The famous ancient Greek temple, the Parthenon, is located on the famous Acropolis of Athens. This main temple in Ancient Athens is a magnificent monument of ancient architecture. It was built in honor of the patroness of Athens and all of Attica - the goddess Athena.

The construction date of the Parthenon is considered to be 447 BC. It was installed thanks to the found fragments of marble tablets, on which the city authorities presented resolutions and financial reports. Construction lasted 10 years. The temple was consecrated in 438 BC. on the festival of Panathenaia (which translated from Greek means “for all Athenians”), although work on decorating and decorating the temple was carried out until 431 BC.

The initiator of the construction was Pericles, an Athenian statesman, famous commander and reformer. The design and construction of the Parthenon was carried out by the famous ancient Greek architects Ictinus and Kallikrates. The decoration of the temple was made by the greatest sculptor of those times - Phidias. High quality Pentelic marble was used for the construction.

The building was built in the form of a peripterus (a rectangular structure surrounded by columns). The total number of columns is 50 (8 columns on the facades and 17 columns on the sides). The ancient Greeks took into account that straight lines are distorted at a distance, so they resorted to some optical techniques. For example, the columns do not have the same diameter along the entire length; they taper somewhat towards the top, and the corner columns are also inclined towards the center. Thanks to this, the structure seems ideal.

Previously, in the center of the temple there was a statue of Athena Parthenos. The monument was about 12 m high and made of gold and ivory on a wooden base. In one hand the goddess held a statue of Nike, and with the other she leaned on a shield, near which the serpent Erichthonius was curled up. On Athena's head there was a helmet with three large crests (the middle one with the image of a sphinx, the side ones with griffins). The scene of Pandora's birth was carved on the pedestal of the statue. Unfortunately, the statue has not survived to this day and is known from descriptions, images on coins and a few copies.

Over many centuries, the temple was attacked more than once, a significant part of the temple was destroyed, and historical relics were looted. Today, some parts of the masterpieces of ancient sculptural art can be seen in famous museums around the world. The main part of the magnificent works of Phidias was destroyed by people and time.

Restoration work is currently underway; reconstruction plans include maximum recreation of the temple in its original form in ancient times.

The Parthenon as part of the Acropolis of Athens is included in the list World Heritage UNESCO.

For almost 2,500 years, the Parthenon has reigned over Athens, the Temple of the Virgin Athena - the symbol of the city, the pride of ancient architecture. Many experts consider it the most beautiful and harmonious temple Ancient world. And most tourists who see the Parthenon with their own eyes share this opinion.

History of construction

For many years after the destruction of the main temple of Athena, the Hekatompedon, by the Persians, there was no sanctuary in Athens worthy of the patroness of the city. Only after the end of the Greco-Persian wars in 449 BC. e. the Athenians had enough money for large-scale construction.

The construction of the Parthenon began during the reign of Pericles, one of the greatest political figures of Ancient Greece. This was the "golden age" of Attica. Recognition of the leading role of Athens in the fight against the Persians led to the creation of the Delian Maritime League, which included 206 Greek city-states. In 464 BC. e. The treasury of the union was transported to Athens. After this, the rulers of Attica virtually uncontrollably disposed in cash most of the Greek states.

The money was used not only to fight the Persians. Huge amounts of money were spent by Pericles on grandiose construction works. During his reign, a magnificent temple ensemble grew on the Acropolis, the center of which was the Parthenon.

Construction of the Parthenon began in 447 BC. e. at the highest point of the Acropolis hill. Here back in 488 BC. e. The site for the new temple was prepared and work began on its construction, but at the initial stage they were interrupted by the renewed war.

The Parthenon project belonged to the architect Ictinus, and the progress of the work was supervised by Callicrates. The great sculptor Phidias took an active part in the construction of the temple, who was engaged in external and interior decoration building. Were involved in the construction the best masters Greece, and general control of the work was carried out by Pericles himself.

The consecration of the temple took place in 438 at the annual Panathenaic Games, but the finishing work on the building was finally completed only in 432 BC. e.

