Where is the Parthenon located in which? Architectural and artistic design of the Parthenon of ancient Greece

Predecessors of the Parthenon

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

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 columns of the peristyle. The eastern portico was a pronaos, the western one a posticum.

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

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.

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. There were a total of 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 Amazonomachy, in the west - probably scenes from the Trojan War, in the north - the Gigantomachy.

64 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 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.

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 driven, presumably, 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. This is probably Nyux 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 the figures of Zeus, Hephaestus and Athena. Most likely, the rest of the Olympians and, perhaps, some other gods were there. A torso survives, attributed in most cases to Poseidon.

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.

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

Athena Parthenos statue

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

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 BC, most likely during the invasion of the barbarian tribe of the Heruli, 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 Acropolis of Athens. 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.

In the early 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.

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 agents of Lord Elgin and is now on display in the British Museum. Under Michael Choniates himself, the interior decoration of the temple was restored, including the paintings Judgment Day on the wall of the portico where the entrance was located, there are paintings depicting the Passion of Christ in the narthex, a number of paintings that depict 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, who 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 considers the main wealth 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.

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 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

Reconstructions and decoration

The most detailed description of the Parthenon from the Ottoman period is by Evliya Çelebi, a Turkish diplomat and traveler. He visited Athens several times throughout the 1630s and 1640s. Evliya Celebi noted that the conversion of the Christian Parthenon into a mosque did not greatly affect its internal appearance. The main feature of the temple remained the canopy over the altar. He also described that the four columns of red marble that supported the canopy were polished to a shine. The floor of the Parthenon is made of polished marble slabs up to 3 m each. Each of the blocks that decorated the walls was masterfully combined with the other in such a way that the border between them is invisible to the eye. Celebi noted that the panels on the eastern wall of the temple are so thin that they are able to transmit sunlight. This feature was also mentioned by Spohn and J. Wehler, who suggested that in fact this stone is phengite, a transparent marble, which, according to Pliny, was the favorite stone of the Emperor Nero. Evliya recalls that the silver inlay of the main doors of the Christian temple was removed, and the ancient sculptures and paintings were covered with whitewash, although the layer of whitewash was thin and the subject of the painting could be seen. Next, Evliya Celebi gives a list of characters, listing the heroes of pagan, Christian and Muslim religions: demons, Satan, wild animals, devils, sorceresses, angels, dragons, antichrists, cyclops, monsters, crocodiles, elephants, rhinoceroses, as well as Cherub, archangels Gabriel, Seraphim, Azrael, Michael, the ninth heaven, on which the throne of the Lord is located, the scales weighing sins and virtues.

Evliya does not describe the mosaics made of gold pieces and shards of multi-colored glass, which would later be found during excavations on the Acropolis of Athens. However, the mosaic is mentioned in passing by J. Spon and J. Wehler, describing in more detail the images of the Virgin Mary in the apse behind the altar, which survived from the previous Christian era. They also talk about a legend according to which the Turk who shot at the fresco of Mary lost his hand, so the Ottomans decided not to harm the temple anymore.

Although the Turks had no desire to protect the Parthenon from destruction, they also had no intention 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 turned the magnificent ancient temple into a Christian cathedral. As long as the Parthenon served as a mosque, Muslim worship took place surrounded by Christian paintings and images of Christian saints. The Parthenon was not subsequently rebuilt and its present appearance has remained unchanged since the 17th century.

Destruction

The peace between the Turks and the Venetians did not last long. A new Turkish-Venetian war began. In September 1687, the Parthenon suffered its most terrible blow: the Venetians, under the leadership of Doge Francesco Morosini, captured the Acropolis fortified by the Turks. On September 28, the Swedish general Koenigsmark, who was at the head of the Venetian army, gave the order to fire at the Acropolis from cannons on Philopappou Hill. When the cannons fired at the Parthenon, which served the Ottomans as a gunpowder storehouse, it exploded, and part of the temple instantly turned into ruins. In previous decades, Turkish gunpowder magazines were repeatedly blown up. In 1645, a warehouse built in the Propylaea of ​​the Acropolis was struck by lightning, killing Disdar and his family. In 1687, when Athens was attacked by the Venetians together with the army of the allied Holy League, the Turks decided to locate their ammunition, as well as hide children and women, in the Parthenon. They could rely on the thickness of the walls and ceilings or hope that the Christian enemy would not fire at the building, which had served as a Christian temple for several centuries.

Judging by the traces of shelling on the western pediment alone, about 700 cannonballs hit the Parthenon. At least 300 people died, their remains were found during excavations in the 19th century. The central part of the temple was destroyed, including 28 columns, a fragment of a sculptural frieze, and interior spaces that once served as a Christian church and mosque; the roof in the northern part has collapsed. The western pediment turned out to be almost undamaged, and Francesco Morosini wanted to take its central sculptures to Venice. However, the scaffolding used by the Venetians collapsed during the work, and the sculptures collapsed, falling to the ground. Several fragments of fragments were nevertheless taken to Italy, the rest remained on the Acropolis. From this time on, the history of the Parthenon becomes the history of ruins. The destruction of the Parthenon was witnessed by Anna Ocherjelm, lady-in-waiting of the Countess of Königsmarck. She described the temple and the moment of the explosion. Shortly after the final surrender of the Turks, while walking along the Acropolis, among the ruins of a mosque, she found an Arabic manuscript that was transferred by Anna Ocherjelm's brother to the library of the Swedish city of Uppsala. Therefore, after its two-thousand-year history, the Parthenon could no longer be used as a temple, since it was destroyed much more than one can imagine from its current appearance - the result of many years of reconstruction. John Pentland Magaffey, who visited the Parthenon several decades before restoration work began, noted:

From a political point of view, the destruction of the Parthenon had minimal consequences. A few months after the victory, the Venetians gave up power over Athens: they did not have enough forces to further defend the city, and the plague epidemic made Athens completely unattractive to 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. It can be seen in the first known photograph of the temple, created in 1839.

