Parthenon sculpture: metopes, pediments, friezes. The most famous temple in Greece is the Parthenon, dedicated to the goddess Athena the Virgin. Artistic and decorative design of the Parthenon

Published: June 8, 2015

The Parthenon (ancient Greek: Παρθενών; modern Greek: Παρθενώνας) is an ancient temple in , dedicated to the goddess Athena, whom the Athenians considered their patroness. Construction began in 447 BC. BC, when the Athenian Empire was at the peak of its power. It ended in 438 BC. e., although the decoration of the building continued until 432 BC. e. It is the most important surviving building of classical Greece, the zenith of which is generally considered to be the Doric order. The decorative sculptures of the Parthenon are considered among the most successful in Greek art. And the Parthenon itself is a symbol of Ancient Greece, Athenian democracy and Western civilization, and one of the greatest cultural monuments in the world. The Greek Ministry of Culture is currently implementing a program of selective restoration and reconstruction to ensure the stability of the partially destroyed structure.

The Parthenon, replaced by what historians call the Pre-Parthenon, was destroyed during the Persian invasion of 480 BC. e. The temple was built archaeoastronomically, according to the Hyades star cluster. Despite the fact that the sacred building was dedicated to the patron goddess of the city, it was actually used as a treasury. At one time, it served as the treasury of the Delian League, which later became the Athenian Empire. In the last decades of the sixth century AD, the Parthenon, which was converted into a Christian church, was dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

After the Ottoman conquest in the early 60s of the 15th century, it was turned into a mosque. On September 26, 1687, due to the Venetian bombardment, Ottoman ammunition stored in the building caught fire. The explosion seriously damaged the Parthenon and its sculptures. In 1806, Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, removed some of the surviving sculptures, ostensibly with Ottoman permission. They are now known as the Elgin or Parthenon Marbles. In 1816 they were sold to the British Museum in London, where they are exhibited today. Since 1983 (on the initiative of the Minister of Culture Melina Mercouri), the Greek government decided to return the sculptures to Greece.

Etymology

Originally, the name "Parthenon" came from the Greek word παρθενών (parthenon), and was referred to in the sense of "unmarried women's rooms" in a house, and in the case of the Parthenon, perhaps only a separate room of the temple was used at first. There is debate as to what room this was and how it got its name. According to the work of Lidle, Scott, Jones "Greek-English Lexicon" it was the western cella of the Parthenon. Jamari Greene believes that the Parthenon was the room in which peplum was presented to Athena at the Panathenaic Games. It was woven by the Arrephoros, four girls who were chosen every year to serve Athena. Christopher Pelling argues that the Athena Parthenos may represent a separate cult of Athena, closely related, but not identical, to the cult of Athena Polias. According to this theory, the name Parthenon means "temple of the virgin goddess" and refers to the cult of Athena Parthenos, which was associated with this temple. The epithet "parthenos" (παρθένος), whose origin is unknown, means "maiden, girl", but also "virgin, unmarried woman", and was mainly used in relation to Artemis, goddess of wild animals, hunting and vegetation, and Athena, goddess of strategy and tactics, craft and practical reason. There is also speculation that the name of the temple refers to the maidens (parthenos), whose supreme sacrifice guarantees the safety of the city.

© website, in the photo: The Parthenon today, July 2014

The first instance in which the name Parthenon clearly refers to the entire building was found in the writings of the orator Demosthenes, dating from the 4th century BC. In the 5th century the building was seen as a structure that was simply called ho naos ("temple"). It is believed that the architects Mnesicles and Kallicrates called it Hekatompodos ("one hundred feet") in their lost treatise on Athenian architecture, and in the 4th century and later, it was known as Hekatompedos or Hekatompedon, like the Parthenon; in the 1st century AD e. the writer Plutarch called the building Hekatompedon Parthenon.

Because the Parthenon was dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena, it was sometimes called the Temple of Minerva, the Roman name for Athena, especially in the 19th century.

Purpose

Although architecturally the Parthenon is a temple and is usually called that, in the generally accepted sense of the word this is not entirely true. A small temple was found inside the building, on the site of an old one, probably dedicated to Athena as a way to get closer to the goddess, but the Parthenon itself never accepted the cult of Athena Polis, the patroness of Athens; The cult image, which was washed in the sea and presented with peplos, was the olive xoan, located on the old altar in the northern part of the Acropolis.

The magnificent statue of Athena, by Phidias, was not associated with any cult and it is not known whether it kindled any religious fervor. She probably did not have a priestess, altar or cult name. According to Thucydides, Pericles once called the statue a gold reserve, emphasizing that it "consisted of forty talents of pure gold, and they could be taken out." The Athenian statesman thus assumed that the metal obtained from modern coinage could be used again without any disrespect. The Parthenon was then seen more as a large setting for a votive statue of Phidias, rather than a place of worship. It is said that many Greek authors in their works described the countless treasures stored inside the temple, such as Persian swords and small statues made of precious metals.

Archaeologist Joan Breton Connelly has recently championed the connection of the Parthenon's sculptural plan in presenting a series of genealogical accounts that trace Athenian features back through the centuries: from the birth of Athena, through cosmic and epic battles, to the great final event of the Athenian Bronze Age, the War of Erechtheus and Eumolpus. She argues that the pedagogical function of the Parthenon's sculptural decoration establishes and reinforces the Athenian foundations of myth, memory, values ​​and identity. Connelly's thesis is controversial and some well-known classicists such as Mary Beard, Peter Green and Garry Wheels have either questioned it or simply rejected it.

Early history

Old Parthenon

The initial desire to build a sanctuary of Athena Parthenos on the site of the current Parthenon was realized soon after the Battle of Marathon (ca. 490-488 BC) on a foundation of solid limestone, which was located at the southern part of the top of the Acropolis. This building replaced the Hekatompedon (i.e. "one hundred feet") and stood next to the archaic temple dedicated to Athena Polias. The Old Parthenon, or Pre-Parthenon as it is often called, was still under construction when it was built in 480 BC. e. the Persians sacked the city and destroyed the Acropolis.

The existence of the proto-Parthenon and its destruction is known from Herodotus. The drums of its columns were clearly visible and were built after the load-bearing wall north of the Erechtheion. Further material evidence of this structure was revealed during the excavations of Panagis Kavadias in 1885-1890. Their results allowed Wilhelm Dörpfeld, then director of the German Archaeological Institute, to argue that there was an underground structure in the original Parthenon, called Parthenon I, which was not located exactly below the current building, as previously thought. Dörpfeld's observation was that three of the steps of the first Parthenon were made of limestone, two of which were porous, like the base, and the top step of Carkha limestone, which was covered by the lowest step of Pericles' Parthenon. This platform was smaller and located just north of the final Parthenon, indicating that it was built for an entirely different building, now completely covered. The picture was somewhat complicated by the publication of the final report of the excavations in 1885-1890, which indicated that this underground structure was of the same age as the walls built by Cimon, and implied a later date for the first temple.

Plan of the Parthenon, photo: public domain

If the original Parthenon was indeed destroyed in 480, this raises the question of why the site remained in ruins for thirty-three years. One argument suggests an oath taken by the Greek allies before the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC. e., according to which the sanctuaries destroyed by the Persians will not be restored. Only in 450, with the conclusion of the Peace of Callias, did the Athenians free themselves from this oath. The mundane fact about the cost of rebuilding Athens after the Persian sack is not as plausible as its reason. However, Bert Hodge Hill's excavations led him to propose the existence of a second Parthenon, created during the reign of Cimon after 468 BC. e. Hill argued that the Carja limestone step, which Dörpfeld thought was the tallest in Parthenon I, was in fact the lowest of the three steps of Parthenon II, whose stylobate, according to Hill, measured 23.51 by 66.888 meters (77.13 × 219.45 feet).

One of the difficulties in dating the proto-Parthenon is that at the time of the excavations in 1885, the archaeological method of seriation was not fully developed; careless digging and backfilling of the site resulted in the loss of a lot of valuable information. Attempts to discuss and comprehend the clay shards found in the Acropolis were realized in a two-volume work by Graf and Langlotz, published in 1925-1933. This inspired the American archaeologist William Bell Dinsmoor to try to establish extreme dates for the temple platform and its five walls, hidden under the re-terracing of the Acropolis. Dinsmoor concluded that the last possible date for Parthenon I was no earlier than 495 BC. e., which contradicts the earlier date established by Dörpfield. Moreover, Dinsmoor denied the existence of two proto-Parthenons and established that the only temple before the Temple of Pericles was the one Dörpfeld called Parthenon II. In 1935, Dinsmoor and Dorpfield exchanged opinions in the American Journal of Archaeology.

Modern construction

In the middle of the 5th century BC. BC, when the Athenian Acropolis became the seat of the Delian League, and Athens was the greatest cultural center of its time, Pericles initiated an ambitious building project that lasted throughout the second half of the century. During this period, the most important buildings that can be seen on the Acropolis today were built: the Parthenon, the Propylaea, the Erechtheion and the Temple of Athena Nike. The Parthenon was built under the general direction of Phidias, who was also responsible for the sculptural decoration. The architects Ictinus and Callicrates began their work in 447 BC. BC, and by 432 the building was completed, but decoration work continued until at least 431. Some financial records survive for the Parthenon, which show that the largest expense was transporting the stones from Mount Pentelikon, about 16 km (9.9 mi) from Athens, to the Acropolis. These funds were partly taken from the treasury of the Delian League, transferred from the Panhellenic sanctuary at Delos to the Acropolis in 454 BC. e.

Architecture

The Parthenon is an octastyle Doric temple surrounded by columns with Ionic architectural features. It stands on a platform or stylobate of three steps. Like other Greek temples, it has a lintel and is surrounded by columns carrying an entablature. At each end there are eight columns ("octastyle"), and on the sides there are seventeen. Also, at each end of the column, there are two rows of columns. The colonnade surrounds an internal stone structure - a cella, divided into two rooms. At both ends of the building, the roof ends in a triangular pediment, originally filled with sculptures. The columns are of the Doric order with a simple capital, fluted shaft and no base. Above the architrave is a frieze of illustrated carved panels (metopes) separated by a triglyph, typical of the Doric order. Around the cella and along the lintels of the internal columns there is a continuous sculptural frieze in the form of bas-relief. This element of architecture is more Ionic than Doric.

Measured on the stylobate, the dimensions of the Parthenon's base are 69.5 by 30.9 meters (228 by 101 ft). The cella was 29.8 meters long and 19.2 meters wide (97.8 x 63.0 ft) with an internal colonnade in two rows, structurally necessary to support the roof. Externally, the Doric columns measured 1.9 meters (6.2 ft) in diameter and 10.4 meters (34 ft) in height. The diameter of the corner columns was slightly larger. In total, the Parthenon had 23 internal and 46 external columns, each containing 20 flutes. (A flute is a concave groove carved in the shape of a column). The stylobate had a curvature that increased towards the center by 60 mm (2.4 in) at the east and west ends and 110 mm (4.3 in) at the sides. The roof was covered with large overlapping marble tiles known as tegula and tegula tiles.

