Transcript Parthenon - Action West London

PARTHENON
by
Eftychia Stalika
THE HILL OF ACROPOLIS
 ACROPOLIS=HIGH CITY
PARTHENON (INTRODUCTION)
 The temple of ancient Greek goddess
Athena, built in the 5th century BC on the
Athenian Acropolis.
 Considered as the high point of Greek art
and regarded as the symbol of ancient
Greece and Athenian Democracy
(Demos=people + Cratos = state power).
 One of the world’s greatest cultural
monuments.
PARTHENON (HISTORY)
 Parthenon replaced an older temple of Athena Parthenos
(Virgin), which was destroyed in the persian invasion of
480 BC.
 Pericles ordered its construction on behalf of the Athenian
people(along with the other constructions of Acropolis) in
447 BC.
 Parthenon was built under the general supervision of the
great sculptor Phidias (also responsible for the sculptural
decorations) by the architects Ictinos and Callicrates and
was completed by 431 BC.
 Parthenon was built of marble stone from Mount
Pentelicus, which is 16 km away from Acropolis and has
the reputation of the finest temple of the Doric order ever
built.
DORIC ORDER
PARTHENON (HISTORY)
 In the 6th century AD the ancient temple was converted to a Christian
Church dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
 In the 15th century AD during the Ottoman (Turk) occupation it was
converted to a mosque.
 On the 26th of September 1687, a Venetian bombardment blew up the
Ottoman ammunition dump inside the building and the explosion
severely damaged Parthenon and its sculptures.
 In 1806 Thomas Bruce (Earl of Elgin and British Ambassador at
Constantinople at that time), removed many of the surviving sculptures
with the Ottoman permission and sold them in 1816 to the British
Museum of London, where they are up to now displayed. There are
substantial hopes that the UK will return the marble sculptures to
Athens at the Olympic Games of London in 2012, in a bold gesture of
good will and friendship, so that they can be displayed in the new
Antiquity Museum of Athens, next to their natural environment.
PARTHENON (ARCHITEXTURE)
Dimensions of the base are 69.5m X 30.9m
On the exterior the Doric columns (1.9m in diameter and
10.4m height), support the heavy roof.
It housed the huge chryselephantine statue of Athena
Parthenos by Phidias, now completely lost.
Parthenon has 2 pediments (of triangular shape) on the
west and east side of the roof, depicting the contest of
goddess Athena and god Poseidon (west) and the birth of
goddess Athena (east).
Parthenon had 92 sculptured Metopes which depicted
mythic battles (Gigantomachy, Amazonomachy,
Centauromachy and the sack of Troy).
THE FLOOR PLAN OF THE
The Ionian Frieze runs around the exterior wall of the
PARTHENON
inner temple (cella) and depicts the Panathenian
Procession, which was held every year in Ancient Athens,
to honor goddess Athena by offering animal sacrifices and
new dresses (peplos), woven by Athenian noble girls.
The decorative stonework was originally highly coloured.
PARTHENON (ARCHITEXTURE)
PART OF THE
EASTEARN
PEDIMENT OF THE
PARTHENON
PARTHENON (ARCHITEXTURE)
 DETAIL OF THE WEST
METOPES OF
PARTHENON
 ONE OF THE SOUTH
METOPES OF
PARTHENON DEPICTING
CENTAUROMACHY
PARTHENON (ARCHITEXTURE)
CAVALRY FROM
THE PARTHENON
FRIEZE
(PANATHENIAN
PROCESSION)