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Parthenon - Athens, Greece (448 – 432 BC)
When the Greeks, recovering from their devastating war with Persia, rebuilt their ravaged city of Athens, they erected on sanctuary, a great temple dedicated to its patron goddess, Athena. In its cella (shrine) they placed a 40-ft (12-m) image of the goddess, that had been fashioned from gold and ivory by the great sculptor Phidias. The Parthenon, the name by which the temple was known, was built on the site of an earlier temple, destroyed by the Persians in 480 BC. The new temple was designed by two architects, Iktinos and Kallikrates, and was built in a particularly fine, white Pentelic marble.
The Parthenon is an essentially Doric temple, with eight columns across the gable end, rather than the more usual six, and 17 down the sides. Here, the device known as entasis has also been used, far more subtly than in the temples at Paestum, to import a certain quiet serenity. The Ionic order appears in the superb frieze, designed by Phidias and set around the outside of the Parthenon’s cella. Its size and brilliant whiteness ensured that the Parthenon, built on the highest point of the Acropolis and as near perfect a piece of architecture as the world is ever likely to see, would be visible from all parts of Periklean Athens.
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The Parthenon, the temple dedicated to Athena the Virgin, is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece, generally considered to be the Culmination of the development of the Doric order. Work began on the Parthenon, when Athens was at the height of its power. It also symbolized the power and influence of Perikles, who presided over Athens’ Golden Age and championed the Parthenon’s construction.
Today, still magnificent, though much battered by time, looters and war, it dominates the modern city of Athens. All that is missing are substantial sections of Phidias’s frieze, which were rescued by Lord Elgin from certain destruction in the early 19th century. The marbles were taken to England, where they lie in the British Museum in London.
Erechtheion - Athens, Greece (421-407 BC)
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As well as the Parthenon, two other important temples were built on the Acropolis in Athens during the great rebuilding undertaken by Perikles after the Persian Wars. One is the small, simple Temple of Athena Nike (Athena Victorious), the other is the more complex Erechtheion, design in the Ionian order, possibly by Mnesicles, who also designed the monumental gateway to the Acropolis.
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The marble Erechtheion takes its name from the legendary Athenian hero, Erectheus, to whom the temple was dedicated, along with his brother Butes and the gods Athena, Poseidon and Hephaestos. Part of the complexity of the Erechtheion’s layout is due to the need to honor so many divinities but its sloping site, to the north of the Parthenon, played an important part in its two-level design.
The temple was built with three facades or porticoes, all at different levels, located on its east, north and south sides. The eastern portico, having been given slender Ionic columns, led into Athena’s sanctuary, and the northern portico, longer and also with Ionic columns, led to Poseidon’s shrine. It is the portico on the south side, also connected with Athena, that is the most instantly recognizable of the Erechtheion’s three porticoes, for this is the one with the splendid porch supported by six caryatid maidens. The quality of their sculpture is superb, their poses being a marvellous combination of grace and strength.
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