© website, in the photo: The Parthenon today, July 2014

The Parthenon is considered the best example of Greek architecture. John Julius Cooper wrote that the temple “enjoys the reputation of being the most perfect Doric temple ever built. Even in antiquity, his architectural improvements were legendary, especially the subtle relationship between the curvature of the stylobates, the inclination of the cella walls and the entasis of the columns." Entasis refers to the slight decrease in the diameter of columns as they rise, although the observed effect in the Parthenon is much more subtle than in earlier temples. Stylobate is a platform on which columns stand. Like many other classical Greek temples, it has a slight parabolic increase in curvature to drain rainwater and strengthen the building against earthquakes. Perhaps this is why the columns were supposed to lean outward, but in fact they leaned slightly inward so that if they continued they would meet almost exactly a mile above the center of the Parthenon; since they are all of the same height, the curvature of the outer edge of the stylobate is transferred to the architrave and the roof: “The whole subsequent principle of construction is based on a slight curvature,” Gorham Stevens noted this when he pointed out that the western façade was built slightly higher than the southern one. It is not universally established what the intended effect of entasis is; it is possible that it served as a kind of “reverse optical illusion.” Because the Greeks may have known that two parallel lines slope, or bend outward, when crossing converging lines. In this case, it seems that the ceiling and floor of the temple are leaning towards the corners of the building. In their quest for perfection, the designers may have added these curves, fulfilling the illusion by creating their own curves, thus negating this effect and allowing the temple to be as it was intended. It has also been suggested that it was used to “revitalize” a building without curves that would perhaps have the appearance of an inert mass, but the comparison should be with the more obvious curved predecessors of the Parthenon, and not with a conventionally rectilinear temple.

Some studies of the Acropolis, including the Parthenon, have concluded that many of its proportions are close to the golden ratio. The Parthenon's façade, as well as its elements, can be described by a golden rectangle. This view was refuted in later studies.

Sculpture

The cella of the Parthenon housed the chrysoelephantine statue of Athena Parthenos by Phidias, created in 439 or 438 BC. e.

Initially, decorative stonework was very colorful. At that time, the temple was dedicated to Athena, although construction continued almost until the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War in 432. By 438, the sculptural decoration of the Doric metopes on the frieze above the outer colonnade and the decoration of the Ionic frieze around the top of the cella wall were completed.

The richness of the frieze and metopes is consistent with the temple's purpose as a treasury. The opisthodome (back room of the cella) housed the monetary contributions of the Delian League, of which Athens was a leading member. Today, the surviving sculptures are kept in the Acropolis Museum in Athens and the British Museum in London, and several items are in Paris, Rome, Vienna and Palermo.

Metopes

Western metopes - illustrate the current situation of the temple after 2,500 years of war, pollution, destruction, looting and vandalism, photo: Thermos,

The frieze of the entablature contains ninety-two metopes, fourteen each on the east and west sides, and thirty-two each on the north and south. They are carved in bas-relief, a practice used only for treasuries (the building was used to store votive gifts to the gods). According to construction documentation, the metope sculptures date back to 446-440 BC. e. The metopes of the Parthenon, above the main entrance, on the eastern side, depict the Gigantomachy (mythical battle between the Olympian gods and the giants). The metopes on the western side show the Amazonomachy (mythical battle of the Athenians against the Amazons), and on the south the Thessalian centauromachy (battle of the Lapiths, aided by Theseus, against the half-human, half-horse centaurs). Metopes 13 to 21 are missing, but drawings attributed to Jacques Curry indicate groups of people; they have been variously interpreted as scenes from the wedding of Lapith, scenes from the early history of Athens and various myths. On the north side of the Parthenon, the metopes are poorly preserved, but the plot resembles the destruction of Troy.

The metopes are exemplified by the strict style in the anatomy of the figures' heads, in the limitation of physical movements to contours but not to the muscles, and in the pronounced veins in the centauromachy figures. Some of them still remain on the building, with the exception of those on the north side, as they are badly damaged. Several metopes are in the Acropolis Museum, others are in the British Museum, and one in the Louvre.

In March 2011, archaeologists announced that they had discovered five Parthenon metopes on the south wall of the Acropolis, which was extended when the Acropolis was used as a fortress. According to the daily newspaper Eleftherotype, archaeologists claimed that the metopes were placed there in the 18th century, when the wall was being restored. Experts discovered the metopes when processing 2,250 photographs using modern photographic methods. They were made from white Pentelic marble, which is different from the other stone on the wall. It was previously assumed that the missing metopes were destroyed during the explosion of the Parthenon in 1687.

© website, in the photo: The Parthenon today, July 2014

Frieze

The most distinctive feature in the architecture and decoration of the temple is the Ionic frieze around the outer walls of the cella (the interior of the Parthenon). The bas-relief frieze was carved at the construction site; it dates back to 442-438 BC. e. One interpretation is that it depicts an idealized version of the procession of the Panathenaic Games from the Dipylon gate at Kerameikos to the Acropolis. This procession, which took place every year, was attended by Athenians and foreigners to honor the goddess Athena by offering sacrifices and new peplos (cloth woven by specially selected noble Athenian maidens).

Joan Breton Connelly offers a mythological interpretation of the frieze, which is in harmony with the rest of the temple's sculptural plan, and shows Athenian genealogy through a series of myths from the distant past. She identifies the central panel above the Parthenon door as the sacrifice made before the battle by the daughter of King Erechtheus, which secured victory over Eumolplus and his Thracian army. A large procession moved towards the eastern part of the Parthenon, displaying a post-battle thanksgiving offering of cattle and sheep, honey and water, following the triumphant army of Erechtheus as it returned victorious. In mythical times, these were the very first Panathenaea, the model on which the historical processions of the Panathenaic Games were based.

Pediments

When the traveler Pausanias visited the Acropolis at the end of the 2nd century AD, he only briefly mentioned the sculptures of the temple pediments (gabel ends), leaving the main place to describe the gold and ivory statue of the goddess that was located inside the temple.

East gable

The east pediment tells the story of the birth of Athena from the head of her father Zeus. According to Greek mythology, Zeus gave life to Athena after a terrible headache prompted him to call Hephaestus (god of fire and blacksmithing) to provide assistance. To relieve the pain, he ordered Hephaestus to hit him with a hammer, and when he did this, Zeus's head split open and the goddess Athena came out of it, all dressed in armor. The sculptural composition depicts the moment of the birth of Athena.

Unfortunately, the central part of the pediment was destroyed even before Jacques Curry, who in 1674 created useful documentary drawings, therefore, all restoration work is the subject of assumptions and hypotheses. The main Olympian gods would be standing around Zeus and Athena, watching the miraculous event, probably with Hephaestus and Hera at their side. Kerry's drawings played an important role in restoring the sculptural composition on the north and south sides.

West gable

The western pediment overlooked the Propylaea and depicted the struggle between Athena and Poseidon during their competition for the honor of becoming the patron of the city. They appear in the center of the composition, and diverge from each other in strict diagonal shapes, the goddess holds an olive tree, and the sea god raises his trident to strike the ground. On the sides, they are flanked by two groups of horses pulling chariots, while the space in the sharp corners of the pediment is filled with legendary characters from Athenian mythology.

Work on the pediments continued from 438 to 432 BC. e., and the sculptures on them are considered one of the best examples of classical Greek art. The figures are created in natural movements, and the bodies are full of vital energy that breaks through their flesh, which in turn breaks through their thin clothing. Thin chitons show the lower part of the body as the center of the composition. By placing the sculptures in stone, the sculptors erased the differences between gods and men, and the conceptual relationship between idealism and naturalism. The gables no longer exist.

Drawing of the statue “Athena Parthenos” installed inside the Parthenon

Athena Parthenos

Only one sculpture from the Parthenon is known to belong to the hand of Phidias, a statue of Athena, which was located in the naos. This massive gold and ivory sculpture is now lost. It is known only from copies, vase paintings, jewelry, literary descriptions and coins.

Late period of history

Late Antiquity

In the mid-third century AD, a major fire broke out at the Parthenon, destroying the roof and much of the temple's interior. In the fourth century AD, restoration work was carried out, probably during the reign of Flavius ​​Claudius Julian. To cover the sanctuary, a new wooden roof was laid, covered with clay tiles. It had a greater slope than the original roof, and the wings of the building were left open.

For almost a thousand years, the Parthenon continued to exist as a temple dedicated to Athena, until in 435 AD. e. Theodosius II did not decide to close all pagan temples in Byzantium. In the fifth century, one of the emperors stole the great cult image of Athena and took it to Constantinople, where it was later destroyed, possibly during the siege of Constantinople in 1204 AD. e.

Christian church

In the last decades of the sixth century AD, the Parthenon was converted into a Christian church, called the Church of Maria Parthenos (Virgin Mary), or the Church of Theotokos (Mother of God). The orientation of the building was changed, turning the facade to the east; The main entrance was moved to the western end of the building, and the Christian altar and iconostasis were located on the eastern side of the building next to the apse, built on the site where the temple's pronaos had previously been located.

A large central entrance with adjacent side doors was made in the wall dividing the cella, which became the church nave, from the back room, the narthex of the church. The gaps between the columns of the opisthodome and peristyle were walled up, however, the number of entrances to the room was sufficient. Icons were painted on the walls, and Christian inscriptions were carved into the columns. These renovations inevitably led to the removal of some sculptures. The images of the gods were either interpreted in accordance with Christian themes, or were confiscated and destroyed.

The Parthenon became the fourth most important site of Christian pilgrimage in the eastern part of the Roman Empire, after Constantinople, Ephesus and Thessalonica. In 1018, Emperor Basil II made a pilgrimage to Athens, immediately after his final victory over the Bulgarians, for the sole purpose of visiting the church at the Parthenon. In medieval Greek records it was called the Temple of the Virgin of Athens (Theotokos Atheniotissa) and was often referred to indirectly as famous, without precisely explaining which temple was meant, thus confirming that it was indeed famous.

During the Latin occupation, for approximately 250 years, it became the Roman Catholic Church of the Virgin Mary. During this period, a tower was built on the southwest corner of the cella, which was used as a watchtower or as a bell tower with a spiral staircase, and also as vaulted tombs under the floor of the Parthenon.

Islamic mosque

In 1456, Ottoman forces invaded Athens and besieged the Florentine army, which defended the Acropolis until June 1458, when the city fell to the Turkish. The Turks quickly restored the Parthenon for continued use as a church by Greek Christians. For some time, before its closure in the fifteenth century, the Parthenon became a mosque.

The exact circumstances under which the Turks took possession of it for use as a mosque are unclear; one source states that Mehmed II ordered its reconstruction as punishment for the Athenian plot against the Ottoman Empire.

The apse, which became a mihrab (a tower built earlier during the Roman Catholic occupation of the Parthenon), was extended upward to make a minaret, a minbar was installed, and the Christian altar and iconostasis were removed, and the walls were whitewashed to cover icons of Christian saints and other Christian images.

Despite the changes that accompanied the Parthenon, conversion into a church and then into a mosque, its structure remains largely unchanged. In 1667, Turkish traveler Evliya Celebi expressed admiration for the Parthenon sculptures and figuratively described the building as “a kind of impregnable fortress not created by man.” He composed poetic prayers: “the work of lesser human hands than Heaven itself must stand for a long time.”

The French artist Jacques Kerry visited the Acropolis in 1674 and made sketches of the sculptural decoration of the Parthenon. In early 1687, an engineer named Plantier painted the Parthenon for the Frenchman Gravi Dortier. These images, especially those made by Kerry, became important evidence of the condition of the Parthenon and its sculptures before the destruction in late 1687 and the subsequent looting of its works.

Destruction of the Parthenon as a result of the explosion of a gunpowder magazine during the Venetian-Turkish War. 1687 Drawing by an unknown artist.