From destruction to reconstruction

Early explorers of the Parthenon included the British archaeologist James Stewart and architect Nicholas Revett. Stuart first published drawings, descriptions and drawings with measurements of the Parthenon for the Society of Dilettantes in 1789. In addition, it is known that James Stewart collected a considerable collection of ancient antiquities from the Acropolis of Athens and the Parthenon. The cargo was sent by sea to Smyrna, after which the trace of the collection is lost. However, one of the fragments of the Parthenon frieze, removed by Stuart, was found in 1902 buried in the garden of the Colne Park estate in Essex, which was inherited by the son of Thomas Astle, an antiquarian and trustee of the British Museum.

The legal side of the matter still remains unclear. The actions of Lord Elgin and his agents were regulated by the Sultan's firman. Whether they contradicted him cannot be established, since the original document has not been found, only its translation into Italian, made for Elgin at the Ottoman court, is known. In the Italian version, it is allowed to measure and sketch sculptures using ladders and scaffolding; create plaster casts, dig up fragments buried under the soil during the explosion. The translation does not say anything about permission or prohibition to remove sculptures from the facade or pick up those that have fallen. It is known for certain that already among Elgin’s contemporaries, the majority criticized at least the use of chisels, saws, ropes and blocks for removing sculptures, since in this way the surviving parts of the building were destroyed. The Irish traveler, author of several works on ancient architecture, Edward Dodwell wrote:

Independent Greece

However, official archaeological policy remained unchanged until the 1950s, when a proposal to remove a staircase from a medieval tower at the western end of the Parthenon was abruptly rejected. At the same time, a program to restore the appearance of the temple was unfolding. Back in the 1840s, four columns of the northern facade and one column of the southern facade were partially restored. 150 blocks were returned to their place in the walls of the interior of the temple, the rest of the space was filled with modern red brick. The work was most intensified by the 1894 earthquake, which largely destroyed the temple. The first cycle of work was completed in 1902, its scale was quite modest, and it was carried out under the auspices of a committee of international consultants. Until the 1920s and for a long time after, chief engineer Nikolaos Balanos worked without external control. It was he who began the restoration program, designed for 10 years. It was planned to completely restore the internal walls, strengthen the gables and install plaster copies of the sculptures removed by Lord Elgin. In the end, the most significant change was the reproduction of the long sections of colonnades that connected the east and west facades.

Diagram showing blocks of individual columns from the ancient era, Manolis Korres

Thanks to the Balanos program, the destroyed Parthenon acquired its modern appearance. However, since the 1950s, after his death, his achievements have been repeatedly criticized. First, no attempt was made to return the blocks to their original location. Secondly, and most importantly, Balanos used iron rods and clamps to connect the antique marble blocks. Over time, they rusted and warped, causing the blocks to crack. In the late 1960s, in addition to the problem of the Balanos fastenings, the effects of environmental influences became clear: air pollution and acid rain damaged the sculptures and reliefs of the Parthenon. In 1970, a UNESCO report proposed a variety of ways to save the Parthenon, including enclosing the hill under a glass cover. Eventually, in 1975, a committee was established to oversee the preservation of the entire complex of the Acropolis of Athens, and in 1986 work began to dismantle the iron fastenings used by Balanos and replace them with titanium ones. In the period -2012, the Greek authorities plan to restore the western facade of the Parthenon. Some elements of the frieze will be replaced with copies, the originals will be transported to the exhibition of the New Acropolis Museum. The chief engineer of the work, Manolis Korres, considers the first priority to be to patch up the holes left by bullets fired at the Parthenon in 1821 during the Greek Revolution. Also, restorers must assess the damage caused to the Parthenon by strong earthquakes in 1999. As a result of the consultations, it was decided that by the time the restoration work was completed, the remains of the apse from the Christian era could be seen inside the temple, as well as the pedestal of the statue of the goddess Athena Parthenos; Restorers will pay no less attention to the traces of Venetian cannonballs on the walls and medieval inscriptions on the columns.

In world culture

The Parthenon is one of the symbols not only of ancient culture, but also of beauty in general.

Modern copies

Nashville Parthenon

The goddess Athena is the strangest (in terms of motivation) character in Greek mythology.

After all, she is the goddess of “smart” war, but at the same time she tries to resolve all issues peacefully.

She despises the pettiness of the other Olympians and rarely interferes in their conflicts.

But in the event of a threat to the Pantheon itself, Athena will be the first to enter the battle.

The goddess Athena repeatedly served as the punishing sword of Olympus, punishing the most self-confident mortals, but it was she who founded the greatest city of Greece, and then remained to watch over these mortals after the gods of Olympus had left forever.

