Parthenon temple dimensions plan. "Synthesis of the Arts" in Ancient Greece

The Parthenon Temple is one of the symbols of Greece, a monument of ancient architecture, located in the central part of the Acropolis of Athens.

Parthenon - an ancient temple, main character the capital of Greece, Athens and the whole country. Together with other buildings of the Athenian Acropolis, the Parthenon is the object of the List world heritage UNESCO. The temple is dedicated to the patroness of the city, Athena the virgin, who is also considered the patroness of all of Attica - the area around the city.

Translated from ancient greek parthenon means "pure", "virgin". Athena was awarded this epithet for her virginity, which was one of the fundamental qualities of the goddess. Scientists believe that the Christian cult of the Virgin Mary subsequently grew out of the cult of the warrior maiden Athena.

The temple is located in the center of the Athenian Acropolis - the upper city of Athens. The Acropolis of Athens is a hill in the center of the city, which is a rock 150 m above sea level with a gentle top. On the upper platform of the acropolis, measuring 300 m by 170 m, various temples, palaces and sculptures have been located since archaic times.

Architecture of the Parthenon

Thanks to the developed culture of the Athenian polis, history has conveyed to this day the names of the people who built the temple. The one who built the Parthenon is told by the marble tablets on which the city authorities wrote down their decrees. The author of the project is the architect Iktin, the architect Kallikrat supervised the construction of the temple, great sculptor Phidias produced the exterior decoration of the building and was the author of the sculptures that adorned the pediments and the interior of the temple. The general leadership was carried out by the great statesman and the founding father of Athenian democracy, Pericles.

The Parthenon is a classic ancient greek temple, rectangular at its base, surrounded on all sides by a colonnade Doric order. The central facades have 8 columns each, the side facades have 17 columns each, the total number of columns in the Parthenon is 50.

The Parthenon is interesting primarily for its unique architectural solution used in the construction of the temple. In order to avoid optical distortions, the authors of the project resorted to innovative architectural techniques: the columns were thickened in the central part, and the corner ones were also inclined towards the center of the temple and had a slightly larger volume. During the construction of the temple, the principle of the golden section was used. Thanks to the methods used by the architects, the impression of absolutely straight lines of the temple and its perfect appearance is created.

The temple is almost entirely built of expensive Pentelian marble, and gold was widely used in the original decoration. The temple stands on three steps one and a half meters high; steps used to enter the building were carved from the central western facade of the building. The total length of the building is 70 m, width - 31 m, height - 14 m.

Far from all the treasures of the Parthenon have survived to this day: such a masterpiece of the temple as the 13-meter statue of Athena Parthenos by the great sculptor Phidias, which once stood in the center of the Parthenon, has been lost forever for mankind. Of the many sculptural groups representing scenes from the life of ancient gods and decorating the pediments of the building, only 11 have survived to this day, another 19 sculptures were barbarously cut down in the 19th century and taken to Great Britain, where they are now stored in the British Museum.

History of the Athenian Parthenon

Marble tablets, on which the city authorities wrote down their decrees and orders, have preserved for us the exact date when the Parthenon was built. The time of the beginning of construction is 447 BC. e. The construction of the temple took 10 years, after which in 438 BC. e. it was open. The construction of a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena cost the city treasury 700 talents - more than 18 tons of silver.

In the III century BC. e. Athens survived the Heruli invasion, during which the Parthenon was sacked and burned. The roof, floors and doors of the temple were damaged. During the restoration, the ancient builders did not seek to restore the Parthenon in its original form, so architectural distortions were introduced into it.

For over a thousand years, the Parthenon was a pagan temple., however, after the collapse of the Roman Empire and the formation of Byzantium, it was converted into a Christian church, presumably in the 6th century AD. e. During the stormy medieval history The Balkans and Athens in particular, the Parthenon either became a Catholic church, or returned to the disposal of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople.

In the 15th century, Athens and all of Greece were conquered by the Ottoman Turks, after which the Parthenon was turned into a mosque, and a military garrison, a pasha's palace and even a harem were located on the territory of the Athenian Acropolis. Great blow for the Parthenon was the Great Turkish war between the Christian states of Europe and the Ottoman Empire. During the storming of Athens by the Venetians in 1687, the Parthenon was destroyed. The territory of the acropolis was fired from cannons, after which the temple, which housed the powder warehouse, exploded.