Destruction

In 1687, the Parthenon was badly damaged in the greatest disaster that has ever befallen it in its long history. The Venetians sent an expedition led by Francesco Morosini to attack and capture the Acropolis. The Ottoman Turks fortified the Acropolis and used the Parthenon as a magazine for ammunition - despite the dangers of such use after the 1656 explosion that severely damaged the Propylaea - and to shelter members of the local Turkish community. On September 26, a Venetian mortar fired from the Philopappa Hill blew up the cellar and partially destroyed the building. The explosion smashed the central part of the building into smithereens and caused the cella to collapse. Greek architect and archaeologist Cornelia Hatziaslani writes that “... three of the four walls of the sanctuary almost collapsed and three-fifths of the frieze sculptures fell. It is obvious that no part of the roof remained in place. Six columns fell on the south side and eight on the north, and nothing remained of the eastern portico, except for one column. Along with the columns, a huge marble architrave, triglyphs and menotopes collapsed.” The explosion killed approximately three hundred people, who were buried in marble debris near the Turkish defenders. It also started several large fires that burned until the next day and destroyed many houses.

During the conflict, notes were made as to whether the destruction was intentional or accidental; One of these records belongs to the German officer Zobifolski, which states that a Turkish deserter gave Morosini information about what the Turks were using the Parthenon for, expecting that the Venetians would not target a building of such historical importance. In response, Morosini directed artillery at the Parthenon. Subsequently, he attempted to loot sculptures from the ruins and cause further damage to the building. When the soldiers tried to remove the sculptures of Poseidon and the horses of Athena from the western pediment of the building, they fell to the ground and were broken.

The following year, the Venetians abandoned Athens to avoid confrontation with the large Turkish army assembled at Chalkis; At that time, the Venetians took into account the explosion, after which almost nothing was left of the Parthenon and the rest of the Acropolis, and rejected the possibility of its further use by the Turks as a fortress, but such an idea was not pursued.

After the Turks recaptured the Acropolis, they built a small mosque within the walls of the destroyed Parthenon, using the ruins from the explosion. Over the next century and a half, the remaining parts of the structure were looted for building materials and other valuables.

The 18th century was the period of the “sick man of Europe”; as a result, many Europeans were able to visit Athens, and the picturesque ruins of the Parthenon became the subject of many paintings and drawings, spurring the growth of the philhellenes and helping to awaken British and French sympathy for Greek independence. Among these early travelers and archaeologists were James Stewart and Nicholas Revett, who were commissioned by the Society of Dilettantes to explore the ruins of classical Athens.

They created drawings of the Parthenon, while taking measurements, which in 1787 published in two volumes Antiquities of Athens Measured and Delineated (Antiquities of Athens: Measured and Delineated). In 1801, the British ambassador to Constantinople, the Earl of Elgin, received a dubious firman (decree) from the Sultan, whose existence or legitimacy has not been proven to this day, to make casts and drawings of the antiquities of the Acropolis, and to demolish the last buildings, if necessary examine the antiquities, and remove the sculptures .

Independent Greece

When independent Greece gained control of Athens in 1832, the visible part of the minaret was destroyed; Only its base and the spiral staircase up to the architrave level remained intact. Soon all the medieval and Ottoman buildings built on top of the Acropolis were destroyed. However, Joly de Lotbinière's photograph of a small mosque in the cella of the Parthenon survives, published in Lerbeau's album Excursions Daguerriennes in 1842: the first photograph of the Acropolis. This area became a historical site controlled by the Greek government. Today it attracts millions of tourists every year. They follow the road at the western end of the Acropolis, through the restored Propylaea and up the Panathenaic Way to the Parthenon, which is surrounded by a low fence to prevent damage.

Marble sculpture controversy

The center of the dispute was the marble sculptures taken by the Earl of Elgin from the Parthenon, which are in the British Museum. There are also several sculptures from the Parthenon on display in the Louvre in Paris, in Copenhagen, and elsewhere, but more than fifty percent are in the Acropolis Museum in Athens. Some can still be seen on the building itself. Since 1983, the Greek government has been campaigning to return the sculptures to Greece from the British Museum.

The British Museum has steadfastly refused to return the sculptures, and successive British governments have been unwilling to force the museum to do so (which would have required legislative grounds). However, negotiations between senior representatives of the Greek and British ministries of culture and their legal advisers took place in London on 4 May 2007. These were the first serious negotiations for several years, with hopes that both sides could move closer to a resolution.

© website, in the photo: Parthenon columns in scaffolding

Recovery

In 1975, the Greek government began a coordinated effort to restore the Parthenon and other structures on the Acropolis. After some delay, the Committee for the Conservation of Monuments of the Acropolis was created in 1983. The project later attracted funding and technical assistance from the European Union. The archaeological committee carefully documented every artifact remaining there, and with the help of computer models, architects determined their original location. Particularly important and fragile sculptures were transferred to the Acropolis Museum. A crane was installed to move the marble blocks. In some cases, previous reconstructions turned out to be incorrect. Dismantling was carried out, and the restoration process began anew. Originally, the various blocks were held together by elongated iron H-joints, which were completely coated with lead to protect the iron from corrosion. The stabilizing connectors added in the 19th century were less leaded and susceptible to corrosion. Since the product of corrosion (rust) tends to expand, it caused further damage to the already cracked marble. All new metalwork consisted of titanium, a strong, lightweight and corrosion-resistant material.

The Parthenon will not be restored to its pre-1687 condition, but damage from the explosion will be repaired to the extent possible. In the interest of restoring the building's structural integrity (important in this seismic zone) and aesthetic integrity, the broken portions of the column drums and lintels will be filled using precision-cut marble anchored in place. New Pentelic marble from the original quarry is used. Eventually, almost all large pieces of marble will be placed where they originally were, supported, if necessary, by modern materials. Over time, the white repaired parts will become less noticeable compared to the original surfaces that were exposed to weathering.

Greece is famous throughout the world, first of all, for its glorious ancient history, which left an incredible amount of cultural monuments. Thus, in the capital of the country, on a high hill, the monumental marble Parthenon, the main sanctuary of ancient Athens, rises above the bustle of the city. Almost 2.5 thousand years have passed since the construction of this majestic structure, which managed to survive all the troubles and hardships that befell it. Today this temple is protected by the world organization UNESCO and is gradually returning its facades to their former luxurious appearance.

History and significance of the Parthenon in Ancient Greece

The Parthenon (Greek Παρθενών, English the Parthenon) is a classic ancient Greek temple in Athens, distinguished by its unique architectural forms.

It is impossible to tell the story of the construction of this sanctuary without mentioning in which city and what country the Parthenon is located, as well as what customs and beliefs prevailed at the time of its construction. Therefore, first we will take a short historical excursion to ancient Athens and get acquainted with the deity to whom the Parthenon is dedicated to this day.

Patroness of Athens

Zeus

Ancient Greece was dominated by a polytheistic religious system based on the myths of the various Gods of Ancient Greece. In connection with the Parthenon, we are interested in the main god - Zeus, and his daughter Athena.

The myth says that Zeus was predicted to have a daughter, followed by a son who would overthrow him from the throne. Therefore, when his wife Metis (Wisdom) became pregnant from him, the Supreme God did not find anything better than to swallow her. But the child of love did not want to give up, and soon Zeus began to have an unbearable headache. Unable to endure the torment, he ordered his head to be cut, and so his daughter Athena was born. Wisdom was reflected in the girl’s eyes, and on her body she wore military attire, for which she was called the Goddess of justice, wisdom, military tactics and strategy.

Unlike other deities, Athena did not stay too long on Olympus, but paid attention to ordinary people. She gave them a lot of knowledge and crafts, taught them how to draw up laws and conduct government affairs, and helped restore justice in disputes and battles. For her care, the grateful people of Greece greatly revered the wise and magnanimous Athena and sought to build the best of Greek temples in her honor.

Athena

After a dispute with Poseidon, wisely resolved by King Cecrops, Athena became the patroness of the most important cultural and political center of Ancient Greece - the city of Athens. Therefore, it was decided that the Acropolis of Athens would place the Parthenon on its lands.

And if we delve deeper into history, it is worth mentioning that the architectural complex that has come down to us had a predecessor. The first temple to be built on this site was Hekatompedon, also dedicated to Athena. Unfortunately, as a result of the Persian attack, the structure failed to survive. When the Athenians won the war, they began with even greater enthusiasm to restore the old Hekatompedon and build a new, larger and more luxurious Parthenon temple in recaptured Athens.

Construction of the Parthenon

Construction of the new sanctuary began in 447. The location of the temple was chosen immediately. It was located in the upper city: the majestic Parthenon and the sacred Acropolis in the minds of the Greeks were supposed to become one.

The decision to build the temple was made by the Athenian ruler Pericles, despite the fact that the construction of the Parthenon required large financial investments. The construction budget included 450 talents, an amount unheard of for the Greeks, because in those days they built an entire ship for 1 talent! There was indignation and grumbling among the people, but Pericles managed to convince people of the need to decorate the Parthenon Acropolis with unprecedented beauty and power in honor of Athena.

The architect of the building was Callicrates, and the design of the future shrine was developed by Iktin. It was this master who achieved a unique optical perception of the temple by the eye, having decided to make the columns of the Parthenon not perfectly straight and at an angle. The famous sculptor Phidias (author of the Statue of Zeus at Olympia) was responsible for the external and internal decoration of the shrine, as well as the sculptures decorating the pediments of the Parthenon.

The architectural type of the temple is designed in the classical Greek style and has a Doric perimeter surrounded by columns. There are a total of 50 columns on all sides of the Parthenon: 8 on the central facades, and 17 on the side facades. Unlike the Colosseum, the colonnade of the classical Parthenon allows you to view the facade of three sides of the building from one point. The height of the erected temple was 14 m, width 31 m and length 70 m.

Read also: The Acropolis is the main attraction of Athens: history, opening hours, tips for tourists

The Parthenon was finally built in 438, and in the same year the temple was consecrated at the Festival of Panathaeus. However, another 6 years after the official opening, Phidias decorated the pediments and friezes of the erected Parthenon. He also invented and sculpted the sculpture of Athena Parthenos (Virgin, Virgin), in whose honor the sanctuary received its name.

Periods of decline and revival

The Parthenon Temple of Athena, located in the city center on the Acropolis, has gone through a lot over the years. A brief summary of the history of the Parthenon is as follows.

After its construction, the temple was revered for approximately 100 years. Its last patron was Alexander the Great, who donated 14 shields for the eastern pediment and the armor of defeated warriors to the shrine. After his death, dark days awaited the Parthenon.

The rulers allowed themselves to plunder the temple’s precious decor and turn the shrine almost into a brothel. And in the 3rd century BC. A major fire broke out in the building, destroying part of the roof, ceilings and doors of the shrine. It also caused the sculpture of Athena Parthenos to disappear without a trace. After the fire, the temple was restored, but the Parthenon looked a little different.

After 800 years, the ancient sanctuary was destined to turn into a Christian cathedral. All the ancient wealth was taken to Constantinople, and the temple itself was again slightly rebuilt in a new way. Centuries passed, and in the 15th century the Parthenon became a Muslim mosque, because... Athens was captured by the Turks. They painted over all the scenes that contradicted their faith, but nothing else was touched on the interior decoration.

