The great Temple of the Parthenon was built in Athens during the heyday of Greece in the 5th century BC. as a gift to the goddess - the patroness of the city. Until now, this amazing temple, even being badly destroyed, never ceases to amaze with its harmony and beauty. No less fascinating is the fate of the Parthenon - he had to see a lot.
After the victory of the Greeks over the Persians, the "golden age" of Attica began. The actual ruler of Ancient Hellas at that time was Pericles, who was very popular among the people. Being a very educated person, possessing a lively mind and oratorical talent, great endurance and diligence, he had big influence on impressionable townspeople and successfully carried out his plans.
In Athens, Pericles unfolded large-scale construction works, and it was under him that a magnificent temple ensemble grew on the Acropolis, the crown of which was the Parthenon. To implement grandiose plans, the architectural geniuses Iktion and Kallikrates and one of the best sculptors Phidias were involved.
The grandiose construction also required colossal costs, but Pericles did not skimp, for which he was repeatedly accused of squandering. Pericles was adamant. Speaking to residents, he explained: “The city is sufficiently supplied with what is necessary for the war, so the surplus in cash should be used for buildings that, after their completion, will bring immortal glory to citizens ". And the citizens supported their ruler. The entire construction took an amount sufficient to create a fleet of 450 trireme warships.
In turn, Pericles demanded from the architects the creation of a real masterpiece, and the ingenious masters did not let him down. After 15 years, a unique building was built - a majestic and at the same time light and airy temple, the architecture of which was not like any other.
The spacious room of the temple (about 70x30 meters) was surrounded on all sides by columns, this type of building is called a periptore.
White marble was used as the main building material, which was brought 20 km away. This marble, which immediately after extraction is clean White color, under influence sun rays began to turn yellow, and as a result, the Parthenon turned out to be painted unevenly - its northern side was gray-ashy in color, and the southern side was golden yellow. But this did not spoil the temple at all, but, on the contrary, made it more interesting.
During construction, dry masonry was used, without mortar. Polished marble blocks were interconnected with iron pins (vertically) and braces (horizontally). Currently, Japanese seismologists are actively interested in the construction technologies used in its construction.
This temple has another unique feature. From the outside, his silhouette appears to be absolutely even and flawless, but in fact there is not a single straight detail in his contours. In order to level the results of the perspective, slopes, curvature or thickening of details - columns, roofs, cornices - were used. Brilliant architects designed unique system adjustments due to optical tricks.
Many believe that all ancient temples had a natural color, but this was not always the case. In the ancient period, many buildings and structures tried to be colorful. The Parthenon was no exception. The main colors that dominated his palette were blue, red and gold.
The interior was decorated with many different sculptures, but the main among them was the legendary 12-meter statue of Athena in the form of the goddess of war, Athena Parthenos, the best creation of Phidias. All her clothes and weapons were made of gold plates, and ivory was used for the exposed parts of her body. More than a ton of gold was spent on this statue alone.
Dark days of the Parthenon
The history of the Parthenon is rather sad. The heyday of the temple fell on the heyday of Greece, but gradually the temple lost its significance. With the spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire in the 5th century, the temple was re-consecrated and turned into a Byzantine church of the Blessed Virgin Mary.In the XV century, after the capture of Athens by the Turks, the temple began to be used as a mosque. During the next siege of Athens in 1687, the Turks turned the Acropolis into a citadel, and the Parthenon into a powder warehouse, relying on its thick walls. But as a result of hitting a cannonball from powerful explosion the temple collapsed and almost nothing remained of its middle part. In this form, the temple became completely useless to anyone, and its looting began.
AT early XIX century, with the permission of the authorities, an English diplomat brought to England a huge collection of magnificent ancient Greek statues, sculptural compositions, fragments of carved walls.
The fate of the building became interested only when Greece gained independence. Since the 20s of the 20th century, work on the restoration of the temple began here, which is being carried out to this day, the lost details are being collected bit by bit. In addition, the Greek government is working on the return of the exported fragments to the country.
