In the 400s BC, Athens led an alliance of Greek cities and grew rich. Under the statesman Pericles, Athenians rebuilt the temples on their Acropolis, the rocky hill above the city, which had been burned by a Persian army in 480 BC. The greatest of the new temples was the Parthenon, built from 447 to 432 BC for Athena, the city's goddess.
The architects were Iktinos and Kallikrates; the sculptor Phidias oversaw the sculpture and made the huge statue of Athena that stood inside, covered in gold and ivory (now lost). The temple is Doric, with 8 columns across each end and 17 down each side, built of white marble from Mount Pentelikon nearby. Unusually, it also had a continuous carved frieze, an Ionic feature, running around the inner building.
Key idea
Why it works
Looking closely: The Parthenon. From the city below, the temple sits on the highest point of the rock, a long horizontal of columns and beams against the sky. Up close the order is strict: identical units of column and space repeat all the way around. The marble was once brightly painted on its sculpture and moldings. Its history is long: it became a church, then a mosque, and in 1687, when the Ottomans were using it to store gunpowder during a Venetian siege, a cannonball set off an explosion that blew out its center.
Worked example: Spot the refinement
- They lean slightly inward, toward the center of the building.
- Perfectly vertical columns on a large building can seem to lean outward.
- The inward lean makes the temple look stable and also braces it.
Answer: Slightly inward, to look (and be) more stable.
Common mistake