Architectural appearance of the Parthenon

Architecturally, the temple is a classical peripterus with one row of Doric columns. There are 50 columns in total - 8 on the end and 17 on the sides. The width of the end sides is larger than the traditional one - 8 columns instead of 6. This was done at the request of Phidias, who sought to achieve the maximum width of the cella, the interior space. The height of the columns was 19.4 meters with a diameter at the bottom of 1.9 m. The corner ones were somewhat thicker - 1.95 m. Towards the top, the thickness of the columns decreased. Each column has 20 longitudinal grooves - flutes - machined into it.

The entire building rests on a three-stage base 1.5 m high. The size of the upper platform of the base, the stylobate, is 69.5 by 30.9 meters. Behind the outer row of columns, two more steps with a total height of 0.7 m were built, on which the walls of the temple stand.

The main entrance to the Parthenon was located on the side opposite the main entrance to the Acropolis - the Propylaea. Thus, to get inside, the visitor had to walk around the building on one side.

The total length of the temple (without the colonnade) is 59 m, width 21.7. The eastern part of the temple, where the sanctuary of Athena itself was located, had an external size of 30.9 m and was called the hecatompedon, “one hundred feet” (Attic foot - 30.9 cm). The length of the cella was 29.9 m. The cella was divided into three naves by two rows of 9 Doric columns. In the middle nave there was an altar of the goddess, as well as the famous statue of Athena Parthenos, the creation of Phidias.

The western part of the building was occupied by an opisthodome - a room in which offerings to Athena and the state archive were kept. The dimensions of the opisthodome were 13.9 x 19.2 m. It was here that the treasury of the Delian League was transported. The name of the opisthodome, Parthenon, was subsequently transferred to the entire temple.

The building was built from marble quarried from Mount Pentelikon, 20 km away. from Athens. The peculiarity of Pentelicon marble is that, being almost white immediately after extraction, over time it acquires a yellowish color. This explains the golden hue of the Parthenon. The marble blocks were held together with iron pins, which were inserted into drilled grooves and filled with lead.

Unique project Iktina

Art historians consider the Parthenon to be the standard of harmony and harmony. His silhouette is flawless. However, in reality there are practically no straight lines in the outlines of the temple.

Human vision perceives objects somewhat distorted. Iktin took full advantage of this. Columns, cornices, roofing - all lines are slightly curved, thereby creating the optical illusion of their ideal straightness.

A building as significant as the Parthenon, located on a flat area, would visually “press through” the base, so the stylobate was made rising towards the center. The temple itself was moved away from the center of the Acropolis to the south-eastern corner, so as not to overwhelm the visitor entering the citadel. The sanctuary seems to grow as you approach it.

The solution to the colonnade is interesting. Ideally straight columns would seem too thin, so they have an imperceptible thickening in the middle. To create a feeling of lightness of the building, the columns were installed slightly inclined towards the center. The corner columns were made slightly thicker than the others, which gave the building visual stability. The spans between the columns increase towards the center, but to the viewer walking along the colonnade it seems that they are exactly the same.

By using this feature of human perception in the Parthenon project, Iktin thereby discovered one of the fundamental principles on which the architecture of subsequent centuries grew.

Parthenon sculptures

The best craftsmen of Greece took part in the work on the sculptures of the temple. The general supervision of the sculptural decoration of the sanctuary was carried out by Phidias. He also owns the authorship main shrine Parthenon - statues of Athena the Virgin.

The best preserved is the bas-relief frieze that encircled the entire temple above the colonnade. The total length of the frieze is 160 meters. It depicts a solemn procession in honor of Athena. Among the participants in the procession are elders, girls with palm branches, musicians, horsemen, chariots, and young men leading sacrificial animals. Above the entrance to the temple is depicted the final act of Panathenaia - the priest of Athena, surrounded by gods and the most prominent citizens of Attica, accepts peplos (a type of women's outerwear) woven by the Athenians as a gift to the goddess.

Remarkable works of art are the Parthenon metopes - relief images that were located above the frieze. Of the 92 metopes, 57 have survived to this day. The reliefs are grouped thematically and are dedicated to subjects common in Hellas. Above the eastern entrance was depicted the battle of the gods with the giants, above the entrance to the opisthodome in the west - the battle of the Hellenes with the Amazons. The metopes of the south reproduced the battle of the Lapiths with the centaurs. The metopes of the northern part, which told about the Trojan War, suffered the most.