Later, in 1687, ammunition was stored here during the war. The shelling of the Acropolis from above and a direct hit on the boxes of gunpowder literally turned the Parthenon into ruins. For two hundred years these fragments stood on the hill as a memory of the former glorious past. In 1840, attention was again paid to the ancient sanctuary and it was decided to carry out its restoration. This process continues to this day with varying degrees of success.

Where is the Parthenon and how to get to it

In the minds of many travelers, Greece is primarily Athens and the Parthenon.

Tourists will not have to wander for long through the streets of Athens, looking for the place where the ancient Parthenon is located. It is very easy to find it, because... The main temple of Athens, like the Roman Pantheon, is located in the historical center of the capital.

The guiding landmark is the Acropolis, the main sanctuary in Greece, located on an elevated hill. To get there, take the red line of the local metro and get to the Akropolis station of the same name. You will enter the pedestrian street Dionysiou Areopagitou, which, gradually rising uphill, will lead you directly to the Temple of Athena.

Dionysiou Areopagitou street

Features of the Parthenon architecture

Unfortunately, the Parthenon, the ancient Greek temple of the goddess Athena and a monument of ancient architecture, has not survived to this day in all its glory. According to the surviving descriptions of the architectural complex, it was an innovation and breakthrough in Greek architecture of that time.

Surrounded by Doric columns, the Temple of the goddess of wisdom Athena was supposed to be the most majestic and luxurious building in Greece. But due to subsequent actions of Christian and Muslim invaders, the temple lost most of the elements of ancient decor.

The eastern pediment of the building was decorated with the sculptural composition “The Birth of Athena,” and the western part was dedicated to the dispute between Athena and Poseidon for patronage of the Greek capital. The historical scenes contained friezes and metopes of the Parthenon. In particular, they depicted the battle of gods with giants, as well as battles with Amazons, episodes of the Trojan War and solemn processions.

The statue of Athena, made of wood and decorated with gold and ivory, deserves special attention. Phidias did not spare a whole ton of gold for the brilliance and grandeur of his statue, and his descendants plundered it a century after the construction of the temple.

But the distinctive features of the architectural design are hidden not in the decor, but in the base of the temple.

Layout

The heights of the Acropolis provide natural protection during a siege, so no thought was given to the defensive function during the construction of the temple.

Sight

Parthenon

: 37°58?17 s. w. 23°43?36 in. d. / 37.97139° n. w. 23.72667° east. d. / 37.97139; 23.72667 (G) (O) (I)

The Parthenon (ancient Greek - maiden; pure) is a monument of ancient architecture, an ancient Greek temple located on the Athenian Acropolis, the main temple in ancient Athens, dedicated to the patroness of this city and all of Attica, the goddess Athena the Virgin (?). Built in 447-438 BC. e. by the architect Callicrates according to the design of Ictinus and decorated in 438-431 BC. e. under the leadership of Phidias during the reign of Pericles. Currently in a dilapidated state, restoration work is underway.

Story

Predecessors of the Parthenon

Main articles: Hekatompedon (temple), Opisthodomos (temple)

A huge number of architectural elements of ancient buildings and their foundations have been preserved on the Acropolis. The question of their attribution to one or another structure known from sources is, as a rule, controversial.

The first temple to Athena known in modern times, the existence of which is recognized by most scientists in the world, was built on the Acropolis, probably under Peisistratus. It was called the same as later the naos of the modern Parthenon - Hekatompedon (that is, one hundred feet). The creation of the temple was an organic part of Peisistratus’s policy for the arrangement and development of Athens. The Hecatompedon is considered in some way the predecessor of the Erechtheion: all the main relics of the Athenian polis were kept there. It has now been proven that the foundation, long attributed to the Hecatompedon, does not have the necessary length to build a hundred-foot cella on it and, therefore, cannot be the specified temple. However, the very existence of the temple is not denied. Both of its pediments and other details were found in the Persian trash.

Soon after the Battle of Marathon, construction began on a new temple of Athena, called the Opistodomus in the sources. The temple was located between the modern Erechtheion and the Parthenon. Its construction was apparently not completed due to the renewed war with the Persians and the imminent sack of Athens. From this building, the column drums on the northern wall of the Erechtheion remain. Parts of the old Parthenon were used in the construction of the Acropolis by Phidias in the era of Pericles.

Construction

Acropolis of Athens, reconstruction by Leo von Klenze in 1846 (a statue of Athena Promachos rises above the acropolis)

After the end of the Greco-Persian wars, during the reign of Pericles, it was decided to build a new, more majestic and luxurious temple on the prepared site. The best artists of that time were involved in the construction and huge amounts of money were spent. The builders of the Parthenon are the ancient Greek architects Ictinus and Kallicrates. Classical scholars believe that the first one owned the design of the building, and the second supervised the progress of construction work. The great sculptor Phidias completed the finishing work and, together with Pericles, supervised the construction.

Scientists were able to accurately establish the date of the start of construction thanks to fragments of marble tablets on which the Athenian government presented official decrees and financial reports to the citizens of the policy. For the Athenians, such inscriptions were a means of controlling expenses and combating embezzlement. The Parthenon was built from 446-447 BC. e. (in Ancient Athens the year began with the summer solstice) for ten years. In the first year, funds were allocated for the extraction and delivery of Pentelic marble to the city. Expenditures on wood provided for 444-443 BC. e., associated with the construction of scaffolding. That by 438-437 BC. e. The statue of Athena Parthenos had already been completed by Phidias, as evidenced by the sale of gold that remained after the completion of the work. The consecration of the temple took place on the feast of Panathenaia in 438 BC. e., however, processing (mainly sculptural work) continued until 432 BC. e.

Architecture of the ancient Parthenon

Hyperbolic diagram of the curvature of the Parthenon

The Parthenon is a Doric peripterus with elements of the Ionic order. It stands on a stylobate (69.5 m long and 30.9 m wide) - three marble steps, the total height of which is about 1.5 meters, and was covered with a tiled roof. On the side of the main (western) façade, more frequent steps were cut, intended for people. The temple has 8 columns on the facades and 17 on the sides (including the corner ones). This is one of the Ionic features of the Parthenon: for the Doric peripter, the usual ratio was 6 to 13. The height of the columns is 10.4 m, they are composed of 10-12 drums. The diameter of their base is 1.9 m, at the corner columns - 1.95 m. The diameter narrows upward. Twenty flutes are carved on each column.

The interior (59 m long and 21.7 m wide) has two more steps (total height 0.7 m) and is amphiprostyle. The facades have porticoes with columns that are just below the peristyle columns. The eastern portico was pronaos, the western - posticum.

Plan of the Parthenon sculptural decoration (north right). Antiquity period.

The cella, located to the east, was 29.9 m long (19.2 m wide), which was 100 Greek feet. Therefore, it was often called hecatompedon (one hundred foot temple). Two rows of Doric columns (9 in each) ended at the wall in a transverse row with three additional columns and formed three naves, the middle of which was significantly wider than the other two. It is believed that on the architrave of the first tier of columns there was a second one that supported the ceilings. In the central nave stood a statue of Athena Parthenos by Phidias. A hypephre was built above the statue.

In the opisthodome (19.2 m long and 13.9 m wide), called the Parthenon (this name later spread to the entire temple), there were four tall columns, most likely Ionic. Two small doors led from here to the side aisles of the cella. Initially, gifts to the goddess were kept here. In 464 BC. e. The treasury of the Delian League was transported here. For a long time, the state archive was also located in the opisthodome.

Layout

The Parthenon was thought out in the smallest detail, completely invisible to an outside observer and aimed at visually lightening the load on the load-bearing elements, as well as correcting some errors in human vision. Architectural historians separately highlight the concept of curvature of the Parthenon - a special curvature that introduced optical corrections. Although the temple seems perfectly rectilinear, in fact there is almost no strictly straight line in its contours:

The stylobate has a slight rise towards the center, since otherwise from a distance it would seem that the floor is sagging. The corner columns are inclined towards the middle, and the two middle columns are inclined towards the corners. This was done to show them straight. All columns have entasis, thanks to which they do not appear thinner in the middle, but not as large as those of archaic temples. The corner columns are slightly thicker in diameter than the others, as they would otherwise appear thinner. In cross section they are not round. Echinus is almost straight, its offset is very small (0.18 of the upper diameter of the column). The height of echinus and abacus is the same. The height of the architrave is equal to the height of the frieze. Their ratio to the cornice is 10:10:4.46. The entablature slopes outward and the pediments slope inward.

This technique was first discovered by Ictinus, the architect of the Parthenon, and was first used here to its fullest. In addition, from the point of view of optical reduction, sculptural parts were also made that were placed at a height.

As Wipper notes, the harmony of the Parthenon follows from analogies, from the repetition of the same proportions in terms of both the outer colonnade and the quadrangle of the cella and its inner colonnade. The position of the temple building relative to the Acropolis hill is also important: it is moved to the southeastern edge of the rock and therefore visitors see it as distant; in fact, the large Parthenon does not overwhelm with its size and “grows” as a person approaches it.

Phidias shows his friends, including Pericles and Aspasia, the Parthenon frieze. Painting by L. Alma-Tadema, 1868.

Material and technology

The temple was built entirely from Pentelic marble, mined nearby. During production, it is white in color, but when exposed to the sun's rays it turns yellow. The northern side of the building is exposed to less radiation - and therefore the stone there has a grayish-ashy tint, while the southern blocks have a golden-yellowish color. The tiles and stylobate are also made of this marble. The columns are made of drums fastened together with wooden plugs and pins.

The masonry was carried out without any mortar or cement, that is, it was dry. The blocks were regular squares. They were carefully ground around the edges and adjusted to size to each other. The interior remained roughly finished, saving time and reducing labor costs. At the very bottom lay orthostats - large quadra, on which much smaller stones were already located, making up a regular masonry. The blocks were connected horizontally with iron fasteners, inserted into grooves and filled with lead. Vertical communication was carried out using iron pins.

The ceilings were wooden. The ceilings inside were obviously cassettes, since it is believed that the external ones - stone - imitate the internal ones.

Sculptural ensemble

The sculptural decoration of the Parthenon, as Plutarch notes, was carried out under the leadership of the great master Phidias and with his direct participation. This work is divided into four parts: the metopes of the outer (Doric) frieze, the continuous Ionic (inner) frieze, the sculptures in the tympanums of the pediments and the famous statue of Athena Parthenos.

Southern metope 30. Centaur defeats lapith.

Metopes

Main article: Doric frieze of the Parthenon

The metopes were part of the triglyph-metope frieze, traditional for the Doric order, which encircled the outer colonnade of the temple. In total, there were 92 metopes on the Parthenon, containing various high reliefs. They were connected thematically along the sides of the building. In the east the battle between the centaurs and the Lapiths was depicted, in the south - the Amazonomachy, in the west - probably scenes from the Trojan War, in the north - the Gigantomachy.

57 metopes survive: 42 in Athens and 15 in the British Museum. Most of them are on the eastern side.

Bas-relief frieze

East side. Plates 36-37. Seated gods. Main article: Ionic frieze of the Parthenon

The outer side of the cella and opisthodome was surrounded at the top (at a height of 11 m from the floor) by another frieze, Ionic. It was 160 m long and 1 m high and contained about 350 foot and 150 mounted figures. The bas-relief, which is one of the most famous works of this genre in ancient art that has come down to us, depicts a procession on the last day of the Panathenaia. On the north and south sides horsemen and chariots, just citizens, are depicted. On the south side there are also musicians, people with various gifts and sacrificial animals. The western part of the frieze contains many young men with horses, mounting or already mounted. In the east (above the entrance to the temple) the end of the procession is represented: the priest, surrounded by the gods, accepts the peplos woven for the goddess by the Athenians. The most important people of the city are standing nearby.