As for the main value Parthenon - the statue of the goddess Athena of the genius Phidias, then it was lost forever during one of the fires. Only numerous copies of it remained, stored in various museums. The most accurate and reliable of the surviving is considered to be a Roman marble copy of Athena Varvakion.
Of course, there is no hope that the temple will ever appear in its original form, but even in its current state it is a real masterpiece of architecture.
On the Athenian Acropolis rises the temple of the Virgin Athena Parthenos, dedicated to the patroness of the city of Athens (daughter of the supreme god Zeus) during the reign of Pericles.
Work on its construction began in 447 BC, ended mainly in 438 BC. e., and finishing and sculptural work was carried out even before 434 BC. e.
The architect of the Parthenon Iktin, his assistant is Kallikrates. The creator of the Parthenon is the famous ancient Greek sculptor Phidias, according to the sketches and under the general supervision of which the sculptures were created: the Virgin of Athena Parthenos, a marble frieze, a metope, the dandies of the Parthenon the best craftsmen 5th century BC.
The Parthenon in Athens was built in honor of the victory of the Greeks over the Persians, which was expressed in the solemnity of the forms of the Doric columns of the temple, in harmony and harmony, in its proportions.
The interior of the temple was given a majestic appearance by a two-story colonnade. At the same time, the Parthenon inside was divided into the eastern part ( larger room), where there was a statue of Athena Parthenos, made in the chrysoelephantine technique and the western one, called, in fact, the Parthenon, in which the Athenian treasury was kept.
Architectural and constructive solution of the Parthenon
The Parthenon in ancient Greece is a temple of the Doric order, the architecture of the Parthenon is such that in plan it has the shape of a rectangle, its height is 24 m.
The optimal dimensions of the Parthenon, which was supposed to stand on a rock, were determined according to the principle of the "golden section", namely: the ratio of the massif of the temple and the rock should correspond to the proportions of the temple - this ratio, by the way, was considered harmonious in ancient Greece.
The Parthenon in Athens is surrounded on all sides by columns: the architecture of the Parthenon assumed 8 columns on the short sides and 14 on the long ones. The columns of the Parthenon were placed more often than in the earliest Doric temples.
The entablature is not so massive, so it seems that the columns easily hold the ceiling. The columns of the Parthenon are not strictly vertical, but slightly inclined towards the inside of the building. And not all of them are the same thickness. The corner ones are thicker than the rest, but look thinner against a light background.
Slightly tilting the columns, performing them different thickness, the creators of the temple by this corrected optical distortions that violated the harmony and plasticity of the building, gave it harmony.
The column of the Parthenon is divided by vertical grooves - flutes, which make the horizontal seams between the parts of the column almost invisible and, as it were, exclude its isolation.
Artistic and decorative design of the Parthenon
The structures that adorned the Parthenon are of considerable value to us: a marble frieze, 92 metopes located on the four sides of the temple, and two pediments.
Frieze of the Parthenon. On the upper part of the wall of the temple, behind the outer colonnade, a frieze - a zophorus - is visible. It is a continuous multi-figure 160-meter bas-relief marble ribbon, which depicts 350 people and 250 animals from various angles.
The frieze of the Parthenon was dedicated to the Great Panathenaic festival, which was held in Athens every 4 years in honor of the patroness of the city, the goddess Athena.
At the beginning of the frieze, a competition of horsemen is shown, then slaughtered animals go, they are replaced by a procession of festively dressed people of Athens, carrying to the Parthenon a festive attire of Athena (peplos), woven by Athenian girls.
At the end of the procession, the feast of the 12 gods of Olympus is shown in the end part of the frieze. The frieze groups are small in size, but expressive, never repeating many hundreds of figures of people and animals.
The architecture of the Parthenon involved the placement of metopes above the colonnade, with outside temple, the plots of which were built on the mythological stories of Attica, reflecting the minor exploits of Athena.
There were 92 metopes in total - 14 each on the front sides and 32 each on the side walls. They were carved in high relief - high relief. The metaphors of the eastern pediment depict a scene of the battle of the gods with the giants. On the western side is the scene of the fight between the Greeks and the Amazons.
On the metopes of the north side of the temple - the fall of Troy, on the south - the struggle of the Lapiths with the centaurs. But the main and major events in the life of the goddess, pediment groups are dedicated.
