To what god is the Parthenon dedicated? Acropolis

The famous ancient Greek temple, the Parthenon, is located on the famous Acropolis of Athens. This main temple in Ancient Athens is a magnificent monument of ancient architecture. It was built in honor of the patroness of Athens and all of Attica - the goddess Athena.

The construction date of the Parthenon is considered to be 447 BC. It was installed thanks to the found fragments of marble tablets, on which the city authorities presented resolutions and financial reports. Construction lasted 10 years. The temple was consecrated in 438 BC. on the festival of Panathenaia (which translated from Greek means “for all Athenians”), although work on decorating and decorating the temple was carried out until 431 BC.

The initiator of the construction was Pericles, an Athenian statesman, famous commander and reformer. The design and construction of the Parthenon was carried out by the famous ancient Greek architects Ictinus and Kallikrates. The decoration of the temple was made by the greatest sculptor of those times - Phidias. High quality Pentelic marble was used for the construction.

The building was built in the form of a peripterus (a rectangular structure surrounded by columns). The total number of columns is 50 (8 columns on the facades and 17 columns on the sides). The ancient Greeks took into account that straight lines are distorted at a distance, so they resorted to some optical techniques. For example, the columns do not have the same diameter along the entire length; they taper somewhat towards the top, and the corner columns are also inclined towards the center. Thanks to this, the structure seems ideal.

Previously, in the center of the temple there was a statue of Athena Parthenos. The monument was about 12 m high and made of gold and ivory on a wooden base. In one hand the goddess held a statue of Nike, and with the other she leaned on a shield, near which the serpent Erichthonius was curled up. On Athena's head there was a helmet with three large crests (the middle one with the image of a sphinx, the side ones with griffins). The scene of Pandora's birth was carved on the pedestal of the statue. Unfortunately, the statue has not survived to this day and is known from descriptions, images on coins and a few copies.

Over many centuries, the temple was attacked more than once, a significant part of the temple was destroyed, and historical relics were looted. Today, some parts of the masterpieces of ancient sculptural art can be seen in famous museums around the world. The main part of the magnificent works of Phidias was destroyed by people and time.

Restoration work is currently underway; reconstruction plans include maximum recreation of the temple in its original form in ancient times.

The Parthenon, part of the Acropolis of Athens, is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The great temple, the Parthenon, was built in Athens during the heyday of Greece in the 5th century BC. as a gift to the patron goddess of the city. Until now, this amazing temple, even being heavily destroyed, never ceases to amaze with its harmony and beauty. The fate of the Parthenon is no less fascinating - it had to see a lot.

After the Greek victory 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 man, possessing a lively mind and oratorical talent, enormous endurance and hard work, he had a great influence on impressionable townspeople and successfully carried out his plans.

In Athens, Pericles launched large-scale construction work, and it was under him that a magnificent temple ensemble grew on the Acropolis, the crown of which was the Parthenon. To implement the grandiose plans, the architectural geniuses Iktion and Callicrates and one of the best sculptors Phidias were brought in.

The grandiose construction also required colossal expenses, but Pericles did not skimp, for which he was more than once accused of wastefulness. Pericles was adamant. Speaking to residents, he explained: “The city is sufficiently supplied with the necessities of war, therefore the surplus in funds should be used for buildings that, after their completion, will bring immortal glory to the citizens.”. And the citizens supported their ruler. The entire construction cost was enough to create a fleet of 450 trireme warships.

In turn, Pericles demanded that the architects create a real masterpiece, and the brilliant masters did not let him down. After 15 years, a unique structure was built - a majestic and at the same time light and airy temple, the architecture of which was unlike any other.

The spacious premises of the temple (approximately 70x30 meters) were surrounded on all sides along the perimeter by columns; this type of building is called a periptor.

White marble was used as the main building material, which was brought 20 km away. This marble, which had a pure white color immediately after extraction, began to turn yellow when exposed to sunlight, and as a result, the Parthenon turned out to be unevenly colored - its northern side was gray-ash in color, and its 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 connected to each other with iron pins (vertically) and clamps (horizontally). Currently, Japanese seismologists have become actively interested in the construction technologies used in its construction.

