The Parthenon, raised on the Athenian Acropolis between 447 and 432 BCE, was built without a single straight line: its platform curves upward towards the centre, its columns bulge and lean inward, corrections that make the temple read as perfectly regular from below. Designed under Phidias, Ictinus and Callicrates, it once held a twelve-metre gold-and-ivory statue of Athena and stands at the centre of an unresolved dispute over the sculptures removed by Lord Elgin.
At a glance
The Parthenon occupies the summit of the Acropolis, roughly 156 metres above the city, and is generally reckoned the most copied building in the history of Western architecture, its form echoed in structures from the Lincoln Memorial to the British Museum. It was raised as part of Pericles’ rebuilding of Athens after the Persian Wars, a programme that controversially drew on funds collected for the common defence of the Greek states against Persia.
Every apparently straight surface on the temple is in fact subtly curved. The platform rises very slightly towards the centre, the columns swell almost imperceptibly along their length, and the outer columns lean inward rather than standing vertical, corrections designed to counteract optical illusions and make the building appear regular to the eye. Inside once stood the chryselephantine statue of Athena Parthenos by Phidias, twelve metres tall and built of gold and ivory; it is lost, and known only from ancient written descriptions and small Roman copies.
Key facts
- Built: 447–432 BCE, in roughly fifteen years
- Architects: Ictinus and Callicrates, under the overall direction of the sculptor Phidias
- Design: eight by seventeen Doric columns, with a curved stylobate, entasis and inward-leaning columns
- Statue: the chryselephantine Athena Parthenos, twelve metres tall, now lost
- Sculptures: pediments showing the birth of Athena and her contest with Poseidon; ninety-two metopes depicting mythical battles
- Status: part of the Acropolis of Athens, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987
History
An earlier temple on the same site was burned by the Persians during their sack of Athens in 480 BCE. The Parthenon that stands today replaced it as part of the Periclean building programme of the mid-fifth century BCE. Over the following two millennia the building changed use repeatedly: it served as a temple to Athena, then, from the sixth century CE, as a Byzantine Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary, then as a Catholic cathedral under Frankish rule between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, and finally as a mosque under Ottoman rule from 1458, when a minaret was added.
On 26 September 1687 a Venetian mortar shell struck the building while it was being used by the Ottomans as a powder magazine. The resulting explosion destroyed the roof and much of the interior and scattered a large number of structural blocks across the site. Between 1801 and 1812 Thomas Bruce, seventh Earl of Elgin, removed a substantial portion of the surviving sculptures, which were later sold to the British Museum. Greece has formally requested their return since 1983, and the dispute remains unresolved.
What you see
Visitors reach the Parthenon through the Propylaea, the monumental gateway to the Acropolis designed by Mnesicles. Nearby stands the Erechtheion, whose Porch of the Caryatids is supported by six sculpted female figures in place of columns; five of the originals are now in the Acropolis Museum and the sixth is in the British Museum. From the summit of the Acropolis the view extends over the Ancient Agora, the Kerameikos cemetery, the Panathenaic Stadium and the Saronic Gulf beyond the city.
Practical information
- Tickets: a combined ticket covering the Acropolis, the Ancient Agora, the Roman Agora, the Kerameikos, the Olympieion, Hadrian’s Library and the Lykourgos Theatre is available; check current details through the official Acropolis ticketing channels.
- Best time to visit: the hill is fully exposed and can become very hot in summer, so an early or late visit is more comfortable than the middle of the day.
- Acropolis Museum: built in 2009 to a design by Bernard Tschumi, it stands at the foot of the hill; its top-floor Parthenon Gallery is aligned at the same angle as the temple above, and its ground floor is glazed over an active archaeological excavation.
Getting there
The Acropolis is reached directly by the red Metro Line 2 to Akropoli station, which exits at the foot of the hill, or by Line 1 to Monastiraki followed by a short walk.
Nearby
- Acropolis Museum — a short walk south-east of the Acropolis; houses the original Caryatids and finds from the site.
- Ancient Agora of Athens — a short walk north-west, below the Propylaea; the centre of Athenian civic and democratic life, with the Temple of Hephaestus and the reconstructed Stoa of Attalos, now the Agora Museum.
- Delphi — reached by bus from Athens; site of the Oracle of Apollo, the Tholos of Athena and the bronze Charioteer, often combined with Athens on a short itinerary.
Sources
- Wikipedia, Parthenon
- Wikipedia, Elgin Marbles
- Wikipedia, Phidias
- Wikipedia, Acropolis Museum
- UNESCO, Acropolis, Athens
- Mary Beard, The Parthenon, Harvard University Press, 2004
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