- East and West. On the eastern pediment, which is better preserved, the scene of the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus is depicted according to ancient Greek myth.
In the right corner of the eastern pediment there are three female figures, possibly the three Moiras (goddesses of fate). The smooth softness and warmth of chiaroscuro in the fold of the clothes of female figures is interestingly conveyed.
The western pediment depicts a dispute between Athena and Poseidon for dominance over Attica.
Painting of the Parthenon, cladding. The Parthenon was built entirely of squares of white Pentelian marble laid dry. The properties of this marble are such that due to the presence of iron in it, over time it acquired a golden patina, which gave the slabs a warm, yellowish hue.
However, some Parthenon slabs were painted when it was necessary to highlight some individual elements. So, the triglyphs, which were shaded by the cornice, were covered with blue paint. Blue paint was also used for the background of the metopes and pediments.
Gilding was used to paint the vertical slabs of the gables. The upper parts of the temple were painted dark red, sometimes tinted with narrow strips of gilding.
Parthenon in Athens in its original form existed for about two millennia. To this day have survived: on the territory of the acropolis - the destroyed columns of the temple, not numerous fragments of metopes, frieze, pediments - are stored in various museums around the world.
The Parthenon is one of the most famous monuments of ancient architecture. This 2,500-year-old magnificent temple on the Acropolis of Athens has survived earthquakes, fires, explosions and repeated looting attempts. While the Parthenon was by no means an engineering breakthrough, its style became the paradigm of classical architecture.
1. Acropolis in Athens
The Acropolis in Athens, where the Parthenon is located, is also called the "sacred rock" and was used for defensive purposes.
2. Cultural layers
The cultural layers found on the slopes of the Acropolis indicate that there were settlements on the hill from 2800 BC, that is, long before the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures.
3. The Acropolis Was a Sacred Site
Long before the construction of the Parthenon, the Acropolis was a sacred place and other temples stood on it. The Parthenon replaced the old Temple of Athena, which was destroyed during the Persian invasion in 480 BC.
4. House of Parthenos
The name "Parthenon" is derived from one of the many epithets of Athena (Athena Parthenos), which means "house of Parthenos". This name was given to the temple in the 5th century BC, because a cult statue of Athena was installed inside it.
5. Construction of the Parthenon
The construction of the Parthenon began in 447 BC. and was completed in 438 BC, but final finishing temple continued until 432 BC.
6. Iktinos, Callicrates and Phidias
The Parthenon, which was built by the architects Iktinos and Kallikrates under the supervision of the sculptor Phidias, is considered by most modern architects and historians to be the highest expression of ancient Greek architectural genius. The temple is also considered the culmination of the development of the Doric order, the simplest of the three classical Greek architectural styles.
7. 192 Greek warriors
Several modern historians (including art historian John Boardman) believe that the frieze over the Doric columns of the Parthenon depicts 192 Greek warriors who fell at the Battle of Marathon against the Persians in 490 BC.
8. Stones from Pentelikon
Some of the financial records of the construction of the Parthenon have survived, which show that the largest expense was the transportation of stones from Pentelikon, which was located sixteen kilometers from the Athenian Acropolis.
9. The Greek government and the EU have been restoring the Parthenon for 42 years
The Parthenon restoration project (funded by the Greek government and the European Union) has been going on for 42 years. It took the ancient Athenians only 10 years to build the Parthenon.
10. 12-meter statue of the goddess Athena
The rectangular building, 31 meters wide and 70 meters high, was built from white marble. Surrounded by forty-six columns stood a 12-meter statue of the goddess Athena, made of wood, gold and ivory.
11. Tyrant Lahar
While most of the structure remained intact, the Parthenon suffered significant damage over the centuries. It all started in 296 BC, when the Athenian tyrant Lahar removed gold plating from the statue of Athena in order to pay the debt of his army.
12. In the fifth century AD, the Parthenon was turned into a Christian church.
In the fifth century AD, the Parthenon was converted into a Christian church, and in 1460 a Turkish mosque was located in the Parthenon. In 1687, the Ottoman Turks placed a gunpowder warehouse in the temple, which exploded when the Venetian army shelled the temple. At the same time, part of the temple turned into ruins.