And it is not surprising that her greatest sanctuary, the legendary Parthenon, also faced a very difficult and at times simply amazing fate.

Where is

The Parthenon is located in the very center of the capital, on the Acropolis of Athens.
The center of Athens is easy to navigate. There are many pedestrian areas, and the attractions are concentrated closely. It is impossible to get lost - two guiding hills rise above the main plane of the city: the Acropolis and Lycabettos.
Acropolis (Akropolis) - translated from Greek: “upper city” - was built on a rocky hill 156 meters high, which served as a natural fortification during sieges.

Parthenon during ancient Greece

The large pedestrian street Dionysiou Areopagitou leads from the center of Athens to the main attraction of Greece.
Follow it straight, without turning anywhere. Gradually climbing up the mountain, it will lead you straight to your goal.

The Parthenon in Athens is visible from almost everywhere and looks especially beautiful at night when the lights are turned on.

Moreover, at first glance at the Acropolis, you can understand that the gods played a very important role in the life of the Greeks - it is literally crammed with various temples and sanctuaries of almost all more or less noticeable Olympians, from the powerful and formidable Zeus to the eternally drunk, but no less formidable Dionysus.

It is worth noting that the Parthenon is not the first sanctuary of the Acropolis dedicated to Athena. 200 years before its construction, not far from its current location, there was another temple - Hekatompedon. Scientists even admit that for some time, temples existed in parallel.

History of the temple, who built the Parthenon

Parthenon during restoration

Construction of the Parthenon began in 447 BC. The project is attributed to the architect Icten, and the construction was led by Callicrates, who was practically the court master of the ruler Pericles.

In addition to the Parthenon, Callicrates built several more temples on the Acropolis, and also actively participated in the secular life of the city, bringing to mind and completing the project of the Long Walls, which then very unpleasantly surprised the Spartan army during the Pelloponnesian Wars.

True, the offended Spartans still razed the walls to the ground thirty years later, but, alas (or maybe vice versa, fortunately), Kallicrates did not see this. In addition, the city residents restored the walls and they served as a symbol of Athenian independence for another three hundred years.

The Parthenon is the master’s main masterpiece. The temple still did not turn out the way Callicrates intended it. Construction took more than nine years, and all these years the Athenian government regularly reported to its people for every coin spent on construction (archaeologists managed to find marble tablets with reports).

Panatheneon holiday

At the Panathenaic festival of 438 BC. e., the temple was solemnly opened to visitors, but decorative work continued for another six years under the direction of the sculptor Phidias, successor of Callicrates and creator of one of the Seven Wonders of the World - the statue of Zeus at Olympia. For the Parthenon, Phidias created an equally beautiful statue of Athena Parthenos, which became the main decoration of the temple.

Byzantine era Parthenon

After the fire, the temple was restored and it served as the final refuge of the goddess for almost 800 years, until under Patriarch Paul III it was turned into the Cathedral of St. Sophia.

All the treasures were taken to Constantinople, however, by that time there were few of them left. The temple was significantly rebuilt, but overall retained its characteristic appearance.

But in 1458, Athens again changed its state affiliation, becoming part of the Ottoman Empire.

The Turks placed a military garrison in the Acropolis, and turned the Parthenon into a mosque, rebuilding it once again and seriously damaging the paintings inside the temple. Interestingly, apart from painting over all subjects that are contrary to Muslim culture, no other changes were made to the interior decoration of the temple.

In 1687, during the war between the Ottomans and the Holy League, the Parthenon, which served the Turks as a warehouse and shelter, was fired upon from a commanding height - Philopappou Hill. A direct hit on the powder magazine literally destroyed the temple, burying more than 300 Turks under it.

Parthenon in 1840

For the next two hundred years, the ruins of the Parthenon served as a historical monument, until restoration began in 1840.

The process of restoring the main ancient temple is still going on, with varying success, but the fact that many archaeological discoveries have been made is difficult to deny.

True, in recent years, the restoration project was frozen - after joining the EU, Greece simply did not have any money left to restore the monuments.

What the Ancient Greek Parthenon looked like

The ancient Greek Parthenon was a truly magnificent sight.

Parthenon in section

The basis of the temple is the stylobate that has survived to this day - a three-stage rise leading to the temple. The temple itself is a rectangular building, with a colonnade on each of the four sides. The dimensions of the base rectangle are 69.5 × 30.9 meters.

There were 8 columns on the facades of the temple, and another 17 on the sides, which in total gives us 48 supports (the corner columns are simultaneously elements of both the facade and the side part).

Interestingly, the columns were not perpendicular, but located at an angle, leaning inward. Moreover, the angle of inclination of the corner columns is much less than that of others. The columns themselves were classic examples of the Dorian order, although they were unusually large in size.

One of the surviving friezes of the Parthenon

Inside the temple, two additional steps were made, which led to the central platform, surrounded on the facades by another 12 columns.
The site was divided into three naves, a large central one and two small ones on the sides. The central nave was surrounded on three sides by 21 columns. In its center was the same, later missing, statue of Athena Parthenos.

The internal frieze of the temple was made in the Ionic style and depicted a festive procession on the last day of Panathenaia.

As for the exterior, quite little is known about it. The pediments of the Parthenon were destroyed back in the Middle Ages, so they are being restored mainly by guesswork.

