Labyrinth: An online journal published by the Classical Studies Department of the University of Waterloo, Issue 91 (2010)
Abstract
Oddly enough, the Parthenon was not considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. To our modern sensibilities and academic curiosity, this seems like a gross oversight. In our modern view, the Parthenon is often seen as the pinnacle of ancient Greek temple construction, the apex of a tradition that resonates down into our own architectural past.
Constructed between 447 and 432 BCE, the ancient Athenians saw the Parthenon in two ways. In the first place it was a temple to their patron goddess Athena, replacing an older temple that had been destroyed by the Persians. As such, it was there to honour and praise the goddess in her manifestation as a virgin (parthena) deity. Secondly, and of equal importance, was to see this building as a unique manifestation of Athenian culture and power. The care and attention paid to the architecture, with its numerous optical refinements, and to the sculpture that adorns it all reflect the “golden age” of Periklean Athens.
The finest artists of the day were employed, all under the watchful eye of the master Pheidias, to create the multitudinous sculpture that hangs off the building “like an overly decorated wedding cake”, as a friend of mine once put it. Whether it is the symbolic art of the metopes, the battle of gods vs. giants, the Greeks vs. the Amazons, etc. – that all represent the triumph of Greek culture over the barbarous east, especially the defeat of the Persians at the hands of the Athenians, or the more literal art of the Ionic frieze that shows the Athenians celebrating the great festival of Athena, the sculpture of the Parthenon was the physical manifestation of Perikles’ cultural goal of making Athens the envy of the world.
In this, Perikles largely succeeded. We are not the only ones who look back to Classical Athens as a golden age of literature and the arts. Even after Athens had lost its empire and had ceased to be a fully independent city state after the Macedonian conquests, Greeks looked back to the Parthenon as a unique symbol of Greek cultural power. Among the first to consciously look back to fifth century Athens were the Attalids of Pergamon. Having carved out a small kingdom in the third century BCE on what today would be the western coast of Turkey, the Attalids were soon faced with a deadly threat – invasion from the Celtic people known as the Gauls.
The Legacy of the Parthenon
Craig Hardiman
Labyrinth: An online journal published by the Classical Studies Department of the University of Waterloo, Issue 91 (2010)
Abstract
Oddly enough, the Parthenon was not considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. To our modern sensibilities and academic curiosity, this seems like a gross oversight. In our modern view, the Parthenon is often seen as the pinnacle of ancient Greek temple construction, the apex of a tradition that resonates down into our own architectural past.
Constructed between 447 and 432 BCE, the ancient Athenians saw the Parthenon in two ways. In the first place it was a temple to their patron goddess Athena, replacing an older temple that had been destroyed by the Persians. As such, it was there to honour and praise the goddess in her manifestation as a virgin (parthena) deity. Secondly, and of equal importance, was to see this building as a unique manifestation of Athenian culture and power. The care and attention paid to the architecture, with its numerous optical refinements, and to the sculpture that adorns it all reflect the “golden age” of Periklean Athens.
The finest artists of the day were employed, all under the watchful eye of the master Pheidias, to create the multitudinous sculpture that hangs off the building “like an overly decorated wedding cake”, as a friend of mine once put it. Whether it is the symbolic art of the metopes, the battle of gods vs. giants, the Greeks vs. the Amazons, etc. – that all represent the triumph of Greek culture over the barbarous east, especially the defeat of the Persians at the hands of the Athenians, or the more literal art of the Ionic frieze that shows the Athenians celebrating the great festival of Athena, the sculpture of the Parthenon was the physical manifestation of Perikles’ cultural goal of making Athens the envy of the world.
In this, Perikles largely succeeded. We are not the only ones who look back to Classical Athens as a golden age of literature and the arts. Even after Athens had lost its empire and had ceased to be a fully independent city state after the Macedonian conquests, Greeks looked back to the Parthenon as a unique symbol of Greek cultural power. Among the first to consciously look back to fifth century Athens were the Attalids of Pergamon. Having carved out a small kingdom in the third century BCE on what today would be the western coast of Turkey, the Attalids were soon faced with a deadly threat – invasion from the Celtic people known as the Gauls.
Click here to read this article from the University of Waterloo
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