The pediment sculptures have survived only in fragments. They depicted key moments for Athens. The eastern group reproduced the scene of the birth of Athena, and the western pediment depicted the dispute between Athena and Poseidon for the right to become the patron of Attica. Legendary figures from the history of Athens are depicted next to the gods. Alas, the condition of the sculptures does not allow us to accurately determine the identity of most of them.

In the central nave of the temple there was a statue of Athena 12 meters high. Phidias used the chrysoelephantine technique, when he first created a wooden frame for the sculpture, and plates of gold, representing clothing, and ivory, imitating open parts of the body, were fixed on it.

Descriptions and copies of the statue have been preserved. The goddess was depicted wearing a combed helmet and standing at full height, but otherwise eyewitness accounts differ. Famous geographer of the 2nd century AD. e. Pausanias claimed that Athena held a spear in one hand, and in the palm of her other hand stood the messenger of victory, Nike. At Athena’s feet lay a shield, and on the goddess’s chest was an aegis - a shell with the head of Medusa the Gorgon. In the copies, the goddess rests on a shield, but there is no spear at all.

On one side of the shield the battle of the gods with the giants was depicted, on the other - the battle of the Greeks with the Amazons. Ancient authors passed on the legend that Phidias depicted Pericles and himself on the relief. Later for this he was accused of blasphemy and died in prison.

The further fate of the Parthenon

The temple was highly revered throughout Greece even after the decline of Athens. Thus, Alexander the Great made rich donations to the Parthenon.

However, the new rulers of Attica treated the sanctuary with much less respect. In 298 BC. e. By order of the tyrant Lahar, the golden parts of the statue of Athena were removed. In the 2nd century AD e. There was a severe fire in the Parthenon, but the building was restored.

Timeline of changes in the appearance of the Parthenon from the moment of construction to the present day

In 426, the Parthenon became the Temple of Hagia Sophia. The statue of Athena was transported to Constantinople, where it was destroyed in a fire. In 662, the temple was reconsecrated in honor of the Mother of God, and a bell tower was added to it.

The Turks, who conquered Athens in 1460, built a mosque in the Parthenon, rebuilding the bell tower into a minaret, and in 1687 tragedy struck. During the siege of Athens by the Venetians, a Turkish gunpowder warehouse was set up in the temple. The cannonball hitting the barrels of gunpowder caused a powerful explosion, which destroyed the middle part of the building.

The destruction of the temple continued in peacetime, when city residents stole the marble blocks for their own needs. IN early XIX century, the bulk of the sculptures, with the permission of the Sultan, were exported to England. Nobody cared about the building itself until Greece gained independence. The Parthenon was recognized as part historical heritage Greece, and in the 20s of the 20th century restoration work began. The Foundation for the Preservation of the Parthenon, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has been established.

Work to restore the Parthenon is ongoing. Alas, there is no hope of seeing the temple in its original form - too much has been lost. However, even in its current state, the Parthenon is a masterpiece of ancient architecture and leaves no doubt about the genius of the architects and builders who once erected it.

Athena patronizes those striving for knowledge, cities and states, sciences and crafts, intelligence, dexterity, and helps those who pray to her to increase their ingenuity in this or that 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 the fact that she remained a virgin forever.

Birth of Athena

She was born in an unusual way, like most divine creatures. According to the most common version, 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 eventually overthrow the Thunderer. After being absorbed from the head of Zeus, his heir, 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 male attribute in conducting business. So, she was remembered for wearing armor. She also had her spear with her.

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

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

Shrines erected in her honor

She came to us from ancient times, 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 the temple created by Pisistratus. Archaeologists excavated two pediments and other details. The Hecatompedon was built in the sixth century. The dimensions 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 fighting terrible monsters. An extremely picturesque place!

When this happened, they began building the Opitodom, also dedicated to the warrior. The construction could not be completed, because the Persians soon attacked and plundered the city. Column drums from the northern walls of the Erechtheion have been discovered.

The Parthenon is also considered one of the most significant monuments. This is a unique structure, erected in honor of Athena the Virgin. The structure dates back to the mid-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. Phidias did this during the era of Pericles. Due to the widespread veneration of Athena, temples in her honor were numerous and pompous. Most likely, many of them have not yet been found and will pleasantly please us in the future. Although now there is a large number of buildings representing a rich historical heritage.