The east pediment may have depicted the birth of Athena, but almost no details of the sculptures remain. The western one most likely shows the dispute between Athena and Poseidon for the possession of Attica. A total of 30 statues from the pediments have survived, but their condition is quite deplorable, especially those that were in the British Museum at the end of the 20th century - they were subjected to a rather barbaric cleaning.

The external friezes of the Parthenon are a little better preserved - at least we know exactly what was depicted on them.

On the eastern side of the temple was depicted the history of the war between the centaurs and the Lapiths, on the western side - the Trojan War, in the north - the Gigantomachy, and in the south - scenes from the battle of the Greeks and the Amazons.

Most of the surviving high reliefs are in the Athens Museum, and their exact copies are gradually taking their places in the restored Parthenon.

Athena statue

The most successful copy of the famous statue of Phidias

The statue of Athena is described as one of Phidias' greatest works. The statue of the goddess was made of wood covered with gold (about a ton) and decorated with ivory.

Instead of emphasizing the inaccessibility and aloofness of the deity (as he did with Olympian Zeus), Phidias portrayed Athena as simple and close to her people.

The statue was relatively low (13 meters) and depicted a proudly standing Athena, holding a spear in one hand, and a two-meter figure of the goddess of victory Nike in the other.

The goddess's head was decorated with a three-crested helmet, and at her feet there was a shield depicting scenes from battles.

Alas, the statue cost the Parthenon architect his life - in an effort to immortalize not only the divine Athena, but also himself, the master included a bald old man with a sculptor’s hammer in one of the scenes decorating the goddess’s shield.

Phidias on the shield of the sculpture of Athena the Virgin

The Athenians did not appreciate the humor and condemned it for blasphemy. Phidias died in prison.

The famous statue was probably destroyed by fire, probably in the 5th century BC. e., but there are several copies of varying degrees of accuracy.

The most reliable one, called “Athena Varvarikon”, can be seen in the National Archaeological Museum.

Modern Parthenon

Modern Parthenon

It makes no sense to describe in detail what the Parthenon looks like today - Greek archaeologists and builders brought it as close as possible to the ancient temple.

Of course, all the gloss and beauty of the Parthenon sculptures have been lost, but the building still amazes the imagination.

Every year the temple becomes more beautiful and the stories of the guides more impressive, so visiting the Parthenon is an experience that is interesting to repeat every few years.

How much does a visit cost?

Surviving sculptures on the roof pediment of the Parthenon

Access to the main monument of ancient Hellenic architecture is open from 8.30 to 18.00.
It is recommended to visit it in the early hours or in the evening, when the heat is not particularly strong and the influx of tourists is not very large. At the entrance there is a small stall selling sparkling water and freshly squeezed juices (4.5 euros). Please note that you will not be allowed inside with a glass, and the glass is quite large.

Bring a bottle of water; there are fountains and a toilet upstairs in front of the entrance and to the left.
Entry with large bags is also prohibited, but there are storage lockers on site where you can leave them.

There are several entrances and ticket offices, including from the side of the museum and on the south-eastern side, near the Theater of Dionysus.

The line at the ticket office on the museum side is usually shorter.

The ticket price for entry to the Parthenon territory (12 euros) includes visits to 6 attractions, including the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the Ancient and Roman Agora, the Theater of Dionysus and the oldest district of Athens - Ceramics.
The ticket is valid for 4 days.

The ancient Parthenon temple in Athens is not only a grandiose monument. It is also a national symbol of Greece, of which the country is very proud.

Incredibly beautiful in its simplicity, the building successfully stood the test of time and fell only under shells from heavy cannons made thousands of years after the construction of the last sanctuary of Athena.

Isn’t this worthy of admiration for the work of ancient masters!

Despite the fact that the temple of the Greek goddess has been restored for a long time and is surrounded by scaffolding, being next to it is an amazing and exciting feeling.
If you happen to visit Athens, be sure to visit the Parthenon - the great spirit of ancient Hellas, frozen in Pentelic marble.

The magnificent temple on the Acropolis of Athens, known as the Parthenon, was built between 447 and 432. BC, in the era of Pericles, and was dedicated to the deity and patron of the city - Athena. The temple was built to house a new cult statue and proclaim the success of Athens to the world.

The temple remained in use for over a thousand years and, despite the ravages of time, explosions, looting and damage from pollution, it still dominates the modern city of Athens, a magnificent testament to the glory that the city enjoyed throughout antiquity.

A project to build a new temple, to replace the damaged buildings of the acropolis following the Persian attack on the city in 480 BC, and to restart the destroyed temple project begun in 490 BC, was drawn up by Pericles. And it was financed from the surplus of the military treasury of the Delian League, which rallied together to.

Over time, the confederation grew into the Athenian Empire, and Pericles therefore had no qualms about using League funds to begin a massive building project to glorify Athens.

The Acropolis itself covers an area of ​​about 300 by 150 meters and reaches a maximum height of 70 meters. The temple, which stands on the highest part of the acropolis, was designed by the architects Callicrates and Ictinus.

Pantelian marble from nearby Mount Pentelikon was used for construction, and never before had so much marble been contained in a Greek temple.

Pantelian marble was known for its pure white appearance and fine grain. It also contains traces of iron, which oxidizes over time, giving the marble a soft honey color that shines especially at dawn and dusk.