The Venetians who captured the city noted the colossal damage caused to the Parthenon by their own artillery. Three dozen columns were destroyed, the roof collapsed, some of the sculptures were destroyed, and the central section of the building collapsed. Since that time, the Parthenon was turned into ruins and was never used as a temple again.

During the 18th century, the Parthenon was slowly destroyed: locals used the wreckage of the building as building material, and numerous European hunters for antique values ​​exported elements of sculptures and decoration of the building to their countries. The British ambassador to Turkey, Thomas Bruce, completed the picture of the destruction of the Parthenon. early XIX century, who brought to the UK more than 200 boxes with sculptures, fragments of columns and other artifacts of the Parthenon.

As a result, it is impossible to give an unambiguous answer to the question "Who destroyed the Parthenon?". The destruction of the great temple is the work of many people: from the Ottoman rulers of Greece and the inhabitants of Athens to connoisseurs of ancient art from Europe.

After Greece gained independence in the first half of the 19th century, the territory of the acropolis was cleared of later buildings, such as a minaret, a medieval palace, and even sculptures from the Roman period. The restoration of the temple began in the 19th century, but it was prevented by the earthquake of 1894, which further destroyed the building. The reconstruction of the Parthenon by Greek architects continued from the beginning of the 20th century until the middle of the century, after which the temple acquired its modern look. However, restoration and archaeological work did not stop after that and continue to this day.

What now

In our time, the Parthenon is the main attraction of Athens, one of the national shrines of Greece and the heritage of all mankind. The ideal appearance of the temple, although not fully preserved to this day, not only gives an idea of ​​the cultural and technical achievements of ancient Greece, but is also a symbol of the possibilities of human genius. The Parthenon annually attracts millions of tourists to Athens, and since 1987, together with the entire territory of the Acropolis of Athens, it has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Where is the Parthenon

The Parthenon is located on the territory of the Acropolis of Athens in the very center of the Greek capital. In order to get to the hill of the Upper City, you need to get to the center of Athens. When traveling with the Athens Skytrain, you must get off at the Acropolis station of the Athens Metro Red Line. Also, a large pedestrian street Dionisiou Areopagite leads to the hill with the temple located on it.

Excursions to the Acropolis

You can visit the territory of the acropolis on your own, for this you need to purchase a ticket at the box office at the entrance to the territory of the archaeological site.

Opening hours of the Acropolis of Athens: 8:00 - 20:00, seven days a week.

Ticket price: 12 EUR, the ticket is valid for 4 days from the date of purchase.

When visiting the acropolis, it is strictly forbidden to touch the ancient buildings, including the columns, with your hands.

Ordering an individual tour of the acropolis and visiting the main sights with a Russian-speaking guide will cost 320 EUR. The program of this excursion also includes a sightseeing tour of Athens. Duration of the tour: from 2 to 5 hours.

Precursors of the Parthenon

Main articles: Hekatompedon (temple), Opisthodom (temple)

The interior (59 m long and 21.7 m wide) has two more steps (total height 0.7 m) and is an amphiprostyle. The façades have porticos with columns that are just below the columns of the peristyle. The eastern portico was the pronaos, the western portico the posticum.

Plan of the sculptural decoration of the Parthenon (north right). period of antiquity.

Material and technology

The temple was built entirely of Pentelian marble, quarried nearby. During mining, he has White color, but under the influence of the rays of the sun turns yellow. The northern side of the building is exposed to less radiation - and therefore there the stone received a grayish-ashy tint, while the southern blocks give off a golden yellowish color. Tiles and stylobate are also made of this marble. The columns are made up of drums fastened together with wooden plugs and pivots.

Metopes

Main article: Doric frieze of the Parthenon

The metopes were part of the triglyph-metopic frieze, traditional for the Doric order, which encircled the outer colonnade of the temple. In total, there were 92 metopes on the Parthenon containing various high reliefs. They were connected thematically along the sides of the building. In the east, a battle of centaurs with lapiths was depicted, in the south - amazonomachy, in the west - probably scenes from the Trojan War, in the north - gigantomachy.

