The
Parthenon was a temple built to honor
Athena, a goddess born of the union of
Metis (meaning
cunning) and
Zeus. Upon learning of Metis' delicate condition, Zeus swallowed her whole so as to avoid his father and grandfather's fate of being
vanquished by his offspring, as an
oracle had prophesized. This snack produced in Zeus a mean
headache, from which he was delivered by having
Hephaestus split his head in two. Athena then emerged from Zeus' cracked skull, fully formed and sporting
armour. She later fought for and won the patronage of Athens.
According to
Plutarch, the temple architects were
Iktinos and
Kallikrates, and
Phidias oversaw the temple sculpture. The Parthenon is the perfect example of the Doric temple, though it does have some Ionic elements. This is due to the wisdom of
Pericles, the great stateman, who was responsible for the construction of the
Acropolis, as he sought to incorporate elements from across Greece into the Parthenon.
The basic structure of the Parthenon includes the
stylobate, (base)
columns, (Doric and Ionic)
entablature, (including architrave, frieze, metope and cornice) and
pediment (triangular 'roof').
The Parthenon applies many
devices in order to give the visual illusion of perfect order and appear straight and
graceful. The stylobate employs a slight upward
curve to the center of both on north and south sides (to 110 mm) as well as the east and west (to 60 mm). The columns are eight across, seventeen down the side and exhibit
entasis, which is a slight bowing of the the middle of the column, to cause it to appear slender. Also, the columns are tilted inward, ever so slightly, giving the illusion of a vertical plane.
The Parthenon's
sculpture represents various themes of import, which include mythic and historical events (a rarity in temple statuary). The struggles between
order and chaos are depicted upon the metopes in bas relief and include warring
Amazons, the rape of the Lapiths by the
Centaurs, the gods versus the
giants and
Greeks against the
Trojans. The frieze, which runs consistently around the temple (an Ionic element), depicts a combination of
mythic and
historic events. It is believed to be the
Panathenaiac procession, which concludes in the presentation of the
peplos (frock/shift) to a
priestess of Athena, which was then placed upon the old cult statue of Athena in the
Erechtheion. Gods and war
heroes mingle amongst the processioners in this frieze, and thus we have an example of where the
mythical and real life were blurred. The pediments incorporate
larger than life size freestanding sculpture of the
contest for Athens between
Poseidon and Athena on the west end and the
birth of Athena on the east end. Much of the sculpture from the Parthenon was removed by Lord
Elgin and has been on display in the
British Museum since 1817. They are truly marvelous to behold.
The
focus of the Parthenon, however, was to house the cult statue of Athena in the
cella or naos (the largest of the two interior rooms). This statue was designed by Phidias and stood forty feet tall and was primarily a
wood and clay structure encased in
gold plate clothing and
ivory flesh.