Where is India located? This ancient country occupies the Hindustan Peninsula and the foothills of the Himalayas. In the Middle Ages, travelers from Europe sought to get to India, since there were many legends about the countless treasures of this country, some of which later

Where is the snake's venom? At present, there are about 2400 various kinds snake. Of these, only 412 are poisonous. But not all of these snakes are dangerous to humans. In some poisonous snakes, the poison is so weak that it can only kill a lizard or a frog. But

What is in the depths of the Earth? Our Earth is called a planet, and it differs from the stars in that it is a dense mass, while the stars are composed of hot gases and glow. Scientists already know a lot about what the planet Earth is like. And what

Where is the "navel of the Earth"? Ancient people always believed that somewhere there is the navel of the Earth, its center, in which all the mysterious forces of nature are concentrated. The Greeks believed that the navel of the Earth was in Delphi, where Apollo struck the bloodthirsty monster - the evil dragon

What is on the seabed? The ocean floor is not flat at all. As on earth, there are valleys and plains, mountains and depressions. Ocean valleys are solid rocks covered with a layer of sand, gravel, clay, silt, formed from the remains of millions of marine

Where is the "navel of the Earth"? Ancient people have always believed that somewhere there is a "navel of the Earth", its center, in which all the mysterious forces of nature are concentrated. The Greeks believed that the "navel of the Earth" was in Delphi, where Apollo struck the bloodthirsty monster - the evil

Parthenon in Athens (Greece) - description, history, location. The exact address, phone, website. Reviews of tourists, photos and videos.

• Tours for May to Greece
• Hot tours to Greece

Previous photo Next photo

The Parthenon has always been considered one of the most significant and monumental buildings of the Acropolis in Athens. The temple was built in honor of the goddess Athena, the patroness of the capital of Greece.

According to ancient myth, the supreme god decided to get rid of his wayward daughter even when she was in the womb, swallowing them whole. But she did not give him rest, and then the Thunderer ordered to remove Athena from his head, already at that moment she was in armor, with a sword and shield in her hands. For such a militant goddess, of course, it was necessary to erect a sufficiently majestic temple.

Construction of the Parthenon began around 447 BC and continued for more than fifteen years. From all over Hellas, excellent marble, the best examples of ebony, ivory and precious metals were brought to the Acropolis.

The main architects of the temple were Kallikrat and Iktin. They were able to realize an extraordinary architectural solution by applying the rule of the golden ratio, where each subsequent part of the whole relates to the previous part in the same way that it relates to the whole. The marble columns of the temple are placed to each other not strictly parallel, but at a certain angle. As a result, the Parthenon acquired a number of architectural features - the main one is that it appears before those looking at its facade from three sides at once.

Parthenon

The sculptural decoration of the Parthenon was carried out by Phidias; under his strict guidance, numerous friezes and sculptural compositions. Directly his authorship belongs to the main attraction of the temple - a thirteen-meter statue of Athena, the manufacture of which took more than a ton of pure gold from the city treasury and the most expensive solid marble. Phidias also distinguished himself by depicting on the shield of the goddess the initiator of the construction - Pericles.

In the Parthenon, everything is thought out to the smallest detail, each detail has its own unique size, shape and purpose. This is one of the main attractions of Greece, which is deservedly considered a masterpiece of world architecture. Unfortunately, now little is left of its former greatness, but even the ruins preserved in its place cause delight among millions of tourists.

The Parthenon is a world-famous ancient temple, which is a monument of ancient architecture. It is located on the territory of the architectural complex of the Acropolis in Athens. The Parthenon Temple was built in honor of the goddess Athena, the patron goddess of the city. To date, the temple is half destroyed, and restoration work is underway.

The construction of the temple was carried out in the period from 447 to 438 BC. The main architect was Kallikrates, but Iktin's design was used in the construction. The decoration and decoration of the Parthenon was carried out in 438 - 431 BC by one of the greatest sculptors of the ancient period - Phidias.

Features of the architecture of the Parthenon.

Ancient Greece did not seek to overwhelm the viewer on a gigantic, superhuman scale. On the contrary, they relied on the features of the visual perception of shapes and sizes by human vision, and therefore tried to bring each part of their structure to a single, harmonious ensemble.

The Parthenon was built in the oldest of the architectural orders. At first glance, the columns of the building are located at an equal distance from each other. In fact, at the ends of the temple, the spans between the columns gradually and imperceptibly increased towards the center, which helped to give harmony to the structure.

