The rocky rock of the Acropolis, which dominates the center of Athens, is the largest and most majestic ancient Greek shrine, dedicated mainly to the patroness of the city, Athena.

The most important events of the ancient Hellenes are connected with this sacred place: the myths of ancient Athens, the biggest religious holidays, the main religious events.
The temples of the Acropolis of Athens are in harmony with the natural environment and are unique masterpieces of ancient Greek architecture, expressing the innovative styles and correlations of classical art, they have had an indelible impact on the intellectual and artistic creativity of people for many centuries.

The Acropolis of the 5th century BC is the most accurate reflection of the splendor, power and wealth of Athens at its highest peak - the "golden age". In the form in which the Acropolis now appears before us, it was erected after its destruction by the Persians in 480 BC. e. Then the Persians were finally defeated and the Athenians vowed to restore their shrines. The reconstruction of the Acropolis begins in 448 BC, after the Battle of Plataea, on the initiative of Pericles.

- Temple Erechtheion

Myth of Erechtheus: Erechtheus was a beloved and revered Athenian king. Athens was at enmity with the city of Eleusis, during the battle, Erechtheus killed Eumollus, the leader of the Eleusinian army, and also the son of the god of the sea, Poseidon. For this, the Thunderer Zeus killed him with his lightning. The Athenians buried their beloved king and named the constellation Charioteer after him. At the same place, the architect Mnesicles erected a temple, named after Erichtheus.

This temple was built between 421 and 407 BC and contained the golden lamp of Kallimachou. The construction of the Erechtheion did not stop even during the long Peloponnesian War.

The Erechtheion was the most sacred place of worship in Athens. The ancient inhabitants of Athens in this temple worshiped Athena, Hephaestus, Poseidon, Kekropos (the first Athenian king).

The whole history of the city was concentrated at this point and therefore the construction of the Erechtheon temple began in this place:

♦ in this place a dispute broke out between Athena and Poseidon over the property of the city

♦ in the northern porch of the Erechtheion temple there is a hole where, according to legend, the sacred serpent Erechthonius lived

♦ here was the grave of Kekrops

The east porch has six Ionic columns, to the north there is a monumental entrance with a decorated gate, on the south side a porch with six girls, known as caryatids, who support the arch of the Erechtheion, at the moment they have been replaced by plaster copies. Five of the caryatids are in the new Acropolis Museum, one is in the British Museum.

The Parthenon, the main temple and attraction of the Acropolis in Athens, is located in the archaeological zone of Greece, on a limestone rock, towering among other ancient temples and buildings, such as the Erechtheion, the Propylaea, the Temple of Nike the Wingless.

The amazing temple has an amazing architectural composition, which attracts tourists from all over the world who seek to capture the beauty of the Parthenon in the photo.

Who built the Parthenon?

Its construction began even before our era in 488 under the influence of Pericles. It was built specifically on the elevation of the Athenian Acropolis. The temple was dedicated to Athena Parthenos, thus the Greeks thanked the goddess for the victory in the Battle of Marathon over a strong enemy - the Persians.

The temple, built at this time, was similar in size to the current Parthenon. However, in 480 the Persians destroyed the Acropolis, including the still unfinished Parthenon. After that, construction stopped for as much as 30 years. Work resumed in 454, the construction was led by architects: Iktin and Kallikrat, as well as the sculptor Phidias, who supervised the construction.

The Parthenon in Athens was built from Pentelian marble mined here, which was originally pure white, and over time oxidized and acquired a warm yellowish tint, as if filled with sunlight. It is noteworthy that other buildings before the Parthenon were built of limestone. When laying, no mortar was used, the blocks were carefully adjusted to each other and fastened together with iron pins.

After the birth of Christ, the Parthenon in Greece was turned into a Christian church, which was consecrated in honor of Hagia Sophia. They even made a bell tower inside the temple.

In 1460, during the reign of the Ottoman Empire, the Turks turned the Parthenon into a mosque, next to which stood a minaret. In 1687 Athens was besieged by the Venetians and the temple was used as a storehouse for gunpowder. This had a very negative impact on his condition, the entire middle part of the temple was destroyed due to a cannonball that flew into it and the subsequent explosion. In addition, the English lord took away part of the Parthenon sculptures, so part of the unique heritage ended up in France and London.