64 metopes survive: 42 in Athens and 15 in the British Museum. Most of them are on the east 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 the opisthodom was girdled on 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 equestrian figures. On the bas-relief, which is one of the most famous works of this genre in ancient art that has come down to us, a procession on the last day of Panathenay is depicted. On the north and south sides, horsemen and chariots are depicted, just citizens. 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, who are mounted or have already mounted them. In the east (above the entrance to the temple) the end of the procession is presented: the priest, surrounded by the gods, accepts the peplos woven for the goddess by the Athenians. Standing nearby important people cities.

96 plates of the frieze have been preserved. 56 of them are in the British Museum, 40 (mainly the western part of the frieze) - in Athens.

Gables

Main article: The pediments of the Parthenon

Fragment of the pediment.

Giant sculptural groups were placed in the tympanums of the pediments (0.9 m deep) above the western and eastern entrances. To this day, they have survived very poorly. Central figures almost didn't get there. In the center of the eastern pediment in the Middle Ages, a window was barbarously cut through, which completely destroyed the composition that was there. Ancient authors, however, usually bypass this part of the temple. Pausanias - the main source in 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 give 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 for the most part only 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 drives in from the south, presumably driven by Helios. Before him sits Dionysus, then Demeter and Kore. Behind them is another goddess, possibly Artemis. Three seated female figures have come down to us from the north—the so-called "three veils"—who are sometimes regarded 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 Nux or Selena. Regarding the center of the pediment (or rather, most of it), one can only say that there, definitely - due to the theme of the composition, were the figures of Zeus, Hephaestus and Athena. Most likely, there were the rest of the Olympians and, perhaps, some other gods. A torso survives, attributed in most cases to Poseidon.

On the western pediment is 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 were chariots, probably in the north - Nika with Hermes, in the south - Irida with Amphitrion. Around were the figures of the legendary characters of Athenian history, but their exact attribution is almost impossible.

28 statues have come down to us: 19 in the British Museum and 11 in Athens.

Statue of Athena Parthenos

The statue of Athena Parthenos, which stood in the center of the temple and was 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 the other leans on a shield. The shield depicts Amazonomachy. There is a legend that Phidias depicted himself (in the form of Daedalus) and Pericles (in the form of Theseus) on it, for which (and also 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 theme allows us to say that this is already a historical relief. Another relief was on Athena's sandals. It depicted a centauromachy.

The birth of Pandora, the first woman, was carved on the pedestal of the statue.

Other trim details

None of the ancient sources mentions the fire in the Parthenon, however archaeological excavations proved that it occurred in the middle of the 3rd century. BC e., 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 collapsed, both main doors of the temple and the second frieze. 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 carried out only over the inner rooms, and the outer colonnade turned out to be 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 Athenian Acropolis. 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 where the horses' hooves and wheels of the chariot were attached), as well as a group of bronze statues of warriors described by Pausanias. Three other blocks of western doors are marble tablets with financial reporting, according to which the main stages of the construction of the Parthenon are established.

christian temple

Story

The Parthenon remained the temple of 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 country town 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 evidence 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 period of the Fourth Crusade. The statue of Athena Parthenos probably disappeared as early as the 3rd century BC. e. during a fire or earlier. Roman and Byzantine emperors repeatedly issued decrees banning the pagan cult, however pagan tradition in Hellas was too strong. On 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 Our Lady of Athens suffered more significant changes. The apse in the eastern part was destroyed and rebuilt. The new apse closely adjoined the ancient columns, so the central slab of the frieze was dismantled. This "peplos scene" slab, later used to build fortifications on the Acropolis, was found by Lord Elgin's agents and is now on display at the British Museum. Under Michael Choniates himself interior decoration the temple was restored, including painting Judgment Day on the wall of the portico, where the entrance was located, murals depicting the Passion of Christ in the porch, a number of murals that depicted saints and previous Athenian metropolitans. All the murals of the Parthenon of the Christian era were covered with a thick layer of whitewash in the 1880s, but at the beginning of the 19th century the Marquis of Bute ordered watercolors from them. It was from these watercolors that the researchers established plot motifs murals and the approximate time of creation - the end of the 12th century. Around the same time, the ceiling of the apse was decorated with mosaics, which collapsed over several decades. Glass fragments of it are also exhibited in the British Museum.