96 frieze plates have survived. 56 of them are in the British Museum, 40 (mostly the western part of the frieze) are in Athens.

East pediment. Presumably a figure of Artemis.

Pediments

Main article: Pediments of the Parthenon Pediment fragment.

Giant sculptural groups were placed in the tympanums of the pediments (0.9 m deep) above the western and eastern entrances. They have survived very poorly to this day. The central figures almost didn't make it. In the center of the eastern pediment in the Middle Ages, a window was barbarically cut through, which completely destroyed the composition located there. Ancient authors usually avoid this part of the temple. Pausanias, the main source on such matters, mentions them only in passing, paying much more attention to the statue of Athena. Sketches by J. Kerry dating back to 1674 have been preserved, which provide quite a lot of information about the western pediment. The Eastern one was already in a deplorable state at that time. Therefore, the reconstruction of the gables is mostly just guesswork.

The eastern group depicted the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus. Only the side parts of the composition have been preserved. A chariot, presumably driven by Helios, enters from the south side. Dionysus sits in front of him, then Demeter and Kore. Behind them stands another goddess, perhaps Artemis. From the north, three seated female figures have reached us - the so-called “three veils” - which are sometimes considered as Hestia, Dione and Aphrodite. In the very corner there is another figure, apparently driving a chariot, since in front of it is the head of a horse. It's probably Nyx or Selena. Regarding the center of the pediment (or rather, most of it), we can only say that there, definitely - due to the theme of the composition, there were figures of Zeus, Hephaestus and Athena. Most likely, the rest of the Olympians and, perhaps, some other gods were there. The torso, attributed in most cases to Poseidon, has been preserved.

The western pediment represents the dispute between Athena and Poseidon for the possession of Attica. They stood in the center and were located diagonally to each other. On both sides of them there were chariots, probably in the north - Nike with Hermes, in the south - Iris with Amphitryon. Around were figures of legendary characters of Athenian history, but their exact attribution is almost impossible.

30 statues have reached us: 19 in the British Museum and 11 in Athens.

Athena Parthenos statue

Main article: Athena Parthenos

The statue of Athena Parthenos, standing in the center of the temple and being its sacred center, was made by Phidias himself. It was upright and about 11 m high, made in the chrysoelephantine technique (that is, from gold and ivory on a wooden base). The sculpture has not survived and is known from various copies and numerous images on coins. In one hand the goddess holds Nike, and with the other she leans on the shield. The shield depicts Amazonomachy. There is a legend that Phidias depicted himself (in the image of Daedalus) and Pericles (in the image of Theseus) on it, for which (as well as on charges of stealing gold for the statue) he went to prison. The peculiarity of the relief on the shield is that the second and third plans are shown not from behind, but one above the other. In addition, its subject matter allows us to say that this is already a historical relief. Another relief was on Athena's sandals. A centauromachy was depicted there.

The birth of Pandora, the first woman, was carved on the pedestal of the statue.

Other finishing details

Bronze wreaths hung on the architrave of the peristyle (the holes for their fastening have been preserved).

The Parthenon, like any ancient temple, was painted. The tenia and undersurface of the echinus were red. The lower surface of the cornice is red and blue. The caissons of the colonnade's ceilings, made of marble, were painted blue, red and gold (or yellow). The sculpture was also brightly colored.

Further history

Greek politics changed dramatically after the rise of Macedonia under King Philip II. Alexander the Great dealt the final blow to the power of Athens when in 323 BC. e. sent a military garrison to the city and ended democracy. However, it is known that even Alexander favored the Parthenon. He ordered 14 shields to be placed on the eastern pediment, and also donated the armor of 300 defeated Persian warriors to Athena. After the death of Alexander, the Parthenon repeatedly became a victim of cruel tyrants. So, at the end of the 4th century BC. e. Demetrius I Poliorcetes settled in the Parthenon with his mistresses. At the beginning of the 3rd century. BC e. The Athenian tyrant Lacharus removed the golden robe from the statue of Athena Parthenos to pay a debt to his soldiers, as well as Alexander's shields. At the beginning of the 2nd century. BC e. A representative of the wealthy Pergamon Attalid dynasty erected a monument in the Parthenon in honor of one of his ancestors, which was located almost close to the wall, to the right of the main entrance to the temple. This monument had the shape of a huge pedestal, its height almost reaching the roof of the Parthenon. In 31 BC e., when the glory of the Attalids became a thing of the past, the monument was renamed in honor of the Roman emperor Augustus.

None of the ancient sources recalls the fire in the Parthenon, but archaeological excavations have proven that it occurred in the middle of the 3rd century. BC e., most likely during the invasion of the barbarian tribe of the Heruls, who sacked Athens in 267 BC. e. As a result of the fire, the roof of the Parthenon was destroyed, as well as almost all the internal fittings and ceilings. The marble is cracked. In the eastern extension, the colonnade, both main doors of the temple and the second frieze collapsed. If dedicatory inscriptions were kept in the temple, they are irretrievably lost. Reconstruction after the fire did not aim to completely restore the appearance of the temple. The terracotta roof was installed only over the internal premises, and the external colonnade was unprotected. Two rows of columns in the eastern hall were replaced with similar ones. Based on the architectural style of the restored elements, it was possible to establish that the blocks in an earlier period belonged to various buildings of the Athens Acropolis. In particular, 6 blocks of the western doors formed the basis of a massive sculptural group depicting a chariot drawn by horses (scratches are still visible on these blocks in the places where the horses' hooves and chariot wheels were attached), as well as a group of bronze statues of warriors, which Pausanias described. The other three blocks of the western doors are marble tablets with financial statements, which establish the main stages of the construction of the Parthenon.

Christian temple

Story

The Parthenon remained a temple to the goddess Athena for a thousand years. It is not known exactly when it became a Christian church. In the 4th century, Athens fell into disrepair and became a provincial city of the Roman Empire. In the 5th century, the temple was robbed by one of the emperors, and all its treasures were transported to Constantinople. There is information that under Patriarch Paul III of Constantinople the Parthenon was rebuilt into the Church of St. Sophia.

At the beginning of the 13th century, the statue of Athena Promachos was damaged and destroyed during the Fourth Crusade. The Athena Parthenos statue probably disappeared as early as the 3rd century BC. e. during a fire or earlier. Roman and Byzantine emperors repeatedly issued decrees banning pagan cults, but the pagan tradition in Hellas was too strong. At the present stage, it is generally accepted that the Parthenon became a Christian temple around the 6th century AD.

During Byzantine times, it served as the Orthodox Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and was the fourth most important pilgrimage center of the Eastern Roman Empire after Constantinople, Ephesus and Thessaloniki. In 1018, Emperor Basil II the Bulgarian Slayer arrived in Athens after a brilliant victory over the Bulgarians with the sole purpose of bowing to the Parthenon.

At the beginning of the 13th century, during the era of the Latin Empire, the Burgundian military leader Otto de la Roche came to power in Athens, and the French archbishop was in charge of the cathedral. For a short time, the Parthenon was used as a Catholic church under the name Notre Dame d'Athenes - Cathedral of Our Lady of Athens. Over the next two and a half centuries, as a result of mercenary attacks, military coups and diplomatic intrigues, control of Athens passed from the French to the Catalans. Athens and surrounding territories - the Duchy of Athens - were included in the Kingdom of Aragon in 1311. Athens remained under the control of the Catalan Company until 1386. The official language of Athens at that time was Catalan, and the official religion was Catholicism. In 1387, power passed to the Acciaioli family of Florentine bankers, then the Greek language again became official, and the Greek Orthodox Church received patronage from the new rulers. At the same time, the Venetians and Ottomans laid claim to Athens, so the Acciaioli paid tribute to the Turkish Sultan for the opportunity to rule and protectorate. Although the Propylaea was turned into a well-fortified, magnificent Renaissance palace, the frequent change of rulers had little effect on the appearance of the Parthenon. Only the name changed: Santa Maria de Setinas (under the rule of the Catalans), then Santa Maria di Atene (under the Italians).

Reconstructions and decoration

Scheme of the design of the Parthenon during the Christian period of its history.

In general, ancient temples easily turned into Christian ones. Their decoration was discreet, so Christians could adapt it to the needs of their own cult. Due to the fact that Christian churches were located in ancient temples, the original design of the latter was preserved. If the pagan temple remained abandoned, it was dismantled for building materials.

The transition from a pagan temple to a church affected the architecture of the Parthenon. In ancient times, the entrance to the Parthenon was located in the eastern part under the pediment, the sculptures of which depicted the Birth of Athena. However, it is in the eastern part of the Christian temple that the altar should be located. Therefore, on the site of the former entrance, an apse was built, for the construction of which fragments of ancient monuments of the Acropolis near the Parthenon were used. From that time on, small doors were installed for the main western entrance, to the right of the large western doors of the ancient Parthenon, which Christians decided on principle not to use.

As a result of the redevelopment, the internal columns and some walls of the cella were removed, which is why the central slab of the frieze was dismantled. The outer colonnade turned into the outer wall of a Christian church: the slots were filled exactly half of their height. In the eastern part of the temple, where the Athena Parthenos by Phidias had previously stood, the nave of the new cathedral was built with a pulpit, a partition and the throne of the metropolitan. This throne has survived to this day. It is made of marble and decorated with a sculpture depicting a winged figure - probably an angel. Three new doors allowed access to the former rear, western part of the temple, which now served as a vestibule with a baptistery and a font. To make the temple brighter, several windows were added on each side high from the floor. Some of them were cut right into the sculptural frieze.

Although fewer changes were needed in the interior decoration of the temple, most of the sculptures of the ancient Parthenon were lost: those that could be adapted for Christian worship were left, but most were destroyed. The sacred eastern part of the Christian temple could not be decorated with the birth scene of the goddess Athena. These bas-reliefs were removed from the pediment. An even more difficult problem was the metope slabs. It was impossible to remove the metopes located on three sides of the Parthenon without damaging the structure itself. Therefore, the images on the stage metopes were erased until they became illegible. According to researchers, the sculptural frieze depicting the procession remained almost undamaged only because it was inaccessible for contemplation from the main street of the Acropolis, and the procession itself did not have a clearly defined pagan character. Only one metope of the northern facade (No. 1) turned out to be intact: its composition reminded Christians of the scene of the Annunciation. In fact, she depicted the figure of the goddess Athena and the goddess Hera, who were now recognized as the Virgin Mary and the Archangel Gabriel. Probably for a similar reason, the western pediment, which depicted the dispute between Athena and Poseidon for dominance in Attica, was completely preserved.

Despite the fact that medieval Athens was a provincial, poor city, the Athenians did their best to maintain the splendor of the temple decoration. In 1018, the Byzantine Emperor Basil II the Bulgarian Slayer made a special visit to Athens to admire the Cathedral of Our Lady of Athens. He donated to the cathedral jewelry captured during the wars, among which was a golden dove. It was described by the Byzantine priest and scientist Michael Choniates, who in 1175 left his flock in Constantinople and returned to Athens, where he was ordained Metropolitan of Athens. Choniates wrote about an amazing lamp in the cathedral, which burned day and night, and above the altar there was a symbol of the Holy Spirit - a golden dove with a golden crown - it constantly revolved around the cross.