13. 46 external columns and 23 internal
The Parthenon had 46 outer columns and 23 inner columns, but not all of them have survived today. In addition, the Parthenon used to have a roof (it currently does not).
14. The design of the Parthenon is earthquake resistant
The design of the Parthenon is earthquake resistant, despite the fact that the temple's columns are quite thin.
15. The Parthenon was used as a city treasury
The Parthenon was also used as a city treasury, like many other Greek temples of that era.
16. The construction of the Parthenon was not financed by the Athenians.
Despite being the most popular Athenian building of all time, the Parthenon was not financed by the Athenians. After graduation Persian Wars Athens became in 447 BC, the dominant power in the territory of modern Greece. Funds for the construction of the temple were taken from the tribute paid to Athens by other city-states of the Delian League.
17 Delian League Monetary Deposits Were Stored In The Opisthodome
The monetary contributions of the Delian League, which was ruled by Athens, were kept in the opisthodome - the rear closed part of the temple.
18. The Parthenon, the Erechtheion and the temple of Nike were built over the ruins of the Acropolis.
During the "classical period" not only the Parthenon, but also the Erechtheion and the temple of Nike were built over the ruins of the Acropolis.
19. The first theater in history
Apart from these structures, another important monument at the foot of the Acropolis is the "Theater of Dionysus", which is considered the first theater in history.
20. The Parthenon had a colorful façade
From 1801 to 1803 some of the remaining temple sculptures were taken out by the Turks (who controlled Greece at the time). These sculptures were subsequently sold to the British Museum.
23. A full-scale replica of the Parthenon is located in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Parthenon is the most copied building in the world. There are many buildings around the world that were created in the same style. There is also a full-size replica of the Parthenon located in Nashville, Tennessee.
24. The opening of the Acropolis Museum took place in 2009
Over half a million people visited the new Acropolis Museum in the first two months after it opened in 2009.
25. Golden rectangle of the Parthenon
The length to width ratio of a rectangle of 1.618 was considered the most pleasing to the eye. This ratio was called the "golden ratio" by the Greeks. In the world of mathematics, this number is called "phi" and it was named after the Greek sculptor Phidias, who used golden ratio in his sculptures. Outside, the Parthenon is a perfect "golden rectangle".
Name: Παρθενών (el), Parthenon (en)
Location: Athens, Greece)
Creation: 447–438 BC.
Architect(s): Kallikrat, Iktin
Customer / Founder: Polis of Athens in the reign of Pericles
Architecture of the Parthenon
- Entablature. Orders of stone temples were borrowed by the Greeks from the ancient wooden buildings. They are based on a simple connection of the load-bearing parts (column with a capital) and the load-bearing floor beams - the entablature. In the era of the classics (V-IV centuries BC), the order system reached perfection.
- Architrave. Each stone beam of the architrave (the lower part of the entablature) is 6 centimeters narrower in the center than at the edges. Hewn along a curved line, from a distance they look absolutely flat.
- Frieze. Inside the temple, right under the beams of the peristyle, there was a carved marble frieze. The marble reliefs of the Parthenon depict Athenian horsemen, mythological characters, the competition of the gods, the heroic battles of the Greeks with the Amazons, episodes of the siege of Troy. main topic frieze - a solemn procession in honor of the celebration of the Day of the great Panathenas, dedicated to the goddess Athena. In 1801-1803 the frieze panels were dismantled. In the upper part of the frieze, the sculptural images are made in more relief. This technique softens the impression of a sharp decrease in figures that occurs when viewed from below.
- Doric order. Parthenon surround monumental columns Doric order. The trunk of the column along the entire height is cut through by vertical grooves - flutes. They create a special play of chiaroscuro and emphasize the volume of the column.
- corner column. Corner columns are thicker than others. They are closer to the neighboring ones and slightly inclined towards the center of the building - otherwise the building would seem to be falling apart. The remaining columns are also tilted inward by 6 cm relative to the vertical axis.