In Athens it 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 the people to create this beautiful structure. The temple is a model In addition to the goddess of war and knowledge, within these walls you can venerate the ruler of the seas, Poseidon, and even the Athenian king Erechtheus, about whom we can learn from legends.

Historical reference

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

According to legend, at the point where the structure 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 polis kept here. Previously, the archaic Hecatompedon, which was built during the reign of Pisistratus, was allocated for this.

The temple was destroyed during the Greco-Persian conflict. The goddess Athena also played a big role in this place. 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 gave a flame to the golden lamp that never went out. It was enough to pour oil into it just once a year. The temple was named in reference to the remains that used to be the tomb of Erechtheus. In addition to everything listed above, there were many other shrines, which, however, were not of such great importance.

Serving the Warrior Goddess

As one of the most important Greek deities, temples and statues of Athena 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 not far from the temple-sanctuary dedicated to the nymph Pandrosa. Going into Holy place, one could look into the waters of the well, replenished from a salty water spring. It was assumed that the god Poseidon himself knocked him out.

Transfer of ownership of the temple

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

Until the 17th century, the structure was monitored, maintained and looked after. The damage was done when 1687 brought Venetian troops to Athens. During the siege, the shrine was damaged. When Greek independence was restored, the fragments that fell were placed on the right places. At the moment, unfortunately, there is nothing left but ruins. 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 given by Sultan Selim III to remove from the country all parts of the shrine that could be found with inscriptions or images. One caryatid of the temple was transported to Britain. Now this relic, like the Parthenon frieze, 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 ground level decreases. There are two cellas. Each of them had to have an entrance. The structure is abundantly filled with relics of antiquity. Parishioners entered from two entrances: northern and eastern. Ionic porticoes 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, who was Athena-Poliada. The wooden image of the goddess was kept here. When the Panathenaea passed, they made an offering to him of a new peplos. The portico of this cella has six columns.

Interior view of the temple

In the western part of the temple one could see things and elements that glorified Poseidon and Erechtheus. WITH front side there is a limitation that two antas create. Between them there are four semi-columns.

The presence of two porticoes has been confirmed: northern and southern. The doorway's entrance frame to the north included carvings that included rosettes. The southern side is notable for the famous Portico of the Caryatids.

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

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

Predecessors of the Parthenon

Main articles: Hecatompedon (temple), Opisthodomos (temple)

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

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

Material and technology

The temple was built entirely from Pentelic marble, mined nearby. During production, it is white in color, but when exposed to the sun's rays it turns yellow. The northern side of the building is exposed to less radiation - and therefore the stone there has a grayish-ashy tint, while the southern blocks have a golden-yellowish color. The tiles and stylobate are also made of this marble. The columns are made of drums fastened together with wooden plugs and pins.

Metopes

Main article: Doric frieze of the Parthenon

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

64 metopes survive: 42 in Athens and 15 in the British Museum. Most of them are on the eastern 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 opisthodome was surrounded at the 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 mounted 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 the Panathenaia. On the north and south sides horsemen and chariots, just citizens, are depicted. 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, mounting or already mounted. In the east (above the entrance to the temple) the end of the procession is represented: the priest, surrounded by gods, accepts the peplos woven for the goddess by the Athenians. Standing nearby important people cities.

96 frieze plates have survived. 56 of them are in the British Museum, 40 (mostly the western part of the frieze) are in Athens.

Pediments

Main article: 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. They have survived very poorly to this day. The central figures almost didn't make it. In the center of the eastern pediment in the Middle Ages, a window was barbarically cut through, which completely destroyed the composition located there. Ancient authors usually avoid this part of the temple. Pausanias, the main source on 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 provide quite 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 mostly just 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 driven, presumably, by Helios, enters from the south side. Dionysus sits in front of him, then Demeter and Kore. Behind them stands another goddess, perhaps Artemis. From the north, three seated female figures have reached us - the so-called "three veils" - which are sometimes considered 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 Nyux 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, there were the figures of Zeus, Hephaestus and Athena. Most likely, the rest of the Olympians and, perhaps, some other gods were there. A torso survives, attributed in most cases to Poseidon.

