The Parthenon was the highpoint of four centuries of Greek temple architecture. It was a temple made to honor the goddess Athena.
Temples were supposed to be the houses of gods and goddesses and their statues were kept there. Originally, both the statues and the temples were made of wood, later of stone.
Because Athens was a democracy, a public board and public auditors handled the supervision of the construction. Pericles, a great Roman general, was responsible for the idea.
The Parthenon was designed as a Doric temple with Ionic features. (In other words, there were 8 Doric columns across each end, instead of 6). The roof tiles were marble and the cylindrical stones were held together not with mortar but with iron clamps put in the stones with melted lead. Inside walls had a two story Doric collonade around them, so an interior aisle ran around the statue of Athena. There were probably no windows, but light cam in by large entrance doorways and olive oil lamps were used.
Greek builders created visual illusion with the architecture. For instance in the Parthenon a vertical column might seem narrower in the middle than at either end, which was an optical illusion.
Over time the Parthenon was used as a mosque when the Turks took over Greece, was an ammunition dump and blew up, was looted, even by a British museum. In fact, Greece still wants its Parthenon treasures back from those that looted them. It will always survive in our memories. |