The name Parthenon comes from one of the many epithets of Athena (Athena Parthenos), that is, the Virgin. Parthenon means "house of the Parthenos", which was so named in the 5th century BC, representing a chamber that housed a cult statue. The temple itself was known as mega neos or "great temple", which referred to the length of the inner cage: 100 ancient legs.

From the 4th century BC the entire building took on the name Parthenon.

Design and dimensions of the Parthenon

No previous Greek temples were so lavishly decorated with sculptures. The Parthenon would become the largest Doric Greek temple, although it was innovative in that it mixed the two architectural styles of Doric and the newer Ionic.

The temple had an area of ​​30.88 m by 69.5 m and was built using the 4:9 ratio in several aspects. The diameter of the columns in relation to the space between the columns, the height of the building in relation to its width, and the width of the internal cell in relation to its length are all 4:9.

To give the illusion of true straight lines, the columns are pressed slightly inward, which also gives the effect of lifting the building, illusorily making it lighter than the building material from which the temple was built.

In addition, the stylobate or floor of the temple is not completely level; it rises slightly in the center. The pillars also have a slight deviation in the middle, and the four corner pillars are noticeably thicker than the other pillars.

The combination of these improvements allows the temple to appear completely straight, symmetrical in harmony and gives the whole appearance of the building a certain dynamism.

Architectural elements of the Parthenon

The outer columns of the temple were Doric, eight of which were visible from the front and back and 17 from the sides. This was not the usual 6x13 Doric style, and they were also slimmer and more closely spaced than usual.

The interior was separated by six columns at the back and front. She was visible through large wooden doors decorated with bronze, ivory and gold ornaments.

Kleda consisted of two separated rooms. The smaller room contained four ionic columns to support the roof section and was used as the city's treasury.

The larger room housed the cult statue, which was surrounded by a Doric colonnade on three sides. The roof was constructed using cedar beams and marble tiles and would have been decorated with acrotherapy (of palms or figures) at the corners and central peaks. Lions' mouths were also placed in the corners of the roof to drain water.

Parthenon decorative sculpture

The temple was unprecedented in both the quantity and quality of architectural sculpture that adorned it. No Greek temple was so richly decorated.

The subjects of the sculpture reflected the turbulent times in which Athens was still involved in conflicts. Following victories over the Persians at Marathon in 490 BC, at Salamis in 480 BC, and at Plataea in 479 BC, the Parthenon became a symbol of the superiority of Greek culture against the "barbarian » foreign forces.

This conflict between order and chaos was symbolized in particular by the sculptures on the metas running along the outside of the temple, 32 along the long sides and 14 on each of the short ones.

They depict the Olympian gods fighting giants (the Eastern metropolises are the most important, as this was the side where the main entrance to the temple was), the Greeks, probably including Theseus, fighting the Amazons (Western meteors), The Fall of Troy (Northern meteors), and the Greeks fighting the centaurs.

The cutters ran along all four sides of the building (ion). Beginning at the southwest corner, the millet narratives follow either side, meeting at the far end. The temple features a total of 160 m of sculpture with 380 figures and 220 animals, mainly horses.

This was more common for a treasury building and may have reflected the Parthenon's dual function as both a religious temple and a treasury.

The frieze differed from all previous temples in that all sides depicted one object, in this case, the Panathenaic procession that took place in Athens, and which brought a new, specially woven robe to the ancient wooden cult statue of Athena, located in the Erechtheion.

The item itself was a unique choice, as typically scenes from Greek mythology were chosen to decorate buildings. The procession depicts dignitaries, musicians, horsemen, chariots and Olympian gods in the center of Athens.

To alleviate the difficulty of viewing the frieze, from such a steep angle, from the narrow space between the Kleda and the outer columns, the background was painted blue and the relief varied so that the carving was always deeper at the top.

In addition, all the sculptures were brightly colored, mainly using blue, red and gold. Bronze added details such as weapons and horses, and colored glass was used for the eyes.

The most important sculpture located in the temple

The temple passages were 28.55 m long with a maximum height of 3.45 m at the center. They were filled with approximately 50 figures, an unprecedented number of sculptures in any temple.

Only eleven of them survive, and their condition is so poor that many are difficult to identify with certainty. With the help of Pausanias' descriptions from the 2nd century AD, however, common items can be identified. The eastern pediment as a whole depicts the birth of Athena, and on the western side - the competition between and, for the patronage of the great city.

One of the problems of pediments for a sculptor is the reduction of space in the corners of the triangle. The Parthenon presented a unique solution, dissolving figures into an imaginary sea or sculpture covering the lower edge of the pediment.

Athena statue

The most important sculpture of the Parthenon is not outside, but inside - the Chryselephantine statue of Athena by Feidias.

It is a gigantic statue, over 12 feet tall and made of carved ivory for the body parts and gold (1,140 kilograms or 44 talents) for everything else, wrapped around a wooden core.

Therefore, gold parts can be removed if necessary during periods of financial need. The statue stood on a pedestal measuring 4.09 by 8.04 meters.

Athena, standing majestic, fully armed, in the aisle with the head of the famous Medusa, holding Nike.