This temple has another unique feature. From the outside, its silhouette appears absolutely smooth and flawless, but in fact there is not a single straight detail in its contours. In order to level out the results of perspective, slopes, curvatures or thickening of parts were used - columns, roofing, cornices. Ingenious architects have developed a unique adjustment system using optical tricks.

Many people 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 dominating his palette were blue, red and gold.
The interior was decorated with many different sculptures, but the main one 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 quite sad. The heyday of the temple occurred during 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 reconsecrated and turned into the Byzantine Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In the 15th 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 gunpowder magazine, relying on its thick walls. But as a result of being hit by a cannonball from a powerful explosion, the temple collapsed and there was practically nothing left in its middle part. In this form, the temple became completely useless to anyone, and its looting began.

At the beginning of the 19th century, with the permission of the authorities, an English diplomat exported to England a huge collection of magnificent ancient Greek statues, sculptural compositions, and fragments of walls with carvings.

They became interested in the fate of the building only when Greece gained independence. Since the 20s of the 20th century, work began on the restoration of the temple, which continues to this day, and the lost parts are being collected bit by bit. In addition, the Greek government is working to return the exported fragments to the country.

As for the most important value of the Parthenon - the statue of the goddess Athena by the brilliant Phidias, it was lost irretrievably during one of the fires. All that remains are its numerous copies, stored in various museums. The Roman marble copy of Athena Varvakion is considered the most accurate and reliable of the surviving ones.

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.

Enormous sums were allocated for the construction of the temple in Athens. The expenses were not in vain. The Parthenon still remains a pearl of world architecture. Its greatness has inspired and beckoned for 2,500 years.

City of the Warrior Goddess

The amazing city of Athens is located in Greece. He set the direction for democracy, developed philosophy, and formed the foundations of theater. Another of his merits is the ancient Parthenon: an outstanding monument of ancient architecture that has survived to this day.

The city was named after the goddess of war and wisdom - Athena.

According to legend, she and the ruler of the seas, Poseidon, started a dispute about which of them the inhabitants would worship. The god of the oceans, to show his strength, hit the rock with his trident. A waterfall began to play there. So he wanted to save the townspeople from droughts. But the water was salty and became poisonous to the plants. Athena grew it, which produced oil, fruits and firewood. The goddess was chosen as the winner. The city was named after her.

Subsequently, the Parthenon was built in honor of the defender of the city. The Temple of Athena is located on the Acropolis, that is, in the upper city.

Customer of the Goddess House

Ancient Athens is one of the twelve independent cities of Attica (middle Greece). Its golden age occurred in the 5th century BC. e. Its ruler, Pericles, did a lot for the polis. The man was born into a family of Athenian aristocrats, although later he ardently supported democracy. Together with the people, he expelled the current leader from the city and took his throne. The new policies and mass of reforms that Pericles introduced made Athens a center of culture. It was on his initiative that the Parthenon Temple was founded.

One of the traditions of the Greeks was that shrines were built in specially designated places and had the general name Acropolis. This was the upper part of the city. It was fortified in case of enemy attack.

Predecessor of the Parthenon

The first temple of Athena was built in the middle of the 6th century BC. e. and was called Hekatompedon. It was defeated by the Persians in 480 BC. e. Since then, several more attempts have been made to build the shrine, but constant wars have ruined the budget.

The next person who managed to thank the goddess was Pericles. In 447 BC. e. Construction of the Parthenon Temple began. Greece was relatively calm at that time, the Persians finally retreated, and the monument on the Acropolis became a symbol of success and peace. It is worth noting that the construction was part of the ruler’s plans for the restoration of Athens. It is interesting that the ruler borrowed the funds that were spent on construction from the money that was collected by the allies for the war with the Persians.

Start of construction

At that time, the Acropolis was essentially a dumping ground for what was left of the walls of previous temples. Therefore, first we had to clear the hill area. The main shrine was in gratitude to Athena for her help in defeating enemies during the war. Often the goddess of military affairs was called Athena the Virgin. This is another answer to the question of what the Parthenon is. After all, from ancient Greek the word “parthenos” is translated as “maiden” or “virginity”.

The foundation became the remains of the building, everything that collapsed. The best artists, engineers and sculptors of that time were invited to work. The architectural geniuses Iktin and Kallikrates were called in to design it. According to the documents that remain, it is known that the first one developed the plan, and the second architect supervised the work. Their team worked on the temple for sixteen years. In 438 BC. e. they handed in the work. The building was consecrated that same year. In fact, sculptors worked until 432 BC. e. The finishing process was supervised by Pericles' close friend and artistic genius Phidias.