The appearance of the magnificent Parthenon

The place for this magnificent building in Greece was not chosen by chance, the architects made a lot of efforts to place the temple in the most advantageous position from an artistic point of view. The Parthenon was supposed to crown the Athenian Acropolis, towering above all other buildings.

The dimensions of the temple depended on the size of the rock, as the architects of ancient Greece adhered to the rule of the golden section in construction. To enter the Parthenon temple, you need to overcome only three marble steps, the total height of this wide staircase is only one and a half meters.

The Parthenon has the shape of a rectangle, decorated in the Doric order, thanks to which it has a majestic colonnade that can be seen from afar. The temple has 8 columns at the ends and 17 at the sides (there are 50 in total), they all narrow upwards and each is decorated with decorative gutters - flutes. The columns at the corners stand with a slight slope towards the center. All these features are designed to make the building look more refined and coherent, especially when viewed from afar.

What did the Temple of Athena Parthenon look like?

In ancient times, the entire interior of the Parthenon was divided into two parts.

1. The room to the east is longer and was called Hekatompedon. In the space hidden behind the columns inside the temple, there used to be a statue of the goddess Athena. The figure was decorated with gold and ivory, it had a wooden base and a decent height - 12 meters, the architect Phidias worked on it. In her hand, Athena held a smaller statue of Nike. She was wearing a helmet on her head, which had three crests with images of a sphinx and griffins.
2. The western room was called the Parthenon. It kept the treasury and archives of the state. Subsequently, the entire temple began to be called the Parthenon.

The Parthenon was decorated with various sculptural compositions, bas-reliefs and high reliefs. One of them depicts the birth of the goddess. According to legend, Zeus swallowed his pregnant wife so that the born heir could not surpass him and kill him. But, despite this cunning of Zeus, the divine child was still able to be born. Hephaestus, the god of fire, cut Zeus's head, and the newborn goddess Athena jumped out.

Another pediment depicts a dispute over Attica. Athena and the god of the seas Poseidon argued which of them would be the patron of the city. The olive tree that Athena grew was more liked by the inhabitants than the salty spring carved from the rock by Poseidon.

At the end of the temple, a solemn procession is depicted, walking along the Parthenon in honor of the Panathenaic holiday and worship of the patron goddess of the city. Horsemen, priestesses and priests participated in it. Athena was presented with new clothes, which were called peplos.

Some metopes of the Parthenon depict various scenes from battles and not only between people. On them, the Greeks are fighting with centaurs, Amazons, the gods are fighting with giants. They also illustrate scenes from the Trojan War.

Many details of the Parthenon were previously painted, blue and red colors predominated. It was painted in a special way: a thin layer of wax with a dye was applied, then, under the influence of temperature, the paint penetrated into the stone. A magnificent effect of coloring marble was achieved, while its structure was visible. The building was also decorated with bronze wreaths.

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 production, it has a white color, but under the influence of the sun's rays it turns yellow. The northern side of the building is exposed to less radiation - and therefore there the stone received a grayish-ashy hue, 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. 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 Panathenay. 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. Nearby are the most important people of the city.

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. The central figures almost did not reach. 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), we 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 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 have proven that it occurred in the middle of the 3rd century BC. 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 interior, and the outer 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 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 records, which set the main stages of the construction of the Parthenon.

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 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 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, 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 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, the interior of the temple was restored, including the painting Judgment Day on the wall of the portico, where the entrance was located, murals depicting the Passion of Christ in the vestibule, 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 in the early 19th century, the Marquis of Bute ordered watercolors from them. It is from these watercolors that the researchers established the plot motifs of the paintings and the approximate time of creation - the end of the 12th century. At about 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 the 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 St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, the first Byzantine emperor to officially convert to 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 vestibule, 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

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 during the 1630s and 1640s. Evliya Celebi noted that the transformation of the Christian Parthenon into a mosque did not greatly affect its internal appearance. 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 not possible to accurately determine the time of mashing the metopes of the Parthenon, the Turks could continue this process. However, in general, they committed 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 at 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 of Countess Königsmark. She described the temple and the moment of the explosion. Shortly after the final surrender of the Turks, walking along the Acropolis, among the ruins of a 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 present 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. It can be seen in the first known photograph of the temple, taken 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 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, trustee of the British Museum.