The western pediment represents 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 there were chariots, probably in the north - Nike with Hermes, in the south - Iris with Amphitryon. Around were figures of legendary characters of Athenian history, but their exact attribution is almost impossible.

28 statues have reached us: 19 in the British Museum and 11 in Athens.

Athena Parthenos statue

The statue of Athena Parthenos, standing in the center of the temple and being its sacred center, was made by Phidias himself. It was upright and about 11 m in height, 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 with the other she leans on the shield. The shield depicts Amazonomachy. There is a legend that Phidias depicted himself (in the image of Daedalus) and Pericles (in the image of Theseus) on it, for which (as well as 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 subject matter allows us to say that this is already a historical relief. Another relief was on Athena's sandals. A centauromachy was depicted there.

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

Other finishing details

None of the ancient sources recalls the fire in the Parthenon, but archaeological excavations have proven that it occurred in the middle of the 3rd century. BC BC, 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, both main doors of the temple and the second frieze collapsed. 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 installed only over the internal premises, and the external 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 Acropolis of Athens. 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 in the places where the horses' hooves and chariot wheels were attached), as well as a group of bronze statues of warriors, which Pausanias described. The three other blocks of the western doors are marble tablets with financial statements, which establish the main stages of the construction of the Parthenon.

Christian temple

Story

The Parthenon remained a temple to the goddess Athena for a thousand years. It is not known exactly when exactly he became 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 information 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 Fourth Crusade. The Athena Parthenos statue probably disappeared as early as the 3rd century BC. e. during a fire or earlier. Roman and Byzantine emperors repeatedly issued decrees banning pagan cults, 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 the Blessed Virgin Mary of Athens suffered more significant changes. The apse in the eastern part was destroyed and rebuilt. The new apse was closely adjacent to the ancient columns, so the central slab of the frieze was dismantled. This slab depicting the "peplos scene", later used to build fortifications on the Acropolis, was found by agents of Lord Elgin and is now on display in the British Museum. Under Michael Choniates himself, the interior decoration of the temple was restored, including the paintings Judgment Day on the wall of the portico where the entrance was located, there are paintings depicting the Passion of Christ in the narthex, a number of paintings that depict saints and previous Athenian metropolitans. All the Parthenon paintings from the Christian era were covered with a thick layer of whitewash in the 1880s, but in the early 19th century the Marquis of Bute commissioned watercolors from them. It was from these watercolors that researchers established the plot motifs of the paintings and the approximate time of creation - the end of the 12th century. Around the same time, the apse ceiling was decorated with mosaics, which collapsed within a few decades. Glass fragments of it are also on display in the British Museum.

On February 24 and 25, 1395, the Italian traveler Nicolo de Martoni visited Athens, who left in his Pilgrim's Book (now in the National Library of France, Paris) the first systematic description of the Parthenon since Pausanias. Martoni presents the Parthenon as a landmark of exclusively Christian history, but he considers the main wealth not to be the numerous relics and the revered icon of the Virgin Mary, painted by the Evangelist Luke and decorated with pearls and precious stones, and a copy of the Gospel written in Greek on thin gilded parchment with Saint Helen Equal to the Apostles, mother of Constantine the Great, the first Byzantine emperor to officially convert to Christianity. Martoni also talks about the cross scratched 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 themselves 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 from the Latinocracy period is the tower near the right side of the portico, built after the city was captured by the Crusaders. For its construction, they used blocks 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 rose to the 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 Acciaioli in Athens, the first and earliest drawing of the Parthenon that has survived to this day was created. It was executed by Ciriaco di Pizzicoli, an Italian merchant, papal legate, traveler and lover of the classics, better known as Cyriacus of Ancona. He visited Athens in 1444 and stayed in the luxurious palace into which the Propylaea had been converted to pay his respects to Acciaioli. Chiriacus left detailed notes and a number of drawings, but they were destroyed by a fire in 1514 in the library of the city of Pesaro. One of the images of the Parthenon has survived. It depicts a temple with 8 Doric columns, the location of the metopes - epistilia - is accurately indicated, and 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 is not similar to the dispute between Athena and Poseidon. This is a 15th century lady 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, which are better preserved, as Cyriacus correctly suggests, a scene of the struggle of the centaurs with the Lapita 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