The statue was lost (and may have been taken to Constantinople in the 5th century AD), but smaller Roman copies survive. In her right hand she holds a shield depicting scenes from the battles of Amazons and giants. Behind the shield was a large spiral snake. On her helmet were a sphinx and two griffins. In front of the statue is a large pool of water, which not only adds the necessary moisture to preserve the ivory, but also acts as a reflector for light passing through the doorway.

The admiration and richness of this temple, artistically and literally, should send a message and create a clear picture of the power of a city that could pay tribute to their patron.

The Parthenon unconditionally fulfilled its function as the religious center of Athens for more than a thousand years. However, in the 5th century AD. the pagan temple was converted into a church by early Christians.

An apse was added to the eastern end, which required the removal of part of the eastern frieze. Many of the meteopes on other sides of the building were deliberately damaged, and the figures in the central part of the east pediment were removed.

Windows were set into the walls, more parts of the frieze were destroyed, and a bell tower was added to the west.

In 1816, the British government bought the collection now known as the Elgin Marbles, which is now housed in the British Museum in London.

Elgin took 14 metopes (mostly from the south side), a large number of the best preserved slabs from the frieze and some figures from the pediments (in particular, the torsos of Athena, Poseidon and, quite well preserved, a horse).

The remaining pieces of sculpture left at the site suffered from harsh weather, especially in the late 20th century AD, the devastating effects of chronic air pollution.

The most important pieces are now housed in the Acropolis Museum, a purpose-built modern exhibition space that opened in 2011.

Later history

The building survived in its new form for another thousand years. Then, in 1458, the occupying Turks converted the building into a mosque and added a minaret in the southwest corner.

In 1674 A.D. a visiting Flemish artist (possibly one Jacques Carey) was busy drawing much of the sculpture, an extremely fortuitous action given the disaster that was about to strike.

In 1687, the Venetian army under the leadership of General Francesco Morosini besieged the acropolis, which was occupied by the Turks, who used the Parthenon as a powder keg.

On September 26, a direct hit from a Venetian cannon set it on fire, and a massive explosion tore apart the Parthenon. All the internal walls, with the exception of the eastern side, were swollen, the columns collapsed to the north and south, and with them half of the meteors.

This was not enough, Morosini further damaged the central figures of the west pediment in an unsuccessful attempt to plunder them, and destroyed the horses from the west pediment when he realized that they were beyond his reach.

From the ruins of the temple, the Turks cleared the area and built a smaller mosque, but no attempt was made to collect artifacts from the ruins, or to protect them from the occasional robber. Often, in the 18th century, foreign tourists took a souvenir from the famous ruins of the Parthenon.

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Where is the Parthenon and how to get to it

The Parthenon is located on the Acropolis, in the heart of Athens. Built on a strategic location, it stands out from the rest of the buildings of the Greek capital and is visible from literally anywhere in the city. Therefore, you definitely won’t be able to pass by or get lost. You can get to it in several ways:

• By metro - to the station called Akropolis;
• By bus - there are numerous routes to the Acropolis: 106, 24, 57, 137, 230, A3, E22;
• By trolleybus No. 15, 5, 1;
• On foot - along Dionysiou Areopagitou Street. It leads up the mountain and leads straight to the Parthenon.

History of the Parthenon

For those who are at least a little familiar with Greece and its history, the Parthenon is associated with the goddess Athena. The temple arose as a dedication to the patroness of the city. But few people know that long before him, the Hekatompedon, an ancient temple also dedicated to Athena, stood in the same place.

As a replacement for the old temple destroyed by the Persians, the Parthenon was built on the initiative of Pericles, a famous Athenian politician, famous commander and reformer. He invited the sculptor Phidias to participate in the construction, and Ictius and Callicrates were chosen as architects. The latter built several more temples on the Acropolis, but it was the Parthenon that became his main brainchild. Although for a long time it did not turn out the way it was intended. The construction of the future symbol of Athens took more than 9 years. And for every coin spent on the project, the government was accountable to the people of Athens. Some of the financial reports retain many interesting facts. For example, the most expensive and largest stone was brought from Mount Pendelikon, located 16 km from Athens. High quality marble was also used for construction.

The Parthenon was solemnly presented to the public during the Panathenaic festival - the largest political and religious festivals of antiquity. But decorative work continued for several more years. They were led by Phidias, who created the statue of Athena - it became the main decoration of the Parthenon. The way she looked has concerned historians for several centuries. They say that the statue was Phidias's best work. The wooden statue was covered with a ton of gold and decorated with ivory. The 13-meter statue held a spear in one hand and the figure of Nike in the other.

For almost 1,000 years, the Parthenon served as the main temple of the Greek religion. It was still intact in the 4th century. AD, but by that time Athens was no more than just a provincial city of the Roman Empire with a glorious past. In the 5th century The statue of Athena was stolen and transported to Constantinople. Here it collapsed several centuries later.

The Parthenon was then converted into the Christian Church of the Virgin Mary. This inevitably led to the reconstruction of the temple - pagan sculptures and some columns were removed. Most likely even destroyed. In the 15th century New changes awaited the Parthenon. This time, the Ottomans, who captured the city, rebuilt the once pagan temple of Athena into a mosque. However, they did not cause serious damage.

In the 17th century, during an attack by the Venetians, the Parthenon was literally destroyed as a result of the explosion of a gunpowder warehouse. And only in the 1840s. Its restoration began, but first of all, new and medieval buildings, as well as the Muslim minaret, were removed.