The legal side of the case is still unclear. 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 sure 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:

I felt an unspeakable humiliation as I witnessed the Parthenon being stripped of its finest sculptures. I saw some metopes being filmed from the southeast side of the building. In order to raise the metopes, the remarkable cornice that protected them had to be thrown down 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

Duvin Hall in the British Museum displaying the Elgin Marbles

It is extremely limited to see in the Athenian Acropolis only a place where, as in a museum, you can see only 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 scholars lend themselves tj such deaths of wanton destruction.

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 program of restoration of 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. 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 already 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 on dismantling the iron fasteners used by Balanos and replacing 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. The chief engineer of the works, Manolis Korres, considers it a top priority to patch the bullet holes fired at the Parthenon in 1821 during the Greek Revolution. Also, restorers must assess the damage caused to the Parthenon by strong earthquakes and 1999. As a result of consultations, it was decided that by the time the restoration work was completed, the remains of the Christian era apse could be seen inside the temple, as well as the plinth of the 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 of ancient culture, but also of beauty in general.

Modern copies

Nashville Parthenon

Athena patronizes those striving for knowledge, cities and states, sciences and crafts, intelligence, dexterity, helps those who pray to her to increase their ingenuity in a particular matter. At one time, she was one of the most revered and beloved goddesses, competing with Zeus, since she was equal to him in strength and wisdom. She was very proud of being a virgin forever.

Birth of Athena

She was born in an unusual way, like most divine creatures. According to the most common version, the Almighty Zeus heeded the advice given by Uranus and Gaia, after which he absorbed his first wife Metis-Wisdom at the time of her pregnancy. A son could be born who would overthrow the thunderer as a result. After absorption from the head of Zeus, his heiress, Athena, was born.

Description

The warrior goddess differed from her companions in the pantheon in that she had an extremely unusual appearance. Other female deities were gentle and graceful, while Athena did not hesitate to use the male attribute in doing business. So, she was remembered for wearing armor. She also had her spear with her.

Even the patroness of urban planning kept an animal near her, which was given a sacred role. She wore a Corinthian helmet, on top of which was a high crest. It is typical for her to wear an aegis that was covered with a goat skin. This shield was adorned with a head that the Winged One lost in the past and is the companion of Athena. The ancient Greeks considered the olive tree to be a sacred tree and associated it directly with this deity. The symbol of wisdom was the owl, which was not inferior in this responsible role to the snake.

According to legend, Pallas had gray eyes and blond hair. Her eyes were large. In addition to beauty, she also had good military training. She carefully polished her armor, was always ready for a fight: the spear was sharpened, and the chariot was ready to rush to the battle for justice. In preparation for the battle, she turned to the cyclops blacksmiths for help.

Shrines erected in her honor

She came to us from antiquity, but the goddess is still worshiped today. Athena is widely revered. The temple is the place where everyone can come and turn to her. People are trying to preserve these places of worship.

One of the most significant buildings glorifying the goddess can be considered a temple created by Pisistratus. Archaeologists excavated two pediments and other details. Hekatompedon was built in the sixth century. The size of the cella reached one hundred feet. It was found in the nineteenth century by German archaeologists.

On the walls of the building there were paintings from the mythology of the ancient Greeks. For example, there you can see Hercules in the fight against terrible monsters. An extremely picturesque place!

When it passed, the construction of the Opitodom, also dedicated to the warrior, began. The construction could not be completed, because the Persians soon attacked and sacked the city. Drums of columns from the northern walls of the Erechtheion were discovered.

The Parthenon is also considered one of the most significant monuments. This is a unique building erected in honor of Athena the Virgin. The building dates from the middle of the fifth century BC. The architect is considered to be Kallikart.

The Old Parthenon left behind several details that were used to build up the Acropolis. This was done by Phidias during the era of Pericles. In connection with the wide veneration of Athena, the temples in her honor were numerous and pompous. Most likely, many of them have not yet been found and will delight us in the future. Although even now there are a large number of buildings representing a rich historical heritage.

In Athens can be called an outstanding monument. It was built by Greek architects. The temple of Pallas Athena is located in the north - near the Parthenon on the Acropolis. It was built between 421 and 406 BC, according to archaeologists.

Athena inspired people to create a beautiful structure. The temple is a model In addition to the goddess of war and knowledge, within these walls you can revere the lord of the seas Poseidon and even the Athenian king Erechtheus, whom we can learn from legends.

History reference

When Pericles died, Greece began to build the temple of Athena, whose construction was not such an easy task and was completed at the time when the city collapsed.