Probably, under the predecessor of Choniates, the building of the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Athens suffered more significant changes. The apse in the eastern part was destroyed and rebuilt. The new apse was closely adjacent to the ancient columns, so the central slab of the frieze was dismantled. This slab depicting the "peplos scene", later used to build fortifications on the Acropolis, was found by Lord Elgin's agents and is now on display in the British Museum. Under Michael Choniates himself, the interior decoration of the temple was restored, including the Judgment Day painting on the wall of the portico where the entrance was located, paintings depicting the Passion of Christ in the vestibule, and a number of paintings that depicted saints and previous Athenian metropolitans. All the Parthenon paintings from the Christian era were covered with a thick layer of whitewash in the 1880s, but in the early 19th century the Marquis of Bute commissioned watercolors from them. It was from these watercolors that researchers established the plot motifs of the paintings and the approximate time of creation - the end of the 12th century. Around the same time, the apse ceiling was decorated with mosaics, which collapsed within a few decades. Glass fragments of it are also on display in the British Museum.

On February 24 and 25, 1395, the Italian traveler Nicolo de Martoni visited Athens and left in his “Pilgrim’s Book” (now in the National Library of France, Paris) the first systematic description of the Parthenon since Pausanias. Martoni presents the Parthenon as a landmark of exclusively Christian history, but his main wealth is not the numerous relics and the revered icon of the Virgin Mary, painted by the Evangelist Luke and decorated with pearls and precious stones, but a copy of the Gospel written in Greek on thin gilded parchment by Saint Helen Equal to the Apostles, mother of Constantine the Great, the first Byzantine emperor to officially convert to Christianity. Martoni also talks about the cross scratched on one of the columns of the Parthenon by Saint Dionysius the Areopagite.

Drawing of Cyriacus of Ancona, who visited the Parthenon in 1436 and 1444. The notes briefly describe the cathedral and call it “the divine creation of Phidias.”

Martoni's journey coincided with the beginning of the reign of the Acciaioli family, whose representatives proved themselves to be generous benefactors. Nerio I Acciaioli ordered the doors of the cathedral to be inlaid with silver; in addition, he bequeathed the entire city to the cathedral, giving Athens into the possession of the Parthenon. The most significant addition to the cathedral from the Latinocracy period is the tower near the right side of the portico, built after the city was captured by the Crusaders. For its construction, they used blocks taken from the back of the tomb of a Roman nobleman on the hill of Philopappou. The tower was supposed to serve as the bell tower of the cathedral, in addition, it was equipped with spiral staircases that rose to the roof. Since the tower blocked the small doors to the narthex, the central western entrance of the Parthenon of the ancient era began to be used again.

During the reign of Acciaioli in Athens, the first and earliest drawing of the Parthenon that has survived to this day was created. It was executed by Ciriaco di Pizzicoli, an Italian merchant, papal legate, traveler and lover of the classics, better known as Cyriacus of Ancona. He visited Athens in 1436 and 1444 and stayed in the luxurious palace into which the Propylaea had been converted to pay his respects to Acciaioli. Chiriacus left detailed notes and a number of drawings, but they were destroyed by a fire in 1514 in the library of the city of Pesaro. One of the images of the Parthenon has survived. It depicts a temple with 8 Doric columns, the location of the metopes - epistilia - is accurately indicated, and the frieze with the missing central metope - listae parietum - is correctly depicted. The building is very elongated, and the sculptures on the pediment depict a scene that is not similar to the dispute between Athena and Poseidon. This is a 15th century lady with a pair of rearing horses, surrounded by Renaissance angels. The description of the Parthenon itself is quite accurate: the number of columns is 58, and on the metopes, which are better preserved, as Cyriacus correctly suggests, a scene of the struggle of the centaurs with the Lapita is depicted. Cyriacus of Ancona also owns the very first description of the sculptural frieze of the Parthenon, which, as he believed, depicts the Athenian victories of the era of Pericles.

Mosque

Story

The Parthenon after the arrival in Athens of Francesco Morosini, drawing 1672-1676. An unknown Venetian author depicts the Parthenon as a mosque with a minaret, but with the wrong number of columns - 4 by 5.

In 1458, Athens was conquered by the Ottoman Empire under the leadership of Sultan Mehmet II, a ruthless conqueror and at the same time an erudite and connoisseur of the arts. By the end of his reign, Mehmet II Fatih took possession of all of Greece and the Balkans, and planned the conquest of Rhodes and Southern Italy. On the other hand, he collected libraries and ordered paintings and sculptures from leading Italian masters. As the legend says, when Mehmet II entered Athens, he was struck by the grandeur and grace of the Acropolis. However, a Turkish garrison was stationed on the hill, and a disdar, a military commandant, settled in the Florentine palazzo into which the Propylaea was turned. The Sultan's harem was set up in the small temple of Erechtheion. The Parthenon was almost immediately converted into a mosque. The bell tower was turned into a minaret, the Christian decoration of the temple was replaced, and the most characteristic Christian symbols of the painting were whitewashed.

At the beginning of Turkish rule, Athens and the Acropolis disappeared from the routes of Western European travelers: a serious obstacle was the periodic hostilities between the Venetians and Ottomans in the 16th and 17th centuries. If anyone dared to travel the Eastern Mediterranean, it was almost impossible to visit the sights of Athens; the Turkish garrison prevented outsiders from entering the Acropolis. In 1632, a French traveler wrote that the Parthenon had been converted into a mosque, and argued that the temple was oval in shape, probably due to the fact that he viewed it from a considerable distance. In 1675, Londoners Jacob Spohn and his friend George Wohler, in order to inspect the Acropolis, bribed a Turkish guard by offering him coffee beans. Wehler wrote:

Parthenon

(Greek Παρθενών; English Parthenon)

Opening hours: from 8.30 to 19.00 every day except Monday.

The Parthenon is a temple dedicated to Athena Parthenos, the patroness of Athens, and is rightfully considered one of the greatest examples of ancient architecture, a masterpiece of world art and plastic arts. The temple was founded on the initiative of Pericles, the famous Athenian commander and reformer. Its construction proceeded quite quickly - the temple was built from 447 to 438 BC (under the leadership of the architects Ictinus and Kallicrates), and its sculptural design and decoration (under the leadership of Phidias) was completed in 432 BC.

The first known temple to Athena in modern times, the existence of which is recognized by most scientists in the world, was built on the Acropolis, probably under Pisistratus. It was called the same as later the naos of the modern Parthenon - Hekatompedon, but during the campaign of Xerxes it, like other buildings on the Acropolis, was destroyed. There is a version about the connection between the ancient meaning of the word “hekatompedon” and the custom of child sacrifices (Greek “hekaton” - “hundred”, tome - “dissection”, “paidos” - “child”). Later, with the abolition of this cruel custom (babies were laid in the foundation of the building for the sake of its strength), the concept of “one hundred child sacrifices” was transferred to the original measure of the length of the naos (sanctuary) of the temple.

During the reign of Pericles, Athens achieved its greatest glory. After the end of the Greco-Persian wars, already on the prepared site, it was decided to build a new, more majestic and luxurious temple. The victorious attitude was also reflected in wasteful urban planning plans, which were financed mainly by the tribute levied by Athens on its allies. The best artists of that time were involved in the construction and huge amounts of money were spent. The builders of the Parthenon were the ancient Greek architects Ictinus and Callicrates. Then there was a period of the highest rise of ancient culture, and the temple of the goddess Athena on the Acropolis hill, to this day, proudly reminds the whole world of this.

The Parthenon is located at the highest point of the Acropolis of Athens. Therefore, the beautiful temple of the goddess Athena is visible not only from all corners of the city, but also from the sea, from the islands of Salamis and Aegina. The main facade of the temple is located at an angle to the Propylaea (entrance gate), which is located in the western part of the temple mount. Entirely permeated with light, the temple seems airy and light. There are no bright designs on the white columns, as is found in Egyptian temples.

The Parthenon is a Doric peripterus, with elements of the Ionic order. It is located on a stylobate (69.5 m long and 30.9 m wide) - three marble steps, the total height of which is about 1.5 meters, the roof was covered with a tiled roof. On the side of the main (western) façade, more frequent steps were cut, intended for people.

The building itself (cella) has a length of 29.9 m (width 19.2 m), which was 100 Greek feet, and is bordered along the entire perimeter by an external colonnade (peristele). There are only 46 of these columns, 8 from the end facades and 17 from the side facades. All columns are channeled, that is, decorated with longitudinal grooves. The height of the corner columns together with the capitals is 10.43 m (the same as in the Temple of Zeus at Olympia).

The lower diameter of the corner columns - embat, when proportioning the temple, was taken as the first module (1.975 m). For the vertical dimensions, the builders used the second module - the height of the abacus of the capital (0.3468 m). The amazing harmony of the building, which has been preserved to this day, despite the fact that only ruins remain of the great structure, is based, first of all, on the polyphony of relationships of quantities; the sizes of similar parts change depending on their place in the overall composition.

The columns of the Parthenon do not look like a continuous undivided mass, but are perceived as a row in which individual trunks are not lost. Hence the correlation of the colonnade with the rhythm of the triglyphs and metopes of the frieze, as well as with the rhythm of the figures of the Ionic frieze, which was located in the upper part of the walls of the naos, and on the internal colonnade of the porticoes.

The Parthenon was not only a temple, but also something of an art gallery or museum, and it provided an excellent backdrop for many works of plastic art. The sculptural decoration of the Parthenon was carried out under the leadership of the great master Phidias, and with his direct participation. This work is divided into four parts: the metopes of the outer (Doric) frieze, the continuous Ionic (inner) frieze, the sculptures in the tympanums of the pediments and the famous statue of Athena Parthenos.

The pediment and cornices of the building were decorated with sculptures. The pediments were decorated with the gods of Greece: the thunderer Zeus, the mighty ruler of the seas Poseidon, the wise warrior Athena, the winged Nike. For example, on the western pediment the dispute between Athena and Poseidon for the possession of Attica is represented. The judges decided to give victory to the god whose gift would be more valuable to the city. Poseidon struck with his trident and a salty spring gushed out of the rock of the Acropolis. Athena struck with her spear and an olive tree grew on the Acropolis. This gift seemed more useful to the Athenians. Thus, Athena emerged victorious in the dispute, and the olive tree became the symbol of the city.

Along the perimeter of the outer walls of the cella, at a height of 12 meters, the famous Parthenon frieze stretched like a ribbon, the details of which, however, were almost indistinguishable from below. This frieze is considered one of the pinnacles of classical art. Of more than 500 figures of boys, girls, elders, on foot and on horseback, not one repeated the other; the movements of people and animals were conveyed with amazing dynamism. The figures are not flat, they have the volume and shape of the human body.

The metopes were part of the traditional, for the Doric order, triglyph-metope frieze, which encircled the outer colonnade of the temple. In total, there were 92 metopes on the Parthenon, containing various high reliefs. They were connected thematically, along the sides of the building. In the east the battle of the centaurs with the Lapiths was depicted, in the south - the battles of the Greeks with the Amazons (amazonomachy), in the west - probably scenes from the Trojan War, in the north - battles of gods and giants (gigantomachy). To this day, only 64 metopes have survived: 42 in Athens and 15 in the British Museum.

In general, the architectural appearance of the Parthenon takes its origins from wooden architecture: built of stone, the temple retained, in its outline, the lightness and grace of a wooden building. However, the external simplicity of these outlines is deceptive: the architect Iktin was a great master of perspective. He very accurately calculated how to create the proportions of the structure in order to make them pleasing to the eye of a person looking at the temple from bottom to top.