What the Parthenon looked like: past and present

In ancient times, the Parthenon looked majestic - as befits a temple of a goddess especially revered by the Greeks. It had a rectangular shape with a colonnade on all 4 sides. It is believed that the number of Dorian columns was 48. Inside the Parthenon there was a central platform, also fenced with columns. And in its center stood the now lost statue of Athena.

One of the surviving friezes of the Parthenon depicts a scene of the festive procession that usually accompanied the Panathenaea. On several sides of the temple, pages of historical events and legends were immortalized: the Trojan War, the battle of the Amazons and the Greeks. As for the pediment, several statues have survived, and even those are in a deplorable state. The originals are kept in the Athens Museum and the Acropolis Museum, and copies have been installed in their place. However, half of the remaining parts of the friezes and sculptures were taken to London and have not yet been returned to Greece.

By the way, the structure is unique in terms of geometry. If you place an object 15 cm high at one end of the Parthenon step, it will be invisible from the opposite side. This means that flat structures actually have curvature. Another secret of the Parthenon is “encrypted” in its columns - they are slightly inclined inward. It is believed that such features allowed the temple to withstand seismic loads, which once again confirms the skill of the architects.

Archaeologists have brought the modern Parthenon as close as possible to the original. It cannot regain its lost brilliance and greatness, but progress is obvious. Destruction and unfinished reconstruction did not prevent the Parthenon from becoming one of the main monuments of the world.

Visit to the Parthenon

You can visit the main monument of Athens from 8:30 to 18:00.

Ticket price - 12 euros, under 18 years of age visit free of charge.

Since there are a lot of tourists here during the season, and the summer heat brings inconvenience, it is better to come here at opening time or in the evening. For the convenience of tourists, there is a kiosk near the Parthenon where you can buy drinks, there is a toilet and a storage room - large bags are not allowed inside.

For Greece, the Parthenon is not just a historical monument. It is pride and a national symbol. Several cities around the world tried to repeat the work of architects and create their own version of the Parthenon. But no one managed to surpass the example of classical ancient architecture.

