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Pericles significance
Parthenon architecture
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Parthenon
In ancient Greece, after the Persians invaded Athens in 490BCE, the Athenian Acropolis lay in a state of total destruction. The Acropolis, meaning “high city”, was the high point of the city of Athens, and consisted of a large complex of buildings, temples, theatres, and other components of the city of Athens. Pericles, the new Athenian leader, and founder of Athenian democracy, decided to rebuild the Acropolis to be better and more grand than ever. In the center of the Acropolis, at the highest point, he began the building of a new temple to the goddess Athena Parthenos, the Parthenon, to replace the original Parthenon that was destroyed by the Persians before completion. Between 447 and 438 BCE, the new Parthenon became the most
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The amazing feat of building the Parthenon only took eleven years, with work on the sculptures continuing a few years longer. It stands on the foundation of the original Parthenon, on which building was started in 490BCE, but which was destroyed by the Persians before its completion. Surprisingly, there are very few straight structural elements and right angles in the entire construction, yet every piece was shaped to the 10th of a millimeter. It is in fact designed to be an optical illusion, having very few straight lines or right angles, yet it looks perfectly straight, and every angle appears to be a perfect right angle. The columns are angled in slightly, so that if they were one mile tall, they would meet in the middle of the Parthenon. The marble floor of the Parthenon is slightly curved, which is part of the optical illusion, but also possibly served the purpose of letting rain water run off the …show more content…
Most likely the name Parthenon was derived from the word Parthenos, which means virgin. Pericles also hired the sculptor Pheidias to sculpt a giant statue of the goddess Athena Parthenos, to be inside the Parthenon. The statue of Athena Parthenos was a 40 foot tall statue, made of ivory, with her clothes made from solid gold. In her hand, she holds a statue of Nike, the goddess of victory. In her other hand, she holds a spear, and at her feet is a shield and near the spear is a serpent. On her breast is an ivory head of Medusa. On the middle of her helmet is a sphinx, and on the sides, griffins. On her pedastal are images of the birth of Pandora.
One of the many other reasons the Parthenon was built is because the Athenians were proud that they had defeated the Persians, making the Persian’s attempt to take over Greece futile. They wanted to make their city as beautiful and majestic as possible, and show off how wealthy and powerful they were. Also, the Parthenon was a gift to Athena herself, and was placed in the high position of the Acropolis, symbolizing the high position of
After learning more about these two buildings, I discovered that the Romans were “inspired” by Greek architecture. The columns used in both are common to Greek architecture. Based on the photos that were viewed from online searches, it appears that the Romans were more ornate during the construction of their temple which can be seen by their choice of building materials, such as marble. The Parthenon seems to have had more simple lines. It was rectangular in shape as opposed to the Pantheon that was rounded in many areas, particularly where the sculptures of the gods were. This was to lend to the idea that they were on the same level and that no god was given more preferential treatment since the Pantheon was to honor all of them equally. The structures resemble one another in that they both have those ominous columns as a way to emphasize the dominion the gods had over the
At the end of the Persian wars, Athens materialized along with Sparta as the two leading powers in the Greek world. As Athens grew in confidence, their promotion of ‘Athenianism’, was a bid to place Athens as leader of its empire. This growing confidence is demonstrated in the building programme during the 440’s and 430’s B.C.E, such as the Parthenon. As Robson states, ‘[t]he Parthenon and its sculptures can certainly be viewed as celebrating Athens’ spiritual life, military prowess, and cultural pre-eminence’ (Robson, ECW, p. 99). This can be seen as architectural evidence of mounting self-belief, for example, the south freeze of the Parthenon; to modern day interpretation undoubtedly depicts the battle at Marathon. Seen as a promotion of Athenian military ascendancy and coupled with the attitude of superiority over other Greek states, this combined campaign instigated tension with Sparta, inspiring the first Peloponnesian war.
Religious Beliefs in Aeschylus' Oresteia, Homer’s Iliad, and Sophocles’ Electra. The final and definitive defeat of the Persian army at the battle of Plataea represented the end of an age-long threat to Athens. But the victory was also a miracle, as all the odds were against the Athenians at the onset of the war. While Pericles took charge of Athens after the war and started the advance of democracy, religion also thrived. The rebuilding of the Acropolis and the construction of the Parthenon and its great statue of Athene under Pericles' rule signified the height of religious belief among Athenians.
The Parthenon is important because of the secrets it holds and it was their beliefs. Also it was their icon. It affect our society because we have a lot buildings that resembles it. The Acropolis is important because of the temples they had and it affect our society because we have place with temples and where we store body.
The Parthenon is an amazing Greek temple that was built 2,500 years ago. Even the architects of today have numerous questions about how it was constructed and how it has held up through its eventful past. The Parthenon's detailed appearance is not its only meaningful quality. The Parthenon was constructed as a temple to the goddess, Athena, and as an icon of the Greek people themselves. The Parthenon represents the Greek ideals of humanism, idealism, and rationalism.