Reconstructions and decoration

Most detailed description The Parthenon from the Ottoman period belongs to Evliya Çelebi, a Turkish diplomat and traveler. He visited Athens several times throughout the 1630s and 1640s. Evliya Celebi noted that the conversion of the Christian Parthenon into a mosque did not greatly affect its internal appearance. The main feature of the temple remained the canopy over the altar. He also described that the four columns of red marble that supported the canopy were polished to a shine. The floor of the Parthenon is made of polished marble slabs up to 3 m each. Each of the blocks that decorated the walls was 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 transmit sunlight. This feature was also mentioned by Spohn and J. Wehler, who suggested that in fact this stone is phengite, a 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 temple was removed, and the ancient sculptures and paintings were covered with whitewash, although the layer of whitewash was thin and the subject of the painting could be seen. Next, Evliya Celebi gives a list of characters, listing the heroes of pagan, Christian and Muslim religions: demons, Satan, wild animals, devils, sorceresses, angels, dragons, antichrists, cyclops, monsters, crocodiles, elephants, rhinoceroses, as well as Cherub, archangels Gabriel, Seraphim, Azrael, Michael, the ninth heaven, on which the throne of the Lord is located, scales weighing sins and virtues .

Evliya does not describe the mosaics made of gold pieces and shards 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 survived from the previous Christian era. They also talk about a legend according to which the Turk who shot at the fresco of Mary lost his hand, so the Ottomans decided not to harm the temple anymore.

Although the Turks had no desire to protect the Parthenon from destruction, they also had no intention of completely distorting or destroying the temple. Since it is impossible to accurately determine the time of overwriting the Parthenon metopes, the Turks could continue this process. However, overall they carried out less destruction of the building than the Christians a thousand years before Ottoman rule, who transformed the majestic antique temple to the Christian Cathedral. As long as the Parthenon served as a mosque, Muslim worship took place surrounded by Christian paintings and images of Christian saints. The Parthenon was not subsequently rebuilt and its present appearance has remained unchanged since the 17th century.

Destruction

The peace between the Turks and the Venetians did not last long. A new Turkish-Venetian war began. In September 1687, the Parthenon suffered its 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 fire at the Acropolis from cannons on Philopappou Hill. When the cannons fired at the Parthenon, which served the Ottomans as a gunpowder storehouse, it exploded, and part of the temple instantly turned into ruins. In previous decades, Turkish gunpowder magazines were repeatedly blown up. In 1645, a warehouse built in the Propylaea of ​​the Acropolis was struck by lightning, 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 locate 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 had served as a Christian temple for several centuries.

Judging by the traces of shelling on the western pediment alone, 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, and interior spaces that once served as a Christian church and mosque; the roof in the northern part has collapsed. The western pediment turned out to be almost undamaged, and Francesco Morosini wanted 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. Several fragments of fragments were nevertheless taken to Italy, the rest remained on the Acropolis. From this time on, the history of the Parthenon becomes the history of ruins. The destruction of the Parthenon was witnessed by Anna Ocherjelm, lady-in-waiting of the Countess of Königsmarck. 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 a mosque, she found an Arabic manuscript that was transferred by Anna Ocherjelm's brother to the library of the Swedish city of Uppsala. Therefore, after its two-thousand-year history, the Parthenon could no longer be used as a temple, since it was destroyed much more than one can imagine from its current appearance - the result of many years of reconstruction. John Pentland Magaffey, who visited the Parthenon several decades before restoration work, noted:

From a political point of view, the destruction of the Parthenon had minimal consequences. A few months after the victory, the Venetians gave up power over Athens: they did not have enough forces to further defend the city, and the plague epidemic made Athens completely unattractive to invaders. The Turks again established 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, created in 1839.

