Parthenon, Akropolis, Athens, ca. 447-432 B.C.E.
View from the northwest
(Copyright A. Nicgorski, 1998)
The Parthenon, the great Athenian temple to Athena Parthenos (virgin goddess; patroness of Athens), was the centerpiece of the Periklean building program. It is above all a monument that eloquently captures the values and aims of the Athenian state during that brief cultural nova known as the High Classical period, as well as a monument that celebrates the victory of civilization over barbarism while glorifying the idea of Agon (struggle). Its architects were Iktinos and Kallikrates and its chief sculptor was Pheidias. As a building, the Parthenon is most unusual, employing a temple type unparalleled in the rest of Greece: it is "an octastyle peripteral Doric temple with a hexastyle double-prostyle cella." In other words, it is a temple in the Doric order with a ring of columns around the exterior (i.e. peripteral). It has eight columns on each end (i.e. octastyle), rather than the customary six, and so is that much bigger than other Doric temples. And, it has an interior room (i.e. a cella) that has two porches on either end, each with six columns (i.e. hexastyle double-prostyle). The cella was used to house Pheidias' gold and ivory (chryselephantine) cult statue of Athena. The Parthenon is, therefore, the house of a goddess, and it has superhuman proportions. The Parthenon also incorporates some Ionic features, most notably, four Ionic columns in the treasury at the back of the cella and a 524-foot long Ionic frieze that wraps around the top of the external cella walls. This view, from the northwest, is the view that first confronts a visitor to the Akropolis who has just passed through the Propylaia, the monumental gateway to the sanctuary. It is the back of the temple. Greek temples generally faced east, toward the rising sun, and the altar (for animal sacrifices) was located outside in front of the eastern end. The temple, therefore, served as a backdrop to these sacrifices, and it is for this reason that its main decorative interest (columns, sculptures, etc.) is on the exterior. No altar, however, has ever been found in front of the Parthenon. Was it just a really big treasury built for propagandistic reasons? Or did it actually have a religious function?