The Greeks believed the deities provided the city protection and allowed them to be successful in their endeavors while in time of war. Phidias, a master bronze worker, was commissioned to create the sculpture of Athena Parthenos, the goddess of wisdom to show tribute to the gods by creating a large scale sculpture in Acropolis. The Acropolis was the most important site in the city of Athens, and was well recognized as the hilltop of protection. It is also the most significant reference point of ancient Greek culture as well as the symbol of the city of Athens. Some of the greatest architectural masterpieces of the period were erected on its ground.
Brief History Though the Persian wars were possibly over before the Parthenon was being considered, the wars played a vital role for Athens and her temples. During the wars, the armies of Persia attacked Athens and sacked the city leaving much of it in ruins, including the new temple in honour of Athene atop the Acropolis that was under construction. During the struggle, many of the states in Greece joined together to fight against the Persians and decided that they should not rebuild any of the temples that had been destroyed by the Persians to have an eternal memory of the devastation they caused and the lack of respect they have for religion. The once impressive city of Athens was reduced to dust, with small basic houses and nothing really imposing.
The foundation of Greek culture was balance, reason, and harmony which can be unveiled in their art. As the civilization heavily revolved around religion, massive temples were built to serve the Gods. Greeks believed in many Gods, meaning they had polytheistic views . This notion of polytheism passed down to the Romans who adopted nearly the exact same deities and built similar architecture as well. One of the most famous buildings of worship was the Greek Parthenon built around 447-432 B.C.E, worshipping the goddess Athena . While building these brilliant pieces of art, concepts regarding laws and the natural world from philosophers were being incorporated in the structure. Pillars were often built in temples and various buildings in both Greek and Roman cultures. Doric, ionic, and Corinthian stand as the main three pillars built; each of them becomes increasingly more elaborate by order. For example, the Corinthian was the most intricate. Romans quickly developed a taste for this form of architecture and incorporated into theirs later on. The Romans however were very inventive, and began to develop the arch, vault and dome to add to what they emulated from the Greeks. Using these elements the Romans built what is known as the Coliseum, built over a 10 year span from around 70 AD to 80 AD. The Coliseum was said to hold 50,000 spectators and was used for entertainment
A diversity of skilled laborers was employed to build a framework required to raise stones required to make ceramic tiles for rooftops. Specialists were utilized to measure the fittings to fortify the block of stones to form the essential paraphernalia for modeled scenes. Athenian sculptors discretely etch sculptures for the roof and columns of the temple’s structures. Columns are made of limestone and marble as a foundation to support the ceilings. For example, the Parthenon, made in 447 B.C. to 432 B.C. in Greece, representation of a municipal designed by architects that took interest in each part of the development. The Greek establishments have been fundamental to the general architectural exquisite components regularly that utilizes of reconstructing a whole building. Despite the fact that the Ancient Greeks constructed numerous buildings, the temple best represents the points and techniques for the designs that the Greeks signify. The temple ordinarily fused on at least one or more sections of columns encompassing each of the four sides. The perpendicular formation of the temple adjusted to a request to alter the course of structures bound together by the standards of symmetry and
Possibly one of the greatest testaments to the Greeks passion for their gods is the Acropolis and Parthenon in Athens, Greece. “. . . temple after temple, each more gorgeous and more perfect than the one before, rose all over the Greek main land, to reach a final climax in the Athenian Parthenon . . .” (Hamlin 124). Here Hamlin explains the greatness of what was achieved in Athens at the Acropolis and how nothing beyond that point could compare.
The Parthenon was built to honor the goddess of wisdom, Athena. When structures are built using straight lines they tend to look slightly distorted due to the science of optics. The architects Iktos and Kallikretes were skilled architects of their time and they used illusory tactics to create an ideal aesthetic for The Parthenon. The architects compensated for these visual illusions by counteracting them in their design. The end result is a structure that is not composed of straight lines, but when viewed by the human eye, looks perfectly straight. Plato would have mentioned one of his famous dictums, ?That which changes least is most real.? He would have viewed Iktos and Kallikretes designs as less real than other designs that do not u...
The Parthenon was the focus point, it was supposed to drawn in the most people. To this day the Parthenon draws in a large amount of people from all over the world. The Parthenon was built between 447-432 BCE. It costs the city 469 talents. The Parthenon is mostly Doric columns with a few ionic to draw attention to certain areas. The back room of the Parthenon was said to house Athena’s treasure while the front room holds the statue of Athena. The Parthenon was built so anyone that walks through the arch way will be able to see all angles and inside the Parthenon to see the statues and the details of the
The Parthenon was an amazing and important temple. Dedicated to Athena, the goddess of war and wisdom, it was a very important temple to the Greeks. Greeks worshiped all of their gods by building temples for them and giving sacrifices. Most of the sacrifices were sacred tiles designed especially for the gods, not many were human.
...ory of the contest between Athena and Poseidon to claim Athens, in which Athena won and thus being worshipped by people (Hyginus, pp. 264). Therefore, the Parthenon was built to dedicate to Athena, their virgin patron.
interior of the Parthenon. "The statue seems to have been over 12 meters tall, nearly 40