From destruction to reconstruction

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

The legal side of the matter still remains unclear. The actions of Lord Elgin and his agents were regulated by the Sultan's firman. Whether they contradicted him 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 measure 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 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 for removing sculptures, since in this way the surviving parts of the building were destroyed. The Irish traveler, author of several works on ancient architecture, Edward Dodwell wrote:

Independent Greece

Duveen Hall at the British Museum, which displays the Elgin Marbles

However, official archaeological policy remained unchanged until the 1950s, when a proposal to remove a staircase from a medieval tower at the western end of the Parthenon was abruptly 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. The work was most intensified by the 1894 earthquake, which largely destroyed the temple. The first cycle of work was completed in 1902, its scale was quite modest, and it was carried out under the auspices of a committee of international consultants. Until the 1920s and for a long time after, chief engineer Nikolaos Balanos worked without external control. It was he who began the restoration program, designed for 10 years. It was planned to completely restore the internal walls, strengthen the gables 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 colonnades that connected the east and west facades.

Diagram showing blocks of individual columns from the ancient era, Manolis Korres

Thanks to the Balanos program, the destroyed Parthenon acquired its modern appearance. However, since the 1950s, after his death, his 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 clamps to connect the antique marble blocks. Over time, they rusted and warped, causing the blocks to crack. In the late 1960s, in addition to the problem of Balanos fastenings, the effects of environment: Air pollution and acid rain have damaged the Parthenon sculptures and reliefs. In 1970, a UNESCO report proposed a variety of ways to save the Parthenon, including enclosing the hill under a glass cover. Eventually, in 1975, a committee was established to oversee the preservation of the entire complex of the Acropolis of Athens, and in 1986 work began to dismantle the iron fastenings 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. Some elements of the frieze will be replaced with copies, the originals will be transported to the exhibition of the New Acropolis Museum. The chief engineer of the work, Manolis Korres, considers the first priority to be to patch up the holes left by bullets fired at the Parthenon in 1821 during the Greek Revolution. Restorers must also assess the damage done to the Parthenon strong earthquakes and 1999. As a result of the consultations, it was decided that by the time the restoration work was completed, the remains of the apse from the Christian era could be seen inside the temple, as well as the pedestal of the statue of the goddess Athena Parthenos; Restorers will pay no less attention to the 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

The famous ancient Greek temple, the Parthenon, is located on the famous Acropolis of Athens. This main temple in Ancient Athens is a magnificent monument of ancient architecture. It was built in honor of the patroness of Athens and all of Attica - the goddess Athena.

The construction date of the Parthenon is considered to be 447 BC. It was installed thanks to the found fragments of marble tablets, on which the city authorities presented resolutions and financial reports. Construction lasted 10 years. The temple was consecrated in 438 BC. on the festival of Panathenaia (which translated from Greek means “for all Athenians”), although work on decorating and decorating the temple was carried out until 431 BC.

The initiator of the construction was Pericles, an Athenian statesman, famous commander and reformer. The design and construction of the Parthenon was carried out by the famous ancient Greek architects Ictinus and Kallikrates. The decoration of the temple was made by the greatest sculptor of those times - Phidias. High quality Pentelic marble was used for the construction.

The building was built in the form of a peripterus (a rectangular structure surrounded by columns). The total number of columns is 50 (8 columns on the facades and 17 columns on the sides). The ancient Greeks took into account that straight lines are distorted at a distance, so they resorted to some optical techniques. For example, the columns do not have the same diameter along the entire length; they taper somewhat towards the top, and the corner columns are also inclined towards the center. Thanks to this, the structure seems ideal.

Previously, in the center of the temple there was a statue of Athena Parthenos. The monument was about 12 m high and made of gold and ivory on a wooden base. In one hand the goddess held a statue of Nike, and with the other she leaned on a shield, near which the serpent Erichthonius was curled up. On Athena's head there was a helmet with three large crests (the middle one with the image of a sphinx, the side ones with griffins). The scene of Pandora's birth was carved on the pedestal of the statue. Unfortunately, the statue has not survived to this day and is known from descriptions, images on coins and a few copies.

Over many centuries, the temple was attacked more than once, a significant part of the temple was destroyed, and historical relics were looted. Today, some parts of the masterpieces of ancient sculptural art can be seen in famous museums around the world. The main part of the magnificent works of Phidias was destroyed by people and time.

Restoration work is currently underway; reconstruction plans include maximum recreation of the temple in its original form in ancient times.

The Parthenon, part of the Acropolis of Athens, is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.