On February 24 and 25, 1395, the Italian traveler Nicolo de Martoni visited Athens, who left in his Book of the Pilgrim (now in the National Library of France, Paris) the first systematic description of the Parthenon after Pausanias. Martoni presents the Parthenon as a landmark of exclusively Christian history, but considers the main wealth not numerous relics and the revered icon of the Virgin, written 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 Equal-to-the-Apostles Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, the first Byzantine emperor to officially accept Christianity. Martoni also tells of a cross carved 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 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 of the Latinocracy period is the tower near the right side of the portico, built after the capture of the city by the crusaders. For its construction, blocks were used 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 climbed to the very 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 Aksiaioli in Athens, the first drawing of the Parthenon was created, the earliest of those that have survived to this day. It was performed by Chiriaco di Pizzicoli, an Italian merchant, papal legate, traveler and lover of the classics, better known as Cyriacos of Ancona. He visited Athens in 1444 and stayed in the splendid palace that the Propylaea had been turned into to pay his respects to Acciaioli. Cyriacus left detailed notes and a number of drawings, but they were destroyed by fire in 1514 in the library of the city of Pesaro. One of the images of the Parthenon survived. It depicts a temple with 8 Doric columns, the location of the metope - epistilia is accurately indicated, 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 does not look like a dispute between Athena and Poseidon. This is a lady of the 15th century 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 that are better preserved, as Kyriak correctly suggests, a scene of a fight between centaurs and lapites 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

Alterations and decoration

Most detailed description The Parthenon from the Ottoman period is by Evliya Çelebi, a Turkish diplomat and traveler. He visited Athens several times during the 1630s and 1640s. Evliya Celebi noted that the transformation of the Christian Parthenon into a mosque did not greatly affect his internal form. The main feature of the temple was the canopy over the altar. He also described that the four columns of red marble that supported the canopy were highly polished. The floor of the Parthenon is laid out with polished marble slabs up to 3 m each. Each of the blocks that decorated the walls is 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 let in sunlight. Spon and J. Wehler also mentioned this feature, suggesting that in fact this stone is fengite, 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 church was removed, and ancient sculptures and murals were covered with whitewash, although the layer of whitewash is thin and one can see the painting's plot. Further, Evliya Celebi gives a list of characters, listing the heroes of the pagan, Christian and Muslim religions: demons, Satan, wild animals, devils, sorceresses, angels, dragons, antichrists, cyclops, monsters, crocodiles, elephants, rhinos, as well as Cherubim, 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 give a description of the mosaics made of gold pieces and fragments 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 have been preserved from the previous Christian era. They also tell about the legend, according to which the hand of the Turk who shot at the fresco of Mary withered away, so the Ottomans decided not to harm the temple anymore.

Although the Turks did not have the desire to protect the Parthenon from destruction, they did not have the goal of completely distorting or destroying the temple. Since it is impossible to accurately determine the time of mashing the metopes of the Parthenon, the Turks could continue this process. Overall, however, they did less destruction of the building than the Christians a thousand years before the Ottoman rule, who turned the majestic ancient temple into a Christian cathedral. All the time the Parthenon served as a mosque, Muslim worship took place surrounded by Christian murals and images of Christian saints. In the future, the Parthenon was not rebuilt and its present appearance has been preserved unchanged since the 17th century.

Destruction

The peace between the Turks and the Venetians was short-lived. A new Turkish-Venetian war began In September 1687, the Parthenon suffered the 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 bombard the Acropolis with cannons on Philopappou Hill. When cannons fired at the Parthenon, which served as a powder magazine for the Ottomans, it exploded, and part of the temple instantly turned into ruins. In previous decades, Turkish gunpowder depots have been repeatedly blown up. In 1645, a lightning struck the warehouse, equipped in the Propylaea of ​​the acropolis, 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 place 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 on the building, which served as a Christian church for several centuries.