Temple phenomenon

Pericles was often accused of wastefulness. The Parthenon required enormous expenses. cost 450 silver talents. For comparison, for one such coin you could make a warship.

When the dissatisfied people rebelled, the ruler cheated. He stated that he would return the expenses, but then he would become the sole sponsor of the temple, and through the centuries his descendants would thank only him. The common people also wished for glory, agreed that the expenses should be charged to the townspeople, and no longer protested. By the way, it was from financial checks (at that time they were marble tablets) that researchers established all the dates.

I had to visit the Parthenon and the Christian shrine. During the Byzantine period (5th century), the place of worship of Athena was transformed into the Church of St. Mary.

The Turks did not know what the Parthenon was and what its main purpose was. In the 1460s, Athens passed into their hands, and the Church of Our Lady (i.e., the temple of the goddess of warriors) was converted into a mosque.

The year 1687 was fatal for Athena the Virgin. The Venetian ship hit the building with a cannonball and almost completely destroyed its central part. Architecture also suffered from the inept hands of art guardians. Thus, dozens of statues were broken when vandals and cultural defenders tried to remove them from the walls.

Features, attractions

At the beginning of the 19th century, Lord Elgin obtained permission from the Ottoman Sultan to transport the statue and wall carvings, which were preserved, to England. Thus, tens of meters of valuable stone material were saved. The architectural structure of the Parthenon, or rather parts of it, is still preserved in the British Museum in London. The Louvre and the Acropolis Museum also boast such exhibits.

Partial restoration began after the restoration of the country's independence. This happened at the end of the 19th century. Then for the first time they tried to restore the original face of the Acropolis.

Today this unique place is being restored.

Ensemble of the upper city

The temple became the crown and glorified the Acropolis of Athens. The Parthenon is a classic of Ancient Greece. The room is spacious, surrounded on all sides by columns. No cement was used for construction; the masonry was dry. Each block is a perfect square. The blocks, which clearly corresponded to each other, were attached to iron pins. All marble slabs were perfectly polished.

The territory was divided. A place was allocated for storing the treasury. There was a separate room for the statue of Athena.

The main material is marble. It tends to turn golden under light, so its sunny side is yellower, while the other part has a grayish tint.

The heyday of the temple occurred during the heyday of Greece. After the fall of the country, the house of Athena also collapsed.

Chief guest of the temple

All sculptural work was carried out under the direction of the Greek sculptor and architect Phidias. But he decorated the most important part of the temple himself. The center of the shrine and the crown of his work was the statue of the goddess. The Parthenon in Greece was famous because of it. The height was 11 meters.

Wood was used as a basis, but the figure was framed in gold and ivory. 40 talents worth of precious metal was used (this was equal to the weight of about a ton of gold). The miracle that Phidias created has not survived to this day, but it was recreated in detail. The image of the sculpture was engraved on coins, and hundreds of small statues of Athena (copies from the Parthenon) were ordered from temples from neighboring cities. All this became material for restoring the most accurate reproduction.

Her head was in a helmet, which did not cover her beauty. In his hand is a shield depicting a battle with the Amazons. According to one legend, the author embossed his portrait and the portrait of the customer there. In her palm she holds a statue of the goddess of victory in Ancient Greece - Nike. Compared to the big Athena, she seems tiny, although in fact her height is more than two meters.

In order to better understand what the Parthenon is and how much it corresponded to the then understanding of reality, you can read the myths of Greece. Athena was the only deity who stood in armor. She was often represented with a spear in her hand.

In 438-437 BC. e. Phidias completed work on the statue of Athena. Further, her fate was not easy. The author was accused of stealing gold. Subsequently, some of the expensive plates were removed and replaced with bronze. And in the 5th century, according to some evidence, it finally died in a fire.

Birth of a goddess

Every Greek knows what the Parthenon is and in whose honor it was built. The main temple of the ancient city was erected to glorify the wisdom and justice of its patron, the beautiful Athena.

The appearance of the goddess on Olympus is unusual. She was not born, but came out of the head of her father Zeus. This scene is depicted in the eastern wing of the temple.