The Greeks built temples from limestone, the surface of which was covered with plaster and then painted. But the Parthenon is built of marble. During construction on the Acropolis, near Athens, on Mount Pentelikon, deposits of snow-white Pentelic marble sparkling in the sun were discovered. During production, it is white in color, but when exposed to the sun's rays it turns yellow. The northern side of the building is exposed to less radiation - and therefore, the stone there has a grayish-ashy tint, while the southern blocks have a golden-yellowish color. Using ropes and wooden sleds, marble blocks were transported to the construction site.

The masonry was carried out without any mortar or cement, that is, it was dry. The blocks were regular squares, they were carefully ground along the edges, adjusted to size to each other, and fastened with iron staples - pyrons. The column trunks were made from separate drums and connected with wooden pins. Only the outer edges of the stones were carefully trimmed, the inner surfaces were left untreated, “to be stolen.” The final finishing, including the flutes on the columns, was done after the stones were in place.

The roof was made of stone, rafter construction, reproducing earlier wooden floors, and covered with double-shaped marble tiles. The chiaroscuro on the deeply embedded flutes of the columns and in the intercolumns (between the columns) emphasized the spatiality of the building’s composition and its connection with the surrounding landscape.

The central hall of the temple was illuminated only by the light falling through the doorway and numerous lamps. In this twilight, in the center of the temple stood the statue of Athena Parthenos, which was made by Phidias himself. It was upright and about 11 m high, made in the chrysoelephantine technique (made of gold and ivory, on a wooden base), and the eyes were inlaid with precious stones. According to ancient custom, the statue of a deity placed inside the temple should be facing east, towards the rising sun, which is why the entrance to the Parthenon was on the east side.

The ancient Greeks considered the Parthenon to be the home of the deity and believed that the goddess Athena descended from Olympus from time to time to be embodied in her statue. Every year, on the festival of Athena, a peplos (veil) woven by the Athenians was placed on the statue of the goddess. On it were woven pictures of the exploits of the goddess, especially her victories over the giants.

Phidias depicted Athena in long, heavy robes, with her left hand resting on a shield, under which the serpent Erichthonius was coiled. The shield that Athena held depicted scenes of the battle of the Greeks with the Amazons, and the battle of the gods with the giants. Among the characters in the first scene, Phidias depicted himself as a bald old man swinging a stone. Such courage was considered sacrilege. Added to this were accusations of abuses that Phidias allegedly committed with the gold and other jewelry he received to create a statue of Athena. As a result, in 431 BC, the great sculptor was imprisoned. According to some sources, Phidias died in captivity, according to others, he was sent into exile.

Plates of pure gold (1.5 mm thick), depicting the robe of the statue of the goddess Athena, were periodically removed and weighed - they formed part of the state treasury. According to Pericles, gold could be borrowed from the goddess if necessary, for example, to wage war, and then returned. Any citizen could donate his goods or weapons to the temple of Athena. Alexander the Great, after defeating the Persians on the Granicus River in 334 BC, sent 300 shields captured from the enemy to Athens. The temple was also used to store gifts to the goddess. Gold and silver caskets, figurines, weapons, and vessels were located in all rooms of the Parthenon - there were inventories for each room.

The statue of Athena, a great work of ancient sculpture, having existed for more than 900 years, perished in the storms of time, and can only be judged by several unsuccessful copies. Today, the site where the statue of Athena stood is marked by several rectangular stones.

The Parthenon was thought out in the smallest details, completely invisible to an outside observer, and aimed at visually lightening the load on the load-bearing elements, as well as correcting some errors in human vision. Architectural historians separately highlight the concept of curvature of the Parthenon - a special curvature that introduced optical corrections. Although the temple seems ideally rectilinear, in fact, there is almost not a single strictly straight line in its contours: the columns are not placed vertically, but slightly inclined into the building; the width of the metopes increases towards the center and decreases towards the corners of the building; the corner columns are somewhat thicker in diameter than the others, since otherwise they would appear thinner, and in cross section they are not round; the entablature slopes outward and the pediments inward. To compensate for the future reductions, the Greeks increased the size of the upper parts of the building and reduced those that are closer. It is also known that a horizontal line of considerable length in the middle appears concave. In the Parthenon, the lines of the stylobate and steps are made not straight, but slightly convex, which compensates for visual distortion.

The emphasized contours and ornament were also intended to enhance the readability of relief images at high altitudes. Lightness and flexibility distinguish the architecture of the Parthenon from its predecessors: the temples at Paestum, Selinunte, or the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. The sizes of individual parts were determined “by eye,” varying them in such a way that, when viewed from below, they created a feeling of regularity and identical relationships. This principle is called the “law of angles” (meaning the angle of view of the observer). Our eye mentally continues the axes of the columns upward and connects them at one point, located somewhere high in the sky, above the temple. A person, under the shadow of the colonnade, in the openings of neighboring columns, as in a picture frame, sees landscapes arranged by architecture. From the outside, from all points of view, the Parthenon looks like a statue on a pedestal. When assessing the Parthenon, from an average distance (about 35 m), the temple looks harmonious and solid; up close it impresses with its monumentality and seems even larger than it actually is. The position of the temple building relative to the Acropolis hill is also important: it is moved to the southeastern edge of the rock, and therefore visitors see it as distant; in fact, the large Parthenon does not overwhelm with its size and “grows” as a person approaches it.

The popular belief that Greek temples were always white is actually wrong. In ancient times, the Parthenon was very colorful, and according to modern tastes, it was even almost clumsily painted. The tenia and undersurface of the echinus were red. The lower surface of the cornice is red and blue. The red background emphasized the whiteness, the narrow vertical projections that separated one frieze slab from the other stood out clearly in blue, and the gilding shone brightly. Painting was done with wax paints, which, under the influence of hot sunlight, impregnated the marble. This technique ensured an organic combination of the natural texture of marble and color; the stone was painted, but remained slightly translucent and “breathed.”

The greatest temple of Ancient Greece, the Parthenon, went through all the stages of its history with it. For some time, the Parthenon stood untouched, in all its splendor. With the decline of Greece began the decline of the temple.

In 267 BC, Athens was invaded by the barbarian tribe of the Heruli, who sacked Athens and started a fire in the Parthenon. As a result of the fire, the roof of the temple was destroyed, as well as almost all the internal fittings and ceilings. In the Hellenistic era (about 298 BC), the Athenian tyrant Lacharus removed the gold plates from the statue of Athena. After 429, the statue of Athena Parthenos disappeared from the temple. According to one version, the statue was taken to Constantinople and installed in front of the Senate building, and later it was destroyed by fire.

Due to the strengthening of the cult of the Mother of God, under Emperor Justinian I (527-565), the Parthenon was turned into the Church of the Holy Virgin Mary (“Parthenis Maria”). In general, ancient temples easily turned into Christian ones. The transition from a pagan temple to a church affected the architecture of the Parthenon. In ancient times, the entrance to the Parthenon was located in the eastern part under the pediment, the sculptures of which depicted the birth of Athena. However, it is in the eastern part of the Christian temple that the altar should be located. As a result, the temple was remodeled and the internal columns and some walls of the cella were removed, which is why the central slab of the frieze was dismantled. The sacred eastern part of the Christian temple could not be decorated with the birth scene of the goddess Athena. These bas-reliefs were removed from the pediment. The colonnades were filled with stones. Most of the sculptures of the ancient Parthenon were lost: those that could be adapted for Christian worship were left, but most of them were destroyed.

In 662, the miraculous icon of Our Lady of Atheniotissa (Our Lady of the Most Holy Athens) was solemnly transferred to the church. In 1458, after a two-year siege, the last Duke of Athens surrendered the Acropolis to the Turkish conquerors. In 1460, by order of Sultan Mohammed II, the Parthenon was turned into a mosque, the altar and iconostasis were destroyed, the paintings were whitewashed, and a high minaret was erected above the southwestern corner of the temple, the remains of which were demolished only after the Greek Revolution. The new ruler of Athens placed his harem in the Erechtheion. At the beginning of Turkish rule, Athens and the Acropolis disappeared from the routes of Western European travelers: a serious obstacle was the periodically renewed hostilities between the Venetians and the Ottomans in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Turks had no desire to protect the Parthenon from destruction, but they also did not have the goal of completely distorting or destroying the temple. Since it is impossible to accurately determine the time of overwriting the Parthenon metopes, the Turks could continue this process. However, overall, they carried out less destruction of the building than the Christians did a thousand years before Ottoman rule, who transformed the magnificent ancient temple into a Christian cathedral.

Beginning in 1660, there was a period of peace between the Venetians and the Ottomans, and travelers began to visit Athens again. Not only travel notes, but also studies of the Greek ancient heritage became widespread. But this peace turned out to be short-lived. A new Turkish-Venetian war began. Finally, in 1687, during the siege of Athens by the Venetians led by Francesco Morosini, a gunpowder warehouse was built in the temple. The cannonball that flew in through the roof on September 26 caused a huge explosion, and the Parthenon became ruins forever. After the explosion of the Parthenon, its further destruction no longer seemed reprehensible. Removing surviving fragments of sculptures and reliefs was considered not robbery, but salvation, because previously the Turks simply smashed sculptures and burned them into lime for construction. When a few days later the Turks surrendered and the Venetians entered the territory of the Acropolis, they decided to take to Venice, as trophies, the figure of Poseidon and the horses of his quadriga - the remains of the composition “The dispute between Athena and Poseidon” on the western pediment. When they began to be removed, the sculptures, which were barely holding on after the explosion, fell and broke.

A few months after the victory, the Venetians gave up power over Athens: they lacked the strength to further defend the city, and the plague made Athens a completely unattractive target for invaders. The Turks again established a garrison on the Acropolis, albeit on a smaller scale, among the ruins of the Parthenon, and erected a new small mosque. During the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the Parthenon, having lost its protection, was increasingly destroyed.

The Parthenon's misfortunes ended only at the beginning of the 19th century, when the famous robber of ancient monuments, Lord Elgin, took to England 12 figures from the pediments, 56 slabs with reliefs from the Parthenon frieze, and a number of other fragments of the monument, and sold them to the British Museum, where they, are still the most valuable exhibits. Today, sculptures from the Parthenon are found in many museums around the world. In particular, the British Museum contains sculptures of Helios and Selene - corner fragments of the pediment “The Birth of Athena”. In recent decades, there has been a tendency towards the return of lost relics to the Parthenon. An important issue for the Greek government at the present stage is also the return of the Elgin marbles.

The idea of ​​recreating the Parthenon was brought to life in the USA. In the city of Nashville (Tennessee), architects W. Dinzmoor and R. Garth, in 1897, built a full-scale replica of the Parthenon, restored according to the latest scientific data of that era. Restoration of the temple began in the 19th century. In 1926-1929 the northern colonnade was restored. Following this, an attempt was made to restore the pediment sculptures, the originals of which were partly lost and partly ended up in foreign museums.

But despite constant restoration work, even today, the Parthenon continues to slowly but surely collapse. In recent years, the poisonous smog and suffocating stench of modern Athens, as well as the marks left here by hordes of tourists, have caused significant damage to the Parthenon marble.

In the eyes of contemporaries, the Parthenon was the embodiment of the glory and power of Athens. Today the Parthenon is rightfully considered one of the greatest examples of ancient architecture, a masterpiece of world art and sculpture. This is the most perfect creation of ancient architecture and even in ruins is an amazing, exciting monument...