Judging by the traces of shelling only on the western pediment, 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, interiors that once served as a Christian church and a mosque; the roof on the north side collapsed. The western pediment turned out to be almost unscathed, and Francesco Morosini wished 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. A few fragmentary fragments were nevertheless taken to Italy, the rest remained on the Acropolis. Since that time, the history of the Parthenon has become the history of ruins. The destruction of the Parthenon was witnessed by Anna Ocherjelm, maid of honor to Countess Königsmark. 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 the mosque, she found an Arabic manuscript that was transferred by Anna's brother Ocherjelm to the library of the Swedish city of Uppsala. Therefore, after its two thousand years of history, the Parthenon could no longer be used as a temple, since it was destroyed much more than one might imagine, seeing its current appearance - the result of many years of reconstruction. John Pentland Magaffi, who visited the Parthenon several decades before the restoration work began, noted:

From a political point of view, the destruction of the Parthenon caused minimal consequences. A few months after the victory, the Venetians gave up power over Athens: they did not have enough strength to further protect the city, and the plague epidemic made Athens completely unattractive to the invaders. The Turks again set up a garrison on the Acropolis, albeit on a smaller scale, among the ruins of the Parthenon, and erected a new small mosque. You can see it on the first famous photos temple built in 1839.

From destruction to reconstruction

Early explorers of the Parthenon included British archaeologist James Stewart and architect Nicholas Revett. Stuart first published drawings, descriptions and drawings with measurements of the Parthenon for the Society of Amateurs in 1789. In addition, it is known that James Stewart collected a considerable collection of ancient antiquities of the Athenian Acropolis and the Parthenon. The cargo was sent by sea to Smyrna, then the trace of the collection is lost. However, one of the fragments of the Parthenon frieze, taken out by Stewart, 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 antiquary, trustee of the British Museum.

is still unclear and legal side affairs. The actions of Lord Elgin and his agents were regulated by the Sultan's firman. Whether they contradicted it 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 take measurements 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 the 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 to remove sculptures, since the surviving parts of the building were destroyed in this way. Irish traveler, author of several works on ancient architecture, Edward Dodwell wrote:

Independent Greece

Duvin Hall in the British Museum displaying the Elgin Marbles

However, official archaeological policy remained unchanged until the 1950s, when a proposal to remove the staircase in the medieval tower in the western part of the Parthenon was strongly rejected. At the same time, a restoration program was underway. appearance temple. 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. Most of all, the earthquake of 1894 intensified the work, which largely destroyed the temple. The first cycle of work was completed in 1902, their scale was rather modest, and they were carried out under the auspices of a committee of international consultants. Until the 1920s and for a long time after the chief engineer Nikolaos Balanos worked without external control. It was he who began the program of restoration work, designed for 10 years. There were plans to completely restore the interior walls, reinforce the pediments 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 the colonnades that connected the east and west facades.

Scheme showing the blocks of individual columns of the ancient era, Manolis Korres

Thanks to the Balanos program, the destroyed Parthenon acquired its modern look. However, since the 1950s, after his death, the 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 staples to connect antique marble blocks. Over time, they rusted and deformed, causing the blocks to crack. In the late 1960s, in addition to the problem of the Balanos anchorages, the effects of environmental influences became clear: polluted air and acid rain damaged the sculptures and reliefs of the Parthenon. In 1970, a UNESCO report suggested a variety of ways to save the Parthenon, including enclosing the hill under a glass jar. In the end, in 1975, a committee was established that oversees the preservation of the entire complex of the Acropolis of Athens, and in 1986 work began to dismantle the iron fasteners 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. Part of the elements of the frieze will be replaced with copies, the originals will be transported to the exposition of the New Acropolis Museum. Chief Engineer Manolis Korres considers the work to be a top priority to patch the bullet holes fired at the Parthenon in 1821 during the Greek Revolution. Also, restorers should assess the damage caused to the Parthenon strong earthquakes and 1999. As a result of consultations, it was decided that by the time the restoration work was completed, the remains of a Christian-era apse could be seen inside the temple, as well as the plinth of a statue of the goddess Athena Parthenos; restorers will pay no less attention to 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 ancient culture but beauty in general.

