Athenian Architecture Research Paper

Building the Parthenon was a greater feat than they ever would have known. Work on the Parthenon began in 477 BC. A much smaller shrine already stood on this site, one to which we can attribute various pieces of surviving decorative material--lions and snakes, a cornice incised with flying birds, and a blue-bearded trinity that may conceivably represent Cecrops, Erechtheus, and Poseidon. If such an edifice in fact existed, it was torn down to make way for a huge limestone platform, roughly 252 by 103 feet in size, that was built as a base for the new temple. The slope of the Acropolis was such that while on the north side the foundations rested directly on bedrocks, the southeast corner needed to be built up with no

The Greeks finished building an exquisite temple to their beloved goddess, Athena in the year 432 BCE. (Sayre 60). The name of this enriched, unique temple was the Parthenon. The Parthenon took the Greeks approximately fifteen years to complete and as Pericles stated, it was built to give gratitude to their goddess Athena for the salvation of their city, Athens and all of Greece in the Persian Wars (Sayre 60). It was also a symbol of their power and superiority among other cultures. It was something the Greeks took great pride in and recognized it to a great extent. The Parthenon was built on the highest point of the city of Athens to look over the precious Greek city. On the exterior walls of the Parthenon there was beautiful artwork that

Athens was a city-state with the world’s first democracy. The people wanted to rule themselves and not have a king or queen. In Athens citizens participated in decision making. Athens was located on a rocky hill in eastern Greece. During the time of the ancient Greeks it was the center of power, art, science, and philosophy in the world. Athens is one of the oldest cities in the world. The city of ancient Athens reached its peak during the leadership of Pericles from 461 to 429 BC, called the Age of Pericles. During this time, Pericles promoted democracy, the arts, and literature. He also built many of the city’s great structures, including rebuilding much of the Acropolis and building the Parthenon.

The Parthenon is a classical style of ancient Greek architecture and the most important building in the city and it self replaced on older temple of Athena, which called Pre-Parthenon. It was built and completed in 438 B.C buy Iktinos and Kallikrates, after that destroyed by Persian in 480 B.C. The Temple all made form marble and its 20 miles far from Athens. Later

The Parthenon is created as an optical illusion. It appears to consist of straight lines but in fact, almost every surface is built to lean and curved from its columns to its foundations. It gives a unique insight into the best that ancient Greek sculptors could produce at the best period of Greek art. The Parthenon is a Doric peripteral temple; it consists of a rectangular floor plan with a series of low steps, and a colonnade of Doric columns. The three main types of columns used in Greek temples and other public buildings are Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. Many of the sculpture

the acropolis, the central hill of the Greek city –state which was used for defensive and religious purposes, then in seventeen years, Ictinus and Callicrates completed the decorations of the Parthenon (Harper OL). The Parthenon is made entirely of a marble from Mount Pentelicus called Pentelic marble and stands approximately eighteen meters high. The selections made for the material of the Parthenon were chosen with many points considered to ensure a strong and sturdy future.

Many things were named after the Greek gods. For an example take Athens, the capital of Greece. Athens was named after Athena the goddess of wisdom. When the people of Athens wanted a god to protect their city they both Poseidon and Athena wanted the job. So they each gave one gift to convince the Athenians they were the better one. Poseidon gave them a saltwater spring and Athena gave them an olive tree. The water from the salt water spring was undrinkable so the Athenians chose Athena as their protector.

The Parthenon is an Ancient Greek building sitting on the acropolis of Athens. To compare it to the Pantheon is quite a feat, but they don’t have as many similarities as one would imagine. The Parthenon of Ancient Greece serves as a temple, but it also had another purpose. The Pantheon served as a monument and temple, to dedicate not only to the emperor of Rome but the gods and the Christian god later on.

The Acropolis is a rock formation reaching 400ft above ground level and is about 7 acres big. It clearly highlights the highest level of human creativity and was a source of pride for Athenians, not just because it was the biggest building of its age but because it represented power and wealth. These temples were not meant to be meeting places but homes for the communities god or goddess and a place to keep offerings. The Greek government owned the Parthenon, but it was commissioned by Pericles the great Greek statesman. The architects working on this grand design were called Iktinos and Kalilkrates two famous architects and the sculptor was Phidias who built the Athena Parthenos.

The most well known of the Acropolis’ monuments is the Parthenon. Dedicated to Athena, the patron goddess of Athens, it is the largest temple on the Acropolis. Construction on it was completed in 432 BC. Incredibly detailed stonework provided both function and adornment is a hallmark of the building. The temple has served several purposes over time, having been used as a treasury, Christian church, mosque, and now archaeological site.

The city of Athens is the capital city of Greece and is also Greece’s largest city. The city is full of rich history dating back to 3000 B.C and still stands to this very day. Athens is full of amazing archeological landmarks, beautiful views of the mountains and oceans. Many people visit Athens or Greece in general for the history that it holds. Athens, with many of the historical sites still standing, shows the ability of the ancient athenian people to make long lasting builds to stand against time itself.

The Parthenon served as a temple and also as a treasury as it was a replacement of an older temple for Athena that was destroyed during a Persian invasion. The new Parthenon was made of Doric columns supported by ionic columns and had a rectangular shape and floor made completely of marble with a limestone base. Being considered as the birth place of democracy this temple design is copied a lot in government buildings of western countries nowadays. Although the main function known by many of the Parthenon was as a cult place to Athena, it had also the function of a treasury. The statue of Athena that was inside was once referred by Pericles as a gold reserve because it had gold pieces in it that were removable.

Athens was located on the Western Europe specifically it’s one of the city on Greece. It was the first birth of democracy and also it was the home of education, that’s included Philosophy, Artists and so many scientists were appeared in Athens. In this city there were so many government came out, but none of them didn’t satisfy what the Athenian people wanted, except one king was called Pericles. He was the first leader who proposed democracy and made Athens glorious by different directions, those were by their military, economy and by other things. The important thing why we learned about Athenian history is their astonishing change in the Western Europe . That means they were super smart in Architecture, artist and so many

The Parthenon had sculptured panels along its exterior above the columns (called metopes) and sculptures in the triangular spaces underneath the roof line at both ends of the building (called pediments) and a unique sculptural feature the Ionic frieze which was around the top of the walls (wikipedia, 2006). The Parthenon's frieze depicted the Athenian religious ritual called the Panathenaic festival, in which a procession of citizens paraded to the Acropolis to present to Athena a new robe woven by specially selected Athenian girls, which was held every 4 years. The frieze showed men riding spirited horses, women walking along carrying sacred implements, and the gods gathering together at the head of the parade to observe their human worshippers (‘Parthenon', 2006). This showed how over-confident the spirit of the Athenians where, because they dared put themselves where ordinarily only gods and heroes might be found.

The Parthenon was built to express greatness of their influential society and honor the goddess Athena. The Golden Age of Athens is some times referred to as the Age of Pericles, one of the greatest leaders seen throughout our history.