Zeus, the main god, was married for some time to the lord of the ocean, a woman named Metis. When his wife became pregnant, God was predicted that he would have two children. A daughter who will not be inferior to him in courage and strength, and a son who will be able to throw his father off the throne. By cunning, Zeus made his beloved shrink. When Metis became tiny, her husband swallowed her. With this act, God decided to outsmart fate.

The Parthenon Temple would not have existed if Athena had not been born. After some time, Zeus began to feel ill. The pain in his head was so severe that he asked his son Hephaestus to split his skull. He hit his father with a hammer, and an adult beautiful woman in armor came out of his head - Athena.

Subsequently, she became the patroness of warrior heroes and household crafts.

Temple - book of myths

The main wealth of the building is for future generations. Thus, each particle tells its own unique story: the birth of the goddess, love for the city and its attitude towards the heroes.

Unlike war, Athena strived for fair battles. She was a protector of warriors, helped cities where there were places of worship, and often accompanied heroes on their adventures. So, with her help, Perseus defeated Jason and the Argonauts, Athena built a ship on which they sailed for the Golden Fleece. This character is also often found on the pages about The goddess did a lot to ensure that Odysseus returned home. Her favorite in the Trojan War was Achilles, so scenes of these battles are depicted in the western part of the temple.

The Parthenon statues have been role models for many generations of artists.

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 is impossible to establish, 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:

I felt an unspeakable humiliation as I witnessed the Parthenon being deprived of its best sculptures. I saw several metopes being removed from the south-eastern part of the building. To raise the metopes, the wonderful cornice that protected them had to be thrown to the ground. The same fate befell the southeast corner of the pediment. Original text(English) I had the inexpressible mortification of being present, when the Parthenon was despoiled of its finest sculptures. I saw several metopes at the south east extremity of the temple taken down. They were fixed in between the triglyphs as in a groove; and in order to lift them up, it was necessary to throw to the ground the magnificent cornice by which they were covered. The south east angle of the pediment shared the same fate.

Independent Greece

Duveen Hall at the British Museum, which displays the Elgin Marbles

It is extremely limited to see in the Athenian Acropolis only a place where, like in a museum, you can only see the great creations of the era of Pericles... At least, people who call themselves scientists should not be allowed to cause senseless destruction on their own initiative. Original text(English) It is but a narrow view of the Akropolis of Athens to look on it simply as the place where the great works of the afe of Perikles may be seen as models in a museum… At all events, let not men callins themselves distinguished lend themselves tj such deeds of wanton destruction.

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 Parthenon is a world-famous ancient temple, which is a monument of ancient architecture. It is located on the territory of the architectural complex of the Acropolis in Athens. The Parthenon Temple was built in honor of the goddess Athena, the patron goddess of the city. Today the temple is half destroyed and restoration work is underway.

The construction of the temple took place from 447 to 438 BC. The main architect was Callicrates, but the design of Ictinus was used during construction. The decoration and decoration of the Parthenon was carried out in 438 - 431 BC by one of the greatest sculptors of the ancient period, Phidias.

Features of the Parthenon architecture.

Ancient Greece did not strive to overwhelm the viewer with gigantic, superhuman scales. On the contrary, they relied on the peculiarities of visual perception by human vision of shapes and sizes, and therefore tried to bring each part of their structure into a single, harmonious ensemble.

The Parthenon was built in the oldest of the architectural orders. At first glance, the columns of the building are located at equal distances from each other. In fact, at the ends of the temple, the spans between the columns gradually and imperceptibly increased towards the center, which helped to give harmony to the structure.

The peculiarity of the perception of objects by the human eye is that against the background of a light sky, objects appear somewhat smaller or thinner. Ancient Greek architects were well aware of this, and used the technique of distorting lines to give the building a more perfect shape.

So, the columns do not stand strictly vertically, but slightly inclined inward towards the walls of the building, and this makes them look much taller and slimmer. In the construction of cornices, steps, ceilings, the imperfections of human vision are taken into account everywhere.

The exterior of the Parthenon is slightly curved, everything is done in such a way that all parts of the structure look perfectly correct and harmonious. For the Greeks, the columns represented the feathers of a bird, so the temple buildings were called “peripterus” - which translated means “feathered”.