Modern copies

Nashville Parthenon

Parthenon Parthenon

(Greek Parthenon, from parthinos - virgin) in Athens, the greatest monument Greek art era of the classics; temple of the goddess Athena Parthenos. The main temple of the Athenian policy. Erected on the rock of the Acropolis in 447-438 BC. e. architects Iktin and Kallikrat to commemorate the victory over the Persians. It is a marble temple surrounded by a colonnade (peripter, area 30.89 m x 69.54 m, column height 10.43 m), distinguished by calm majesty and perfection of architectural forms, a clear harmony of parts, commensurate with the scale of a person, a skillful combination of Doric and Ionic orders ( cm. architectural orders). The rich, classically strict and slender sculptural decoration of the temple, organically connected with the forms of architecture, was made under the direction of Phidias (completed in 432 BC). The frieze of the façade was decorated with metope slabs depicting scenes of the struggle of the Amazons, centaurs and giants, the pediments - sculptural groups, reproducing scenes of the birth of Athena (on the eastern pediment) and the dispute between Athena and Poseidon for dominance in Attica (in the west). Around the main building - the cella of the temple - there was a frieze with a relief image of the Panathenaic procession of Athenian citizens. Sculpture of the Parthenon, as if commenting on and revealing the ideological and artistic meaning architectural image, reflects the idea of ​​man's victory over the elemental, dark, "animal" beginning, embodies the idea of ​​​​the physical and spiritual perfection of a human being. She is characterized by calm majesty of rhythms, softness and ease of plastic modeling, free and natural movement of figures in space, skillfully subordinated to the plane of the wall, light, virtuoso processing of the marble surface. The Parthenon was destroyed in 1687 during the siege of the Acropolis by the Venetians. In 1801-03, most of the surviving sculptures were taken to Great Britain (since 1812 it has been in the collection of the British Museum in London).

Parthenon. 447 - 438 BC Architects Iktin and Kallikrat. General form.

(Source: Popular art encyclopedia." Ed. Field V.M.; M.: Publishing house " Soviet Encyclopedia", 1986.)

(Greek parthenó n, from parthé nos - virgin), temple of Athena Parthenos (Virgin) in Athenian acropolis(447-38 BC; architects Iktin and Kallikrat), outstanding monument ancient Greek architecture. Built under the direction Phidias from golden Pentelic marble on the site of the temple of Athena (“Hekatompedon”), destroyed during the Greco-Persian wars (500–449 BC). The Parthenon is one of the largest temples in Greece. Its stone base covers an area of ​​31 x 70 m, columns reach almost 10 meters in height. The temple is a Doric peripter, into which is inserted a rectangular cella (sanctuary) with six columns porticoes from the short sides. According to the rules, the peripter had to be surrounded by 6 columns on the end sides and 13 on the sides, and the Parthenon had a ratio of columns of 8 x 17. Deviations from the rules gave the architectural forms of the Parthenon solemn grandeur and at the same time lightness and harmony. The architects took into account the peculiarities of human vision, which perceives slightly curved lines in space as straight lines. The perfect beauty of the Parthenon is created by barely noticeable "irregularities". To create the optical effect of perfectly straight vertical columns and horizontal steps and entablature, the architects erected the columns slightly inclined towards the inside of the building; the front planes of the steps and the architrave are curved inwards; the extreme columns are somewhat more massive than the others, etc.

The building of the Parthenon consisted of a pronaos (the vestibule), a two-part cella and an opisthodom (treasury). The sanctuary was dominated by a colossal statue of the goddess Athena Parthenos, ca. 12 m, made by Phidias in chrysoelephantine technique(chryselephantine). The main facade of the Parthenon was turned to the east so that the figure of Athena was illuminated by the rays. rising sun. In the Middle Ages, the sculpture was taken to Byzantium, where it died in a fire. According to ancient authors, more than 1500 kg of gold was spent on the construction of the statue. The main decoration of the Parthenon was its sculptural decor. Statue compositions on gables depicted episodes of myths that were especially significant for the Athenians: in the east - the birth of the goddess Athena, in the west - her dispute with Poseidon for power over Attica. On the metopes frieze battles with giants and centaurs and fights of the Greeks with the Trojans were depicted. The sculptural decor is completed by an Ionic frieze (zophoros) 160 m long, which shows a solemn procession on the day of the Great panathenaic. Frieze of the Parthenon - one of the peaks classical art. None of the 500 figures repeats the other. The Parthenon was also decorated with relief ornaments and weirs in the form of lion heads. All sculptures and some architectural details (gutters, cornices, door frames, column capitals) were painted and gilded. The interior of the temple was decorated with paintings by the best masters of that time.
In 435, the Parthenon became the Christian church of St. Mary. From the east it was attached apse, for which the entire middle part of the eastern pediment was destroyed. In 1456, the Turks turned the temple into a mosque, adding a minaret to it, but without touching the architectural decoration. In 1687, during the siege of Athens by the Venetians, the Parthenon was severely damaged when a cannon shell hit a powder magazine located there.

