The Parthenon: A Symbol Of Democracy

The Parthenon at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, built between 447 BCE and 432 BCE to honor the Greek goddess Athena. The Parthenon located in the acropolis is located on the top of a big hill. This could be a tactic to protect the structure from invaders, however, this is also symbolic of wanting to be closer to the gods, in this case closer to Athena. This great architectural piece made of huge slabs of marble creates a sense of grandness only the gods deserved. The architect included relief sculpture of larger than

The Acropolis is a large worship complex built on a mountain overlooking the city of Athens. Both the residents of the city and those traveling to Athens would have been able to see it at all points throughout the day. Inside the structure lies the Parthenon, the main temple, dedicated to the goddess Athena, who was the guardian of the city of Athens. The location itself was a holy site as it was believed to be the place where Athena won against Poseidon and earned her patronage. Poseidon gave the Greeks a salt well where as Athena gave them a olive branch, and as her gift was deemed better, they erected the Parthenon in her name. There is also a smaller temple dedicated to Poseidon in the Acropolis. The olive branch given to them was said to be within the Parthenon and the salt well was said to be in the temple to Poseidon. Finally, the Parthenon is covered in the carved stories of the victories of both Athens and Athena herself. These re-introduced their beliefs and glorified Athena for her helping of

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 pediments sit 16 metres off the ground and on each pediment there is a story. On the West pediment the contest between Athena and Poseidon for Patronage of Athens is being depicted.They are in action fighting and King Erectheus is judging the contest. This is an important myth as it shows the founding of Athens and is about Athen who won and whom the temple is dedicated to. The pediment is symmetrically perfect and balanced. The East pediment depicts the gods resting after the birth of Athena. The birth of Athena is seen as the birth of light and reason. This myth is important to Athenians as it shows the birth of their patron goddess.

The Parthenon is located on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece; is a former temple which was dedicated to Greek goddess Athena, whom the Athens considered their leader. According to the British Museum (2015), The Parthenon was built nearly 2500 years ago and has a long and complex history. After thousands of years it became a church of the Virgin Mary of the Athenians, then a mosque and then finally resulted in a archaeological ruin. After the result of a ruin, the buildings were reformed in which various sculptures were damaged. During the 1800’s after the Parthenon being damaged, the Elgin marbles (Elgin) a part of the remaining sculpture, was removed and given to a British museum. For hundreds of years there has been a question if the British museum should return the Elgin marbles back to the Athenians or not. I believe that that the safest and most beneficial place for the Elgin marbles is the British museum, therefore the British should not return the marble to the Athenians.

One of the most well-known components of the Parthenon are the enormously beautiful and important marble sculptures that were placed in the pediment of the monument. These marbles are shrouded in controversy as to whom they belong: Greece or Britain. These marble sculptures were removed between 1801 and 1812 in order to protect them from possible destruction caused by the war between the Grecians and the Venetians, taken to Britain for refuge by the Earl of Elgin, and sold to the British Museum to be displayed. John Henry Merryman discusses his view on the issue of the ownership of marbles by presenting two main points and the validity of both sides. One aspect of his examination revolves around the legality of the removal of these sculptures.

The Athenians began the construction of The Parthenon in 447 BCE. It was eventually burned down by the Persians in 480 BCE, while still under construction. It was known to be dedicated to the goddess Athena, and after its destruction, much of its ruins were made use of in the building of the fortifications at the Acropolis. The temple remains a partial mystery to us, and whether or not it was still under construction when it was destroyed has been argued. Its main foundations were made of limestone, and the columns of Pentelic marble. The main function of the temple was to hold a statue of Athena made by Pheidias out of gold and ivory.

The Athenian Greeks at the height of their power built a temple called the Parthenon which was a monument to their core values of perfectionism, humanism, and rationalism. It is important to understand that the human eye has imperfections which deceive the mind, so one can understand the unique steps that were taken to achieve the illusion of perfection to the human eye. The Greeks loved perfection, and as seen in the Parthenon, the Greek architects purposely made the Parthenon imperfect to account for the imperfections in the human eye. This was done so that when one views the Parthenon with the naked eye, it appears to be perfectly symmetrical, straight, and proportional. The entire Parthenon does not have a single right angle. An example of the Greeks compensating for the imperfections of the human eye is seen in the base of the Parthenon, which from a picture or in real life looks perfectly straight, but in reality it is actually curved slightly upward. It is curved because the Greeks knew that if you have a perfectly flat base for a building, it appears curved to the human eye. To account for that, the Greeks made it so that the base was already curved. The Greeks also curved the columns of the Parthenon inward, because if the columns were straight, it would appear to be curving outward. Again, the Greeks knew about how the human eye deceives the mind, and decided that they must trick the eye to please the mind. This was all done because the Greeks strived for

Democracy was a revolutionary idea that moved the shaping of the law into the hands of many rather than a select few, or, in some cases, one tyrant or monarch. Politeia, which refers to both the literal city-states of Ancient Greece and the metaphorical and philosophical idea of citizens’ rights as expressed by Plato and other philosophers of the time, takes that idea of “power to the people” to a higher, more sacred level. Political participation was woven into the daily life of an Athenian citizen: emphasis was placed on the common good rather than the individual in a “radical egalitarianism, not in circumstances, but in responsibility”-- responsibility for the people (at least the people who were eligible) to shape the law around maintaining Athens’ values of valor, intellectualism, and patriotism. Civic engagement was an important expression of one’s identity and devotion to Greek society, and this paper will explore how that sacred dedication to civic engagement could have been a primary motivation in building--and creating the visuals of-- the Parthenon.

“It is difficult to imagine Greece without this spectacular structure,” stated by author De Medeiros. The Parthenon is a beautiful Greek structure that is filled with a story to tell. It was built to replace an older one that had been destroyed by the Persians and the Athenian leaders wanted to show the

The Parthenon, a temple of the Doric order, is one of the greatest artistic accomplishments of the fifth century. The Parthenon is viewed without mythological reference and stands far outside the normal Greek temple decoration, which is commonly known to derive its subject matter from the mythical past. (Connelly 53) The Parthenon is different from most other Grecian art of the fifth century and is truly beautiful. One of the greatest reasons the Parthenon is set apart as a great feat in Grecian art is due to its different stylization and the fact that the entire temple is built from the finest white marble throughout the entire piece, including the roof. (Stockstad) The Parthenon is a gorgeous testament to the "Athenian citizenry participating in their annual

To what extent were propaganda and national pride as important as religion in the design, construction and decoration of the Parthenon? Although the decision to build the Parthenon was highly controversial in Athens because of the politics that surrounded it, was the Parthenon erected simply as sign of dedication to the gods? Or was it to fuel the dwindling pride of the Athenian citizens? By studying the structure, decoration and design, I hope to come to a conclusion as to whether the Parthenon was simply physical evidence of Athenian pride or whether it was pride in religion.

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

Besides being the Athenians greatest architectural achievement, the Parthenon serves a basic purpose. The Parthenon is a temple devoted to Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and guardian of the city- state of Athens that got its name from her. The temple marked the zenith of ancient

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