The colonnade surrounded the temple with an air layer, which made it possible to make a soft, gradual and completely natural transition from an architectural object enclosed by walls to the space of nature. The Greeks spared no effort or money to build the Parthenon, completed in the 5th century BC.

Relief images.

The main holiday of the Athenians, Panathenaia, was celebrated annually for 5 days (from the 24th to the 29th) of the month of Hecatombaion, which fell in the period July - August according to the modern calendar. The Panathenaic Games were cult solemn celebrations in Ancient Hellas in honor of the goddess Athena.

At first, poetic works were read, theatrical performances and sports competitions were held. Then people lined up in a procession and went to present Athena with peplos - a solemn gift, which was made of wool. The architectural ensemble of the Acropolis was located on a hill, and due to the features of its construction, it was designed for the leisurely and solemn movement of religious processions.

On marble relief. encircling the Pathenon building, naked youths are depicted preparing and caring for horses, and their comrades who have already ridden bareback animals. Girls in long robes are driving the steep-horned bulls chosen for sacrifice.

The elders, calm and noble, walk important. The figures either come closer or move away from each other, or merge into picturesque groups. All movement is directed towards the eastern facade, where above the entrance to the temple there is a relief that completes the entire ensemble. The relief image shows a feast of the twelve most important gods revered in Ancient Greece.

The gods in the relief image are presented in an ordinary, completely human form - that is, they are not superior to the participants in the procession, neither in height, nor in appearance, nor in beauty, nor in the splendor of their attire. The procession on the relief is perceived by the Greeks as an eternal procession, in which every participant in the celebration was included.

Having rounded the Parthenon, the procession approached the eastern facade, where in the center of the pediment the main ancient Greek god Zeus solemnly sat on a throne. Near Zeus is a naked male figure with an ax in his hands, slightly leaning back. This figure depicted the god - the blacksmith Hephaestus, who had just cut open the skull of the Lord of the Gods, and from it appeared the goddess Athena in armor and a helmet, with the constant attribute of wisdom - a snake.

To the right and left of Zeus were other gods. And in the corners of the pediment are depicted the heads of snoring horses. Noble animals pull the chariots of Helios, the god of the Sun, and Selene, the god of the Moon. The faces of the gods are calm, but by no means indifferent, they are restrained, but restraint is worth composure. readiness for immediate action.

Athena statue.

In the Parthenon, meeting the procession, stood a 12-meter statue of the goddess Athena. The beautiful head of the goddess, with a low, smooth forehead and a rounded chin, was slightly tilted under the weight of the helmet and wavy hair. Her eyes were made of precious stones, and the craftsmen managed to give them an attentive and searching expression.

The goddess in the form of a beautiful woman is the proud personification of Athens. The sculptor Phidias embodied in her image the desire for the common good, by which the Greeks meant justice. According to ancient mythology, Athena was once the chairman of the highest court of Greece - the Areopagus, and therefore the judicial system was under the patronage of Athena.

Thousands of plates made of expensive material - ivory - were so skillfully fitted to the wooden base of Athena that it seemed as if the head and hands of the statue were sculpted from one piece of noble material. The slightly yellowish tint of the ivory looked delicate, and the statue's skin looked translucent, thanks to the contrast with the goddess's glittering robe of gold.

The helmet, hair and round shield were also made of chased gold plates, the total of which amounted to more than one ton. On the golden shield, in low relief, the battle of the Greeks with the warlike Amazons was minted, and in the center of the battle, Phidias depicted himself as an old man lifting a stone.

Peloponnesian War.

In the 5th century BC, the Greeks were a very proud people, and arrogantly considered other peoples to be inferior. Gradually, the inhabitants of Athens began to oppose themselves not only to other nations, but also to the rest of the Greeks living in other cities-states throughout the country.

During the Persian Wars, the Greeks bore all the hardships of the common struggle, but half a century later the Athenians began to attribute the laurels of victory only to themselves. The allied policies responded to Athens with ever-increasing suspicion and could barely contain their indignation.

In 431 BC, the Peloponnesian War began between Athens and Sparta for supremacy over the rest of the city-states of Ancient Hellas. At that time, Sparta was ruled by kings. The war was fierce, devastating and bloody, but the forces were approximately the same for a long time, so after 10 years peace was concluded.