians in the 5th century. Most of the metopes on sides were damaged purposely and figures in the center of the east pediment were removed. Windows were put into the walls, and a bell tower as added to the west end.