According to legend, at the point where the building was built, the warrior goddess and Poseidon once argued. Everyone wanted to become the ruler of Attica. Information about the temple of Athena includes references to the most important relics of the policy kept here. Previously, the archaic Hekatompedon, which was built during the reign of Pisistratus, was assigned to this.

The temple was destroyed during the Greco-Persian confrontation. For this place, the goddess Athena also played a big role. The temple included her wooden idol, which was supposed to have fallen from the sky. Hermes was also revered here.

In the temple, great importance was attached to the flame of a golden lamp, which never died out. It was enough to pour oil into it only once a year. The temple was named in reference to the remains, which used to be the coffin of Erechtheus. In addition to all of the above, there were many other shrines, which, however, were not of such great importance.

Serving the Warrior Goddess

Temples and statues of Athena as one of the most important Greek deities are numerous and impressive. An olive tree was associated with the goddess, which was burned in 480, but it grew from the ashes and continued its life.

The tree grew near the temple-sanctuary dedicated to the nymph Pandrosa. Entering the holy place, one could look into the waters of the well, replenished from the salty water spring. It was assumed that the god Poseidon himself knocked it out.

Transfer of ownership of the temple

The goddess Athena did not always reign within these walls. The temple for some time belonged to Christians who held their services here during the existence of Byzantium.

Until the 17th century, the building was monitored, maintained and looked after. The damage was done when the year 1687 brought the troops of Venice to Athens. During the siege, the shrine was damaged. When Greek independence was restored, the fragments that had fallen were put back in their proper places. At the moment, nothing but the ruins, unfortunately, is left. You can still see the former features in the portico of Pandrosa, which is located on the north side.

Lord Elgin, who was sent by the British to Constantinople in 1802, received permission from Sultan Selim III to remove from the country all parts of the shrine found on which inscriptions or images could be found. One caryatid of the temple was transported to the territory of Britain. Now this relic, like the frieze of the Parthenon, is an exhibit of the British Museum.

architectural design

This sanctuary has an unusual asymmetrical layout. This is due to the fact that there was a difference between the heights of the soil on which the construction took place. From south to north, the level of the earth decreases. There are two cells. Each of them had to have an entrance. Relics of antiquity richly fill the structure. Parishioners entered from two entrances: northern and eastern. Ionic porticos were their decoration.

In the eastern part of the Erechtheion, which was located higher, there was a space dedicated to the guardian of the city, which was Athena-Polyada. The image of the goddess made of wood was kept here. When the Panathenaic passed, they made an offering to him of a new peplos. In the portico of this cella there are columns, whose number is six.

Interior view of the temple

In the western part of the temple one could see things and elements that glorified Poseidon and Erechtheus. On the front side, there is a restriction created by two ants. Between them - four semi-columns.

The presence of two porticoes is confirmed: north and south. The framing of the door entrance from the north included carvings that included rosettes. The south side is notable for the famous Portico of the Caryatids.

It was named after the six statues just over two meters high. They support the architrave. The composition of the statues includes Pentelicon marble. Today they are replaced by copies. As for the originals, the British Museum became their repository. Lord Elgin imported one caryatid there.

Also the Acropolis Museum contains the rest. Pandrozeion - this was the name of the portico of caryatids. Pandrosa was the daughter of Cecrops. The building is named after her. As a plot on the basis of which the frieze was built, they took the myths that tell about the Cecropids and Erechtheus. Some remains of the monument have survived to this day. The sculptures, the material for which was Parian marble, were fixed in front of a dark background, which formed the Eleusinian material.

I dreamed of visiting Greece since childhood. A mysterious country from a long-read school history textbook has always attracted me and seemed like an amazing place. But what do we actually know about it?

Probably, each of us at the word "Greece" imagines the bright sun, the sound of the sea, the taste of olives and the majestic ancient ruins. And for sure, most people remember the same ruins of the ancient Parthenon, located on a rocky hill - a huge structure with high marble columns and a crowd of tourists nearby. Which, however, is not surprising, because this is the most recognizable temple in Greece and, probably, one of the most famous buildings of antiquity. In a word, this is a unique place, next to which I seem to fall into the past.