- steps. The Parthenon stands on a podium, the curved surface of which rises towards the center. The stairs are also curved. The harmony of the Parthenon is based on complex geometric calculations.
Entasis. The columns of the Parthenon are slightly convex in the middle. If they were straight, they would appear concave from a distance. "Amendment" to optical illusion the Greeks called entasis. - Statue of Athena. The statue of Athena, the patroness of the city, was made of gold and ivory by Phidias. She stood opposite the eastern entrance and was illuminated by the rays of the rising sun. The height of the statue is 12.8 m.
Symbolic interpretation of the structure of the Parthenon
- At the Parthenon maximum amount columns, perceived from one point, for example from the Propylaea, is 24 (8 + 17-1 angular, common for two facades), which directly correlates with the number of hours that make up a day.
- The number of drums in the column is 12, which directly correlates with the number of months in a year.
- Each triglyph consists of three protruding parts, which corresponds to the accepted in ancient greece division of the month into three decades of ten days. The total number of triglyphs-months around the entire perimeter of the temple is 96, which corresponds to the eight-year calendar cycle that was widespread in antiquity. The triglyphs seemed to fit time, real time: an eight-year cycle typed from decades and months.
- Between triglyphs, in metopes, mythological time was placed - the history of the struggle of the Greek tribe of Lapiths with the centaurs. Behind the Doric frieze, containing an eight-year cycle, in the depths of the peripter on the wall of the cella, closer to Athena, to the main deity of the temple, there is a relief frieze depicting the Panathenaic procession, which took place every four years. Behind the external general calendar eight-year cycle, a private four-year cycle of time is hidden, which is most important for the temple of Athena.
- Under each triglyph is a board with 6 drops: 6 drops above the column and 6 drops above the intercolumnium. It can be assumed that a year consisting of 12 drops-months was placed in each step of the columns. Total number drops around the perimeter of the temple: 96 boards of 6 drops each amounted to 48 years - a period that is a multiple of an eight-year cycle, and possibly correlated with the average length of human life of that time.
- Under the cornice shelf, stone drops also hung from the mutul boards: 6 rows of three in each row. If we assume that each of them corresponded to a decade, then we get six months of three decades. In this case, for each step of the columns (two boards - 3 × 12 drops), there is again a year, consisting of 12 months of three decades each. Latin name these drops - "regula" (from "regulo" - to direct, streamline) indicates the continuity of tradition in the understanding of time as the universal regulator of life.
This is far from a complete analysis of the development of the Doric tradition in the Parthenon, but it already reveals this temple as a complex, harmoniously balanced spatio-temporal system containing both archaic and later, modern for its builders, ideas about the world order.
In the Parthenon, a person, having ascended the steps of the stylobate, fell not only into sacred space, but also into sacred time, approved by the rhythm of the columns and the flow of flutes flowing to the very floor.
About the Parthenon as a monument of its era and the features of its composition
N.I. Brunov
Moscow, Art, 1973
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The Parthenon was the repository of the treasury, the state bank.
Various receipts flocked to the treasury of the goddess Athena on the acropolis: precious metal vessels, income from the lands belonging to the goddess, part of the spoils of war, a tenth of the silver mines. Taken together, this amounted to a very large amount, which represented state fund. The treasury of Athens was actually at the disposal of the state. The Goddess was a banker...
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The main building material of the Parthenon is Pentelian marble, the quarries of which are located near Athens in the Pentelikon mountain range. The changes that this marble undergoes under the action of sunlight are very significant. In the quarry it is white, similar in color to sugar. The surface of the stone is crystalline, small-grained, transparent, so that the eye penetrates a little deeper, which gives the stone a kind of transparent texture. Due to the fact that there are microscopic pieces of metal inside the marble, and microscopic mosses develop in it under the influence of sunlight, the stone is painted in the air in a golden yellowish color, very beautiful and giving it a warm tint ... - Architectural and artistic composition of the Parthenon
The dissection of the architectural massif of the Parthenon is the fruit of analytical architectural thinking. Most significantly for the architecture of the Parthenon, this analysis is combined with a holistic emotional perception of the architectural composition. This is the similarity of the architecture of the Parthenon with the architecture of the oriental despots, and this is its difference from many works of architecture of subsequent eras ...