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Parfenov's descriptions were always replete with only superlatives. This Athenian temple, dedicated to the patroness of the city, the goddess Athena Parthenos, is rightfully considered one of the greatest examples of ancient architecture, a masterpiece of world art and sculpture. It was built in the middle of the 5th century BC. e. By this time, the Persians, who conquered Athens in 480 BC. e., were again completely defeated. During the reign of Pericles, the city achieved its greatest glory and prosperity. The victorious attitude was also reflected in wasteful urban planning plans, which were financed mainly by the tribute levied by Athens from its allies. That was the period of the highest rise of ancient culture, and the temple of the goddess Athena on the Acropolis hill to this day proudly reminds the whole world of this.

The history of the ancient temple dates back more than 2 thousand years ago. In 447 BC. Pericles gave the order to build a large-scale temple and entrusted this to the architects Callicrates and Iktin. Work on the Parthenon took 15 years, and exclusively white marble was used for the construction of the temple.

The Parthenon was built in the Doric style. The building itself (cella) is bordered along the entire perimeter by an external colonnade (peristyle). There are only 46 of these columns, 8 from the end facades and 17 from the side facades. All columns are fluted, that is, decorated with longitudinal grooves. The pediment, cornice and columns were made of marble, and only the roof of the temple was made of wood. In general, the architectural appearance of the Parthenon takes its origins from wooden architecture: built of stone, the temple retained the lightness and grace of a wooden structure in its outline. However, the external simplicity of these outlines is deceptive: the architect Iktin was a great master of perspective. He very accurately calculated how to balance the proportions of the structure in order to make them pleasing to the eye of a person looking at the temple from bottom to top.

The entire structure was built on the foundations of an earlier temple of Athena. In the cella stood a statue of the goddess, made of marble and ivory by the sculptor Phidias. Athena Parthenos was a warrior goddess, but she was also believed to be the patron of arts and crafts.

Clickable 2100 px

However, the Parthenon was not only a temple, but also something of an art gallery or museum, it created an excellent backdrop for many works of plastic art. The pediment and cornices of the building were decorated with sculptures. Along the perimeter of the outer walls of the cella, at a height of 12 meters, the famous Parthenon frieze stretched like a ribbon, the details of which, however, were almost indistinguishable from below. (At the beginning of the 19th century, Lord Elgin took most of the frieze to London, and in 1816 it was acquired by the British Museum.)

The popular belief that Greek temples were always white is actually wrong. In ancient times, the Parthenon was very colorful, and according to modern tastes, it was even almost clumsily painted. In recent years, the toxic smog and suffocating stench of modern Athens, as well as the marks left here by hordes of tourists, have caused significant damage to the Parthenon marble.

Most of the images of the temple told about various battles and battles of the Greeks. So on the western plates there were drawings dedicated to the war between the Greeks and the Amazons, and on the southern ones there was a battle between centaurs and lapiths. It is worth noting that the Greeks loved to depict themselves in mythical pictures of the battles of the gods, thereby noting their involvement in the birth of a new era.

Clickable 1700 px Acropolis. View of the 4th century theater Parthenon

One of the main attractions of the temple was the statue of the goddess Athena made of pure gold and ivory inserts. Unfortunately, the statue also has not survived to this day and an idea of ​​it can only be obtained by seeing its smaller copies.

Drawings by Manolis Korres

The Parthenon was not destined to survive in its original form to this day. The temple was first seriously damaged in 295 BC. during the siege of the Acropolis by Demetrius Poliocrete. Several centuries later (in the 4th century AD), the temple was converted into a Christian church. Some parts of the structure were either destroyed or rebuilt. The misfortunes did not end there...

In 1460, the Parthenon fell into the hands of the Turks, and the Christian church overnight turned into a mosque, and the bell tower attached to the temple was converted into a minaret.

In the 17th century, due to the war of independence with the Turks, a gunpowder warehouse was established on the territory of the Parthenon. Placing ammunition on the territory of a historical site was a very bad idea, since in 1687, as a result of the shelling of the temple by Venetian mortars, not only more than 10 giant columns were destroyed, but also the entire central part of the Partheon. Let's find out in more detail what happened there...

In 1683, the Turkish army besieging Vienna was defeated by a united European force under the command of the Polish king, John Sobieski.

The victory of European forces near Vienna led to the transition of the European allied states to a counteroffensive, at the forefront of which stood Venice, which had its own economic and political interests in the eastern Mediterranean. The Venetian troops were commanded by Francesco Morosini.

By 1687, the Venetians occupied the Peloponnese, captured Mystras and reached Negropontus on the island of Euboea. However, the Venetians were unable to storm Negropont, which had a fairly strong garrison, and it was not possible for the Venetians to conduct a long siege.

At the military council, Morosini made a proposal to go to Athens, and on September 21, 1687, the Venetian fleet appeared off the coast of Attica near the Bay of Piraeus.

The Turks had little force in Athens, so they abandoned the city and locked themselves in the fortress of the Acropolis. The Venetian army camped west of the city, and offered the Turkish garrison an honorable surrender to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. The Turks refused, and the assault on the Acropolis began.

On September 22, the Venetians installed artillery batteries on the hills opposite the Acropolis and tried to place mines under the fortress walls, which they were unable to do due to the hardness of the rocks. At the same time, a Turkish deserter who ran across told the Venetians that the Turks had stored the entire supply of gunpowder in the Parthenon, because were sure that the Europeans would not destroy the temple.

However, when storming the fortress, the Venetians were least likely to take into account the historical and cultural significance of the Acropolis buildings. They needed to take the fortress as quickly as possible before reinforcements arrived at the besieged garrison, and therefore any building on the Acropolis became a combat unit that had to be destroyed if necessary. Therefore, the Venetians, without any twinge of conscience, proceeded to bombard the buildings of the Acropolis, which have worldwide cultural value. The bombardment of the Acropolis was made difficult by the terrain, but on the evening of September 26, a successful hit by a shell thrown inside the temple ignited and then blew up the powder magazine. Morosini himself later reported that the bomb that hit the Parthenon destroyed the temple itself and killed more than three hundred Turkish soldiers.

After the loss of gunpowder magazines, the Turks accepted the surrender offered to them. The Venetians allowed the Turks to leave for the Turkish ships, which were waiting for them six miles from Piraeus, and take with them as much property as they could carry.

The capture of Athens by the Venetians led to the usual at that time reconstruction of temples to suit the needs of the religion of the victors. For example, the Swedes turned one of the elegant mosques into a Lutheran church, and several more mosques were converted by the Venetians into Catholic churches. However, no one needed the destroyed Parthenon.

Six months after the capture of Athens, the Venetians decided to abandon the city for strategic reasons. The Turks returned to the city for several more centuries, but they also did not restore the Parthenon.

Between 1802 and 1804, several dozen surviving marble sculptures were brought to London and placed in the British Museum. All this led to the fact that the Parthenon, which was once a luxurious temple, turned into ruins of no value...

Clickable 1800 px Parthenon after the Greek Revolution (1820s). Engraving by W. Miller (1829) from the work of H. W. Williams (1822)

Fortunately, already in 1834 the Parthenon was cleared of foreign objects, and in 1930 the restoration of the ancient Greek temple began. To date, almost all damaged columns have been restored. In addition, some sculptures that had been in museums or private collections for a long time were returned to the temple grounds or taken to the Athens National Museum.

The Parthenon marble sculptures are not independent works of art. They were created as an architectural and symbolic part of the temple of the goddess Athena, built in the 5th century BC. during the heyday of ancient Greek culture. The main concept of the structure was balance, achieved through the ideal symmetry of the triglyphs, metopes, frieze and pediments of the temple. It is possible to understand and appreciate the monument as a whole only together with its sculptures, while the sculptures themselves can only be significant when located next to the temple, in their natural historical surroundings. The Parthenon, with its 2,500-year history, remains a great monument and is considered a significant symbol of freedom of thought. democracy, philosophy, harmony and law. It is the most outstanding monument of Western civilization. UNESCO chose the Parthenon as its emblem and included the Acropolis on the World Heritage List.

Of the 97 surviving parts of the Parthenon frieze, 56 were taken to London, and 40 remained in Athens. Of the 64 surviving metopes, 48 ​​are in Athens and 15 were taken to London. Of the 28 sculptures from the pediments of the temple, 19 were taken to London and 9 remained in Athens. It is believed that the frieze of the Parthenon depicts a procession in honor of the holiday - Panathenaia. The metopes represent scenes of Gigantomachy on the eastern side, Amazonomachy on the western side, the Trojan War on the northern side and the battle of the centaurs with the Lapiths on the southern side. The eastern pediment illustrates the birth of Athena, and the western pediment illustrates the battle between the goddess Athena and the god Poseidon for the right of patronage over Athens.

Clickable 2900 px

Greece asks for UK assistance, both for the sake of the monument itself and for the sake of world cultural heritage. Achieving mutual understanding is possible through bilateral cooperation in the field of culture and education. More specifically, the Greek proposal is to stage an exhibition of the reunited Parthenon marbles in the great hall of the new Acropolis Museum, while the UK could take part in the restoration and renovation of the Parthenon itself. Exhibiting the sculptures collected together can allow us to take a fresh look at this unique monument, contribute to the development of science and demonstrate to future generations the achievements of human civilization. The images and their descriptions are taken from the book “The Reunion of the Parthenon Sculptures” by Elena Corki, Head of the Department of Greece and the Institute of Archeology, published in Athens by the Greek Ministry of Culture and Tourism in two editions - in 2002 and 2003, KAPON Publishing House

The following parts of the sculptural decoration of the temple have survived to this day:

East side (Gigantomachy)

All 14 slabs are in the Acropolis Museum

West side (Amazonomachy)

all 14 slabs are located on the temple itself, North side (Trojan War)

13 intact and partially destroyed slabs are located in the Acropolis Museum and on the temple itself

South Side (Battle between Lapiths and Centaurs)

1 slab is located on the temple itself

11 intact and partially destroyed slabs are in the Acropolis Museum

16 intact and partially destroyed slabs are in the British Museum (fragments of 6 of them are also in the Acropolis Museum)

Pediments

East pediment (Birth of Athena)

4 sculptures are in the Acropolis Museum (C, H, N, P)

10 sculptures are in the British Museum (A, B, D, E, F, G, K, L, M, O)

West pediment (Battle between Athena and Poseidon)

8 sculptures are in the Acropolis Museum (B, E, J, K, S, U, V, W)

4 sculptures are in the British Museum (A, P, Q, T)

fragments of 6 sculptures are kept in both museums (C, H, L, M, N, O)

The frieze depicted a procession in honor of the Great Panathenaia and originally included 115 slabs (119 relief images, since the corner stones have two images on each side). Of these, 112 slabs have survived completely or partially:

West side (all 16 slabs preserved)

Of these, 13 slabs are in the Acropolis Museum

There are 2 slabs in the British Museum

And fragments of one of the slabs are kept in both museums

South side (41 slabs survived)

2 slabs are located on the temple itself

12 slabs are in the Acropolis Museum

24 slabs are in the British Museum

Fragments of 3 slabs are kept in both museums

North side (46 slabs preserved)

24 slabs are in the Acropolis Museum

15 slabs are in the British Museum

Fragments of 7 slabs are kept in both museums

East side (9 slabs preserved)

sources
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http://ilovegreece.ru

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