More handpicked essays just for you.
The Parthenon and its influence on today
The Parthenon and its influence on today
Ancient Greece Contributions to Modern Western Times
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Introduction Between 334 and 323 B.C Alexander the Great and his armies conquered and created an empire that covered Greece, Asia Minor, Egypt, Persia and India. The spoils of war included much Greek art, and encouraged the spread of Greek culture. Consequently, these influences are found in the architecture of the Parthenon and the Pantheon, and in other aspects of life at the time. Content Perikles, an Athenian politician, built the Parthenon in 447 B.C. This was a time when Athens was considered in today’s terminology, a superpower, and it was completed in 432 B.C. The Pantheon was completed in 14 A.D during the reign of Augustus Caesar, was built by his deputy Marcus Agrippa, and despite the length of time between the erection of both temples, they each reflect the style of the Greek architectural order. In my opinion, the columns are the strongest features of …show more content…
On the right and left of the entrance are niches that may have held sacred representations of the different gods; the influx of peoples and cultures resulted in their worship and the dedication of this temple, to all the gods of Rome, may have served to unify differences. The Parthenon was built to house the goddess Athena, but was first used as a treasury. There is some symbolism to its location as the acropolis on which the temple is sited, was also the place other temples had been, but the Athenians rebuilt after the Persian wars and the Parthenon was according to this week’s reading from Reed College, one of those structures built ‘to commemorate their victory and in gratitude to heaven’ (n.d, Reed College) Conclusion In my opinion, The Greek Parthenon and the Roman Pantheon have more similar physical attributes than differences, and the Hellenistic period, which lasted almost 3 centuries, forced a meeting of various cultures that in turn impacted the worship of gods and other aspects 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
“The altar in an open precinct preceded the temple as a place of worship and later remained an essential adjunct of the temple, being placed either inside it, or more commonly outside, facing the entrance. Generally it was ...
Rome’s state religion was polytheistic. The average Roman believed in multiple gods such as the “Deities of the Environment.” The best known of all this multitude of god known as the Olymp...
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 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 built during the Golden age in Athens, Greece. The Parthenon is made of mainly columns; there is a 9:4 ratio. It was almost destroyed in war; the ruins that remained were dedicated to Athena. The purpose of the Parthenon was to house the statue of Athena, made of ivory and gold, and also Athena’s treasure. The ratios and the equations used to make the Parthenon were used as a sign of the harmony in the natural world around us. The mathematical harmony in the world shows how we can work with the world rather than destroy to make it what we want. The Parthenon also has no straight lines. The columns of the Parthenon are angled going up getting smaller the higher they get. This was done so that you could get the best lighting
Ancient Greece contributed architecture and government to western civilizations. The Parthenon was built to dedicate the goddess, Athena. This famous temple has columns and pediment that characterize Greek architecture. The Greek architects were concerned with conveying a sense of perfect balance to reflect harmony and order in the universe. The balance of the lines are still used in government buildings today. Pericles' government goals were to strengthen democracy, hold strength in the empire, and to glorify Athens. According to Pericles, he wanted all citizens to have an equal opportunity to serve their country. The citizens were also expected to participated in political decisions regardless of their social position.
Dedicated to Athena Parthenos (Athena the virgin) goddess of war and wisdom. Every god and goddess had worship temples to assure everything went well and nothing bad happened. Greeks gave sacrifices too, such as food, messages, and sacred tiles were all sacrifices they gave. The Parthenon was built in 480 BC but got destroyed while under construction in a battle between the Romans and Greeks. The Parthenon was rebuilt in 447 BC, with the original statue that first stood in 480 BC. ("The Parthenon Frieze." The Parthenon Frieze. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.)
Many of the buildings built in ancient Greece are built to honor gods and goddesses. These structures are massive memorials and are used as places to pray, making offerings, and ask for blessings. There are three different types of columns that were commonly used in Greece; Doric, ionic, and Corinthian columns were the most commonly used. The Doric column was a very basic, they did not have any special decoration at the top, but they are very sturdy columns that were made in sections instead of being one solid piece. The Doric columns were used in mainland Greece in the southern states like Italy and Sicily. The ionic columns were more elegant that the Doric columns. Ionic columns were slimmer and had a scroll like decoration at the tops. These columns are found more in the eastern states and islands of the empire. The Corinthian style columns were the most elaborate, elegant, and least common of the three. The columns were slim and at the top have acanthus leaves elaborately carved in (Acropolis). The columns of Greek times were made out of limestone and marble this allowed for extremely strong structures (Architecture of Ancient). The structures were made to be big and elegant so that they could honor the gods to the best of their abilities. The Parthenon is a well know building that was built upon the acropolis in Athens, Greece. The temple was built for Athena, goddess of wisdom, and it had a statue of Athena that was
Both the Greek and the Roman civilization were polytheistic. Greeks were a very religious people. In Greece each city-state had a patron god or goddess that protected their city. Greeks believed that their Gods appeared in human form but had superhuman strength and ageless beauty. Many of the Gods are depicted on various painted scenes on vases, and stone, terracotta and bronze sculptures by themselves or in mythological scenes interacting with humans and lesser Gods (Realign and Death). Rome’s Gods and Goddesses were from a blend of a variety of cultures including Greece. They too believed the gods were actively involved in their everyday life, so much so that they held sacred meals for their Gods during religious festivals in which the invitations were sent in the God’s name and a place was set for them at the table. The oldest male in the family preformed religious rituals for the whole household to the family God, while the state employed priests and Priestesses to worship at the temple. Though they could not predict the future the priests were the one who could read signs to see if the Gods were happy or angry with the people. In the first century a new religion was born in the Rome that spread all throughout the empire and corners of the world, Christianity (Life in
The Parthenon, with no doubt, is one of the best well-known Greek temples of all time. It is also the dominant temple on the Akropolis. Its construction began in 447 BC and ended in 438 BC; however, it was partly destroyed on September 16, 1687. This massive building measures 13.72 m (45.0 ft.) in height and 69.5 by 30.9 m (228 by 101 ft.) long and was built with white marble. According to Greek historians, two architects, Iktinos and Kallikrates, oversaw the construction.
...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.
During the Hellenistic period, you find the first monument built to celebrate someone who was not a general, god, or ruler. The Monument to Iysicrates is located in Athens, and is the first time a Corthinian column is used on the exterior. There was not a lot of money to spend on new temples but they still managed to build the Temple of Zeus Olympius. There is not much left of it today but it was huge. This temple was decastyle, meaning ten columns across, and the columns were sixty-five feet tall.
Although the Romans copied many aspects Greek culture, they also have made distinct contributions. Greece and Rome have also made tremendous contributions to our civilization with art and architecture. The Greeks invented the column and the Romans took these Greek features with some of their own, such as a strong new concrete concept, dome and arches and created marvelous structures. The Roman and the Greek gods seem to relate to each other. A similarity between the two mythologies is that the symbols and designations of powers are the same in the two. The differences are present in the date of creation. Also, for both mythologies we don’t know where and how were they created because there is more than one story that describes their beginning. The sculptures are more creative in Greek than Roman. Thus, Roman followed some basic ideas of Greek and Greek and Roman share a great distribution in the history of
Just as in math, science, literature, largely philosophy etc., ancient Greeks birthed in the foundation of what comes latter. As already mentioned, the Greek induced Parthenon was a blueprint for modern and present time architecture. Various political purpose structures today are constructed with marble, if not an almost exact material related to marble. Mostly these political structures, even some libraries, use the basis of Greek columns to support the roofs of the structures. To sum up, the metopes and friezes of the structures, like the Parthenon, are profoundly