(Source: "Art. Modern Illustrated Encyclopedia." Under the editorship of Prof. A.P. Gorkin; M.: Rosmen; 2007.)

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The main temple of the Athenian Acropolis, dedicated to Athena Parthenos (ie the Virgin), the patron goddess of the city. Construction began in 447 BC, the consecration of the temple took place at the Panathenaic festival in 438 BC, but the decoration (mainly ... ... Collier Encyclopedia

- (this see Parthenon). See PARTHENON and PARTHENON. Dictionary foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. PARTHENON The main temple in the ancient. Athens, dedicated to the patroness of the city, the goddess Athena. Dictionary of foreign words, ... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

Parthenon- Parthenon. General form. PARTHENON, temple of Athena Parthenos on the Acropolis in Athens, a monument of ancient Greek high classics. The marble Doric peripter with an Ionic sculptural frieze (447 438 BC, architects Iktin and Kallikrat) is remarkable ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Temple of Athena Parthenos on the Acropolis in Athens, a monument of ancient Greek high classics. The marble Doric peripter with an Ionic sculptural frieze (447 438 BC, architects Iktin and Kallikrates) is remarkable for the majestic beauty of forms and ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

The main temple on the Acropolis in Athens, dedicated to the patroness of the city, Athena. (Source: "Myths of Ancient Greece. Dictionary Reference." EdwART, 2009.) ... Encyclopedia of mythology

Exist., Number of synonyms: 1 city (2765) ASIS Synonym Dictionary. V.N. Trishin. 2013 ... Synonym dictionary

The main temple in ancient Athens, dedicated to the patroness of this city and all of Attica, the goddess Athena the Virgin (oparJneoV). It stood out on the highest point of the Athenian acropolis, where in front of it stood the incompletely completed temple of the same goddess ... Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron

Landmark Parthenon Παρθενών ... Wikipedia

- (Greek Parthenón, from parthénos virgin) temple of the goddess Athena Parthenos in Athens. The greatest monument ancient Greek art. Built on the Acropolis in 447 438 BC. e. Iktin and Kallikrat; sculptural decoration was carried out under the direction of Phidias, ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Parthenon- (from the Greek. parthenos virgin) temple of the goddess Athena Parthenos (Virgo) on the Acropolis; built in 447 438 years. BC. architects Iktin and Kallikrat. P. was a Dorian peripter (rectangle) with 8 columns wide and 17 long; was… … ancient world. Dictionary reference.

Books

• Monuments of the Athenian Acropolis. Parthenon and Erechtheion, N. I. Brunov. The book analyzes the architectural compositions and features of the monumental works of classical Greek architecture of the Parthenon and the Erechtheion. The publication is supplied with a large number of…

The Parthenon is a symbol of Western civilization and one of the most famous buildings in the world. The temple was built in the 5th century BC. The Parthenon towers over Athens from a magnificent position atop the sacred hill of the Acropolis. The temple was built in honor of the patroness of the city - the goddess Athena. It was originally known as Great Temple, but then received the name Parthenon.

History of the Parthenon

The current Parthenon was not the first temple built here in ancient times. There are traces of two earlier temples, slightly smaller in size - one of them was built of stone, and the second of marble. Shortly after the Persians destroyed all the buildings on the Acropolis in 480 BC, Pericles ordered the construction of a new big temple, appointing the architect and sculptor Phidias to oversee the project. The design of the Parthenon is attributed to Callicrates and Iktinos. Construction began in 447 BC. and the temple was completed just nine years later. Until 432, Phidias continued to work on the magnificent sculptures that adorned the temple.