In the Parthenon, the relationship between the column and the human figure, observed in other classical temples, is expressed with particular persuasiveness. In this respect, the Greek column continues a tradition dating back to the distant past. ultimately to a primeval vertically placed stone as a funerary monument or a monument erected in memory of an event ...
Pentelian marble in a quarry, in nature, or even a piece of it exposed to sunlight, is significantly different from what the architects did with it in the building itself. They, of course, deeply considered the natural properties of Pentelian marble and those changes. Which further causes the action of sunlight in it. However, depending on the inclusion of Pentelian marble in the architectural and artistic composition, its figurative quality has undergone significant changes. In accordance with the three-part dialectical structure of the Parthenon, it is necessary to consider separately the interpretation of the building material in the crepe, columns and entablature...
A characteristic feature of archaic and classical peripteres, especially pronounced in the Parthenon due to its system of eight columns on the front sides, is the compactness of the outer volume, to the main part of which no additional volumes adjoin. In ancient times, this feature should have been especially evident, since a complex asymmetric composition dominated in urban residential buildings ...
New in the Parthenon in comparison with geometrism in the architecture of Egypt is a synthetic combination of geometricity and organicity. In classical Greek architecture, a living sense of matter is very strongly expressed ...
The peripteral shape of the building creates an interpenetration of the mass and the surrounding space. The latter is introduced into the architectural volume, forming external porticos. It is impossible to tear them away from the surrounding space and from the landscape, which from the porticos offer beautiful views in all directions. True, both when contemplating the Parthenon from the outside, and when looking at nature from the porticos, the massive shafts of the columns prevail over the spaces between them, the columns come to the fore and squeeze the intercolumns with their volume. However, the columns are arranged in relation to the space surrounding the temple, and with the opening landscapes, which serve as a necessary background for the perception of the columns themselves ...
In the Parthenon, the process of crystallization of the unity of the outer volume of the peripter, which began in the archaic era, was completed ... The unity of the volume of the Parthenon is greatly enhanced due to the inclination of the columns towards the naos, giving the entire volume a slightly tapering upward shape. This narrowing grows in a more sheer form from the ground to the three steps of the crepe, continues and ends with more gentle slopes of the roof. As a result, a curving curve of the outline of the silhouette of the building is formed ...
The Acropolis is the sacred site of ancient Athens. And the center of the Acropolis became Parthenon- full of majesty temple Ancient Greece , erected in honor of the goddess Athena. It was built from 447 to 437 BC. The architects of this monumental building were Iktin and Kallikrat. The Parthenon is a classic ancient Greek temple, but this does not deprive it of its originality.
The building was built in the form of a periptera - its main room is framed on all sides by a colonnade. The architects who supervised the construction of the temple adhered to the canons of Greek architecture, which states that the number of columns on the longitudinal side of the building should be one more than twice the number of columns at the end of the building. Thus, it turned out 8 columns from the end and 17 along the length of the temple.
But this is far from the only feature emphasizing the uniqueness of this masterpiece of architecture. The ancient architects, knowing that straight lines, when viewed from a distance, are perceived by the human eye as slightly concave, so they resorted to a number of simple, but very effective techniques- the columns were erected with a barely noticeable narrowing towards the top, the columns located at the corners slightly leaned towards the center, and so on. Such manipulations made it possible to present the Parthenon as a perfectly even, harmonious building.
Main building material marble was used to build the temple. Its walls are made of marble blocks and lined with perfectly polished marble slabs. The columns in this building are also made of marble. Gables and cornices are also made of this expensive stone, and all the richest sculptural decoration of the Parthenon. And the roof of this building was wooden.
Daylight entered the main hall of the temple only through the door, so a lot of lamps were installed inside. And in such semi-darkness stood a twelve-meter athena statue, sparkling with expensive decoration. The famous Phidias sculpted Athena in long robes, on her head was an expensive helmet, the hands and face of the goddess were made of ivory, and clothes, weapons and jewelry were made of thin sheets of pure gold. Truth goddess sculpture has not survived to this day.