A little history of the Parthenon

As I said, the Parthenon is located on the Acropolis of Athens - an ancient city on a high rocky hill. It was built in 447-438 BC. e. by order of the Athenian ruler Pericles by the architect Kallikrates and decorated in 438-431 BC. e. under the direction of Phidias - the great ancient Greek sculptor. The one who is the author of one of the wonders of the world - the statue of Zeus in Olympia.

The Parthenon was built in honor of the patroness of the city, the goddess of wisdom and just war. During the heyday of the Athenian state, it was the main temple of the city, and the treasury was also kept there. But the years passed, in the Middle Ages, the Parthenon was first a Catholic and then an Orthodox church, and after the conquest of Greece by the Ottoman Empire, a mosque was built inside.

In general, when I climbed the Acropolis and stood at the steps of the Parthenon, an unforgettable sight opened up: at the foot of the hill, a huge city stretched for many kilometers, surrounded by small mountains on one side and the sea on the other. In ancient times, when the Parthenon in Athens was just being built, the sea was much closer, and if you let your imagination run wild, removing the pipes of factories on the outskirts and power lines above the houses, you can try to see Greece as the ancient Greeks saw it - with an endless blue sea and green hills around. I was there in May, and the picture was completed by the incredible smell of oranges growing in the gardens at the foot.

The Parthenon itself is a building 70 meters long and 30 meters wide, it is surrounded by a colonnade of 8 columns in the facades and 17 on the sides. Another unique architectural feature is that the Parthenon is built in such a way that it looks perfectly straight, but in reality it has almost no straight lines in its contours. Needless to say, the ancients knew how to build - there are no more similar buildings in the world. Once the temple was decorated with high reliefs, many of which have been preserved - part in the Acropolis Museum (a large glass building near the entrance to the Acropolis), part in (and this is already in London). But unfortunately, it will not work to get inside the Parthenon - the temple is under restoration.

How to get to the Parthenon

The Parthenon is located in the southern part of the Acropolis of Athens, a huge rocky hill that is visible from almost everywhere in the city center. Exact address: Dionysiou Areopagitou 15, Athens 117 42.

Now I will tell you about the most convenient way to get to the Parthenon:

• On foot. If you are staying in the center, then, as mentioned above, the Parthenon is visible from everywhere, and finding it will not be a problem. The nearest residential areas are Plaka and Anafiotika. A good option for those who stay in the city center or just like to walk around beautiful places, like me.
• Underground. The nearest station is Akropoli. A ticket costs 1.2 euros, for people over 65 and under 18 years old - 0.6 euros, they are sold at special terminals. For 70 minutes, the pass will also be valid for the tram, so this method will be convenient if you are coming from the outskirts of the city. I recommend this option: it is cheaper and faster.
• By taxi. There are many of them in Athens, they are yellow and come across almost everywhere. The price starts from 1 euro and goes on to 0.34 euro/km, which makes a taxi a fairly inexpensive mode of transport. But remember that traffic jams and rush hours have not yet been canceled, and not every driver can deny himself the pleasure of earning extra money on tourists by raising the price.

Conditions for visiting the Parthenon

The Parthenon is open daily from 8.00 to 18.30 from April to October, from 8.00 to 17.00 from November to March.

A ticket costs 12 euros, sold at the box office at the entrance to the territory of the Acropolis. There are several cash registers, as well as entrances. They also sell a complex ticket for 20 euros, which includes a visit to the Keramik cemetery (the Kerameilos), the Temple of Olympian Zeus (the Temple pf Olympian Zeus), the Roman Agora, the Athenian Agora (Ancient Agora) and the Theater of Dionysus (Theatre of Dionysus). This ticket allows you to save a tidy sum on visiting all these places (and they are worth it), and, apparently, for this reason, information about its existence is given in small print in the corner of the box office.

There are a lot of tourists at any time of the day, so I advise you to come early so as not to stand in line in the heat.

On a note

I'll give you a few more tips that you might find helpful:

Take water with you. Although there are tents with drinks and food on the territory of the acropolis, the path from the top to them is not a short one.

Be sure to take a hat with you - you have to climb to the top of the hill, it will be hot.

Like other Greek attractions, the Parthenon is closed on holidays: January 1, January 6, March 25, May 1, August 15, October 28, December 25-26. It is also closed on the days of religious Orthodox holidays: Easter, Maundy Monday, Good Friday, Spirits Day, Ascension of the Lord, Trinity.

There is no need to leave garbage behind - there are no employees only at first glance, but they are there and see everything.