After the ancient period, the Parthenon was converted into a church, and during the Ottoman occupation of Athens, it was used as an arsenal. It turned into ruins only in 1687, when the Venetians, besieging the Ottomans, attacked the Acropolis from the hill of Philopappou. During the attack, ammunition stored in the Parthenon exploded, destroying the roof, interior, and fourteen columns.

Parthenon Temple

The Parthenon was created as a peripter - a temple surrounded by columns in the Doric order. The temple, measuring 30.86 by 69.51 meters, contained two cellas (inner chambers). The eastern cella housed a large statue of the goddess Athena. The western cella was used exclusively by priests and contained the treasury of the Delian League (an alliance of Greek city-states).


The Parthenon was decorated with numerous sculptures and reliefs. There were about fifty sculptures on the pediments alone. Most of the sculptures that have survived to this day are displayed in British Museum in London, while some can be seen in the nearby Acropolis Museum. There were two friezes: an inner frieze in cellas and an outer frieze, which consisted of triglyphs (vertical stripes) and metopes (rectangular figures) with auxiliary sculptures. The inner frieze was designed by Phidias and depicted Panathenaia, a festival in honor of the goddess Athena. Many metopes and parts of the interior frieze can also be found in the British Museum.


To achieve visual perfection, the creators of the Parthenon used optical tricks, defying the laws of perspective. The columns are slightly tilted inward and have a curved shape. As a result, horizontal and vertical lines structures to the naked eye appear perfectly straight.
Most people think that ancient temples always had natural marble colors. But buildings and statues in antique period were often very colorful. The Parthenon was no exception: the sculptures on the friezes, the pediment and on the roof were painted in bright blues, reds and golds.

Statue of Athena in the Parthenon

the main objective of the temple consisted in placing a twelve-meter statue of Athena Parthenos, created by Phidias. The statue of Athena is one of the most legendary Greek statues. It was made of gold and ivory around a wooden frame. Like all other sculptures of the Parthenon, the statue was painted in bright colors - mostly blue and red. Athena was depicted as the goddess of war. He wears a helmet on his head, left hand leaned on the shield, and in right hand she held a statue of the winged Nike. Unfortunately, the original statue has been lost, but a modern full-scale replica of the Athena Parthenos is located in Nashville (USA).

In Athens, on the highest point of the Acropolis stands the majestic Parthenon Temple, built in honor of the goddess Athena the Virgin, the beloved daughter of Zeus the Thunderer. It began to be erected during the reign of Pericles, construction continued for ten years.

Creator of the Parthenon

The main architect of the temple was Iktin, he was assisted by Kallikrates. Sketches and schemes for the sculptural decoration of the Parthenon were developed by the famous sculptor Phidias, who made the colossal statue of the Parthenos. Also, under his leadership, an amazing decoration of the temple was created: a marble frieze, pediments and metopes.
The Parthenon, according to the plan of Pericles, was supposed to personify the greatness of ancient Athens and the victory in the Greco-Persian war. All this found its expression in the Doric style of the temple columns, in the harmonious composition of the elements and their correct proportion.

Architectural style of the Parthenon

Massive columns rise along the entire perimeter, slightly inclined into the structure and with different diameters. The builders created them exactly like that with the intention of giving the building plasticity and harmony.

Front of the Parthenon
The upper part of the temple wall behind a row of outer columns is decorated with a 160-meter-long frieze dedicated to the Greek festival of the Great Panathenaic. The marble zophora depicts scenes of a festival in which many people and animals participate, and you can also see the Olympian gods.

Columns of the Parthenon
Above the colonnade of the temple of Athena there were 92 metopes, the paintings of which illustrate scenes from ancient Greek mythology and small feats of the goddess. The main episodes from the life of Athena are depicted on the pediments of the Parthenon (eastern and western). On the eastern pediment you can see the image of the myth about and the figures of women goddesses of fate, on the western - the conflict between Poseidon and Athena due to the patronage of Greece.