the main temple of the Athenian Acropolis, dedicated to Athena Parthenos (i.e. the Virgin), the patron goddess of the city. Construction began in 447 BC, the consecration of the temple took place at the Panathenaic festival in 438 BC, but decoration (mainly sculptural work) continued until 432 BC. The Parthenon is a masterpiece of ancient Greek architecture and a symbol of the Greek genius. Story. The new temple was erected at the highest point of the Acropolis, on a site dedicated to the gods. The ancient temples were probably small in size, and therefore significant leveling of the Acropolis was not required. However, in 488 BC. a new temple was founded here to thank Athena for the victory over the Persians at Marathon. Its dimensions in plan are very close to the current Parthenon, and therefore it was necessary to erect a retaining wall in the middle of the southern slope and lay lime blocks at the base, so that the southern edge of the construction site rose above the rock of the Acropolis by more than 7 m. The planned temple was a peripterus with , apparently, there are 6 columns at the ends and 16 at the sides (counting the corner columns twice). Its stylobate (upper platform) and steps, like the columns themselves, as well as other structural elements, were made of marble (or at least intended to be marble). When in 480 BC The Acropolis was captured and plundered by the Persians, the temple under construction, which by that time had been brought only to the height of the second drum of columns, was destroyed by fire, and work was interrupted for more than 30 years. In 454 BC The treasury of the Delian Maritime League was transferred to Athens, where Pericles then ruled, and soon, in 447 BC, construction work on the almost finished site resumed. The Parthenon was erected by the architects Ictinus and Callicrates (also called Carpion), as well as Phidias, who was primarily responsible for the sculpture, but in addition exercised general supervision over the progress of work on the Acropolis. The creation of the Parthenon was part of Pericles' plan for Athens to gain primacy not only in the military and economic fields, but also in religion and art. Regarding the further fate of the temple, we know that approx. 298 BC the Athenian tyrant Lacharus removed the gold plates from the cult statue of Athena, and in the 2nd century. BC. The building, damaged by the fire, was thoroughly repaired. In 426 AD The Parthenon was converted into a Christian church, originally St. Sofia. Apparently, at the same time, in the 5th century, the statue of Athena was transported to Constantinople, where it subsequently died in a fire. The original main eastern entrance was closed by the altar apse, so now the main entrance became the western entrance through the room behind the cella, previously separated by a blank wall. Other layout changes were also made, and a bell tower was erected in the southwestern corner of the temple. In 662 the temple was re-dedicated in honor of the Most Holy Theotokos (“Panagia Athiniotissa”). After the Turkish conquest, ca. 1460, the building was converted into a mosque. In 1687, when the Venetian military leader F. Morosini was besieging Athens, the Turks used the Parthenon as a gunpowder warehouse, which led to disastrous consequences for the building: a hot cannonball flying into it caused an explosion that destroyed its entire middle part. No repairs were carried out then; on the contrary, local residents began to take away the marble blocks to burn lime from them. Lord T. Elgin, appointed British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in 1799, received permission from the Sultan to export the sculptures. During 1802-1812, the lion's share of the surviving sculptural decoration of the Parthenon was transported to Great Britain and placed in the British Museum (some of the sculptures ended up in the Louvre and Copenhagen, although some remained in Athens). In 1928, a foundation was created with the goal of, as far as possible, replacing the fallen columns and entablature blocks, and on May 15, 1930, the northern colonnade of the temple was inaugurated.
Architecture. The Parthenon in its current form is a Doric order peripter standing on three marble steps (total height approx. 1.5 m), having 8 columns at the ends and 17 on the sides (if you count the corner columns twice). The height of the peristyle columns, made up of 10-12 drums, is 10.4 m, their diameter at the base is 1.9 m, the corner columns are slightly thicker (1.95 m). The columns have 20 flutes (vertical grooves) and taper towards the top. The dimensions of the temple in plan (according to the stylobate) are 30.9 * 69.5 m. The interior of the temple, or cella (external size 21.7 * 59 m), is raised above the stylobate by two more steps (total height 0.7 m) and It has six-column protile porticoes at the ends, the columns of which are slightly lower than in the outer colonnade. The cella is divided into two rooms. The eastern one, longer and called hecatompedon (internal size 29.9 * 19.2 m), was divided into three naves by two rows of 9 Doric columns, which were closed at the western end by a transverse row of three additional columns. It is assumed that there was a second tier of Doric columns, which was located above the first and provided the required height of the ceilings. In the space enclosed by the inner colonnade, there was a colossal (12 m in height) chrysoelephantine (made of gold and ivory) cult statue of Athena by Phidias. In the 2nd century. AD it was described by Pausanias, and its general appearance is known from several smaller copies and numerous images on coins. The ceilings of the western room of the cella (internal size 13.9 * 19.2 m), which was called the Parthenon (the treasury of the Delian League and the state archive were kept here; over time, the name was transferred to the entire temple), rested on four high columns, presumably Ionic. All elements of the Parthenon's structure, including the roof tiles and stylobate steps, were hewn from local Pentelic marble, almost white immediately after quarrying, but over time acquiring a warm yellowish tint. No mortar or cement was used and the masonry was done dry. The blocks were carefully adjusted to each other, the horizontal connection between them was carried out using I-beam iron fasteners placed in special grooves and filled with lead, the vertical connection was made using iron pins.
Sculpture. The decoration of the temple, which complemented its architecture, is divided into three main categories: metopes, or square panels, equipped with high reliefs, located between the triglyphs of the frieze above the outer colonnade; a bas-relief that encircled the cella from the outside in a continuous strip; two colossal groups of free-standing sculptures filled the deep (0.9 m) triangular pediments. On 92 metopes scenes of martial arts are presented: gods and giants on the eastern side, lapiths and centaurs (they are best preserved) on the southern side, Greeks and Amazons on the western side, participants in the Trojan War (presumably) on the northern side. The sculptural group on the eastern pediment depicted the birth of Athena, who, fully armed, jumped out of the head of Zeus after the blacksmith god Hephaestus cut the head with an ax. The group from the western pediment represented the dispute over Attica between Athena and Poseidon, when the olive tree donated by the goddess was considered a more valuable gift than the source of salt water discovered in the rock by Poseidon. A few statues have survived from both groups, but it is clear from them that this was a great artistic creation of the mid-5th century. BC. The bas-relief strip on top of the cella (total length 160 m, height 1 m, height from the stylobate 11 m, in total there were about 350 foot and 150 horse figures) depicted the Panathenaic procession, which annually presented Athena with a new robe - peplos. Along the northern and southern sides are horsemen, chariots, and citizens of Athens moving from west to east, and closer to the head of the procession are musicians, people with gifts, sacrificial sheep and bulls. Along the western end wall, above the portico, there are groups of cavalrymen standing near their horses, mounted on them or already leaving (this part of the bas-relief remained in Athens). At the eastern end there is a central group of the procession, consisting of the priest and priestess of Athena with three young servants: the priest accepts a folded peplos. On the sides of this scene are figures of the most important gods of the Greek pantheon. They are divided into two groups and turned to face outward, towards the corners of the building, as if watching the approach of the procession. Next to them, on the right and left, are two groups of citizens or officials, and on the edges are slowly moving people leading the procession.
"Refinements" of the Parthenon. The meticulous thoughtfulness of the Parthenon's design, with the goal of depriving the building of mechanical straightforwardness and giving it life, is manifested in a number of "refinements" that are revealed only with special research. Let's mention just a few. The stylobate rises slightly towards the center, the rise along the northern and southern façade is approx. 12 cm, in the north and west - 6.5 mm; the corner columns of the end facades are slightly inclined towards the middle, and the two middle ones, on the contrary, are inclined towards the corners; the trunks of all columns have a slight swelling, entasis, in the middle; the front surface of the entablature is slightly inclined outward, and the pediment inward; The diameter of the corner columns, visible against the sky, is slightly larger than that of the others, and in addition, in cross section they represent a complex figure, different from a circle. Many details of the building were painted. The lower surface of the echinus (the extensions on the capitals of the columns) was red, as was the tenia (the belt between the architrave and the frieze). Red and blue colors were used on the bottom surface of the cornice. The marble caissons covering the colonnade were shaded in red, blue and gold or yellow. Color was also used to emphasize the elements of sculpture. Bronze wreaths were also used in the decoration of the building, as evidenced by holes drilled in the architrave for their fastening.

Collier's Encyclopedia. - Open Society. 2000 .