The peculiarity of the perception of objects by the human eye is that against the background bright sky objects appear somewhat smaller or thinner. The ancient Greek architects were well aware of this, and used the technique of distorting lines to give the building a more perfect shape.

So, the columns are not strictly vertical, but slightly inclined inward towards the walls of the building, and this makes them look much taller and slimmer. In the arrangement of cornices, steps, ceilings, the imperfection of human vision is everywhere taken into account.

The exterior of the Parthenon is slightly curved, everything is done in such a way that all parts of the building look perfectly correct and harmonious. For the Greeks, the columns personified the feathers of a bird, so the temple buildings were called "peripter" - which means "feathered" in translation.

The colonnade surrounded the temple with an air layer, which made it possible to make a soft, gradual and quite natural transition from an architectural object enclosed by walls to the space of nature. For the construction of the Parthenon, completed in the 5th century BC, the Greeks spared no effort and money.

Relief images.

The main holiday of the Athenians, Panathenaia, was celebrated annually for 5 days (from the 24th to the 29th day) of the month of Hecatombion, which fell on the period of July - August according to the modern calendar. The Panathenaic Games were cult solemn festivities in Ancient Hellas in honor of the goddess Athena.

First read poetic works, were theatrical performances And sports. Then people lined up in a procession and went to bring Athena peplos - a solemn gift, in the role of which clothes made of wool acted. Architectural ensemble The Acropolis was located on a hill, and due to the peculiarities of its construction, it was designed for the leisurely and solemn movement of religious processions.

On marble relief. encircling the Pathenon building, naked youths are depicted preparing and caring for horses, and their comrades, who have already stepped on unsaddled animals. Girls in long robes drive the bulls with strong horns chosen for sacrifice.

The elders march importantly, calm and noble. The figures then come closer, that they move away from each other, or merge into picturesque groups. All movement is directed towards the eastern facade, where a relief is located above the entrance to the temple, completing the entire ensemble. The relief image shows the feast of the twelve most important gods revered in ancient Greece.

The gods in the relief image are presented in their usual, completely human form - that is, they do not exceed the participants in the procession neither in height nor appearance nor the beauty, nor the splendor of the robes. The procession on the relief is perceived by the Greeks as an eternal procession, in which each participant of the festival was included.

Having circled the Parthenon, the procession approached the eastern facade, where in the center of the pediment the main ancient Greek god Zeus solemnly sat on the throne. Near Zeus is depicted a naked male figure with an ax in his hands, slightly leaning back. This figure depicted the god - the blacksmith Hephaestus, who had just cut the skull of the Lord of the Gods, and from it appeared the goddess Athena in armor and in a helmet, with the invariable attribute of wisdom - a snake.

To the right and left of Zeus were other gods. And in the corners of the pediment are depicted the heads of snoring horses. Noble animals entail the chariots of Helios - the god of the Sun and Selene - the god of the Moon. The faces of the gods are calm, but by no means indifferent, they are restrained, but composure stands for restraint. readiness for immediate action.

Statue of Athena.

In the Parthenon, meeting the procession, there was a 12-meter statue of the goddess Athena. The beautiful head of the goddess, with a low, smooth forehead and a rounded chin, was slightly tilted under the weight of the helmet and wavy hair. Her eyes were made of precious stones, and the masters managed to give them an attentive and testing expression.

Goddess in the form beautiful woman is a proud personification of Athens. The sculptor Phidias embodied in her image the desire for the common good, by which the Greeks meant justice. According to ancient mythology, Athena was once the chairman of the highest court of Greece - the Areopagus, and therefore the judicial system was under the auspices of Athena.

Thousands of plates of expensive material - ivory - were so skillfully fitted to the wooden base of Athena that it seemed as if the head and hands of the statue were carved from one piece of noble material. The slightly yellowish ivory hue looked delicate, and the statue's skin looked translucent, in contrast to the goddess's glittering gold robe.

The helmet, hair, and round shield were also made of embossed gold plates, all of which totaled more than one ton. On a golden shield, the battle of the Greeks with the warlike Amazons was engraved in low relief, and in the center of the battle, Phidias depicted himself in the form of an old man who raises a stone.

Peloponnesian War.

In the 5th century BC, the Greeks were very proud people, and arrogantly considered other peoples to be people of a lower order. Gradually, the inhabitants of Athens began to oppose themselves not only to other peoples, but also to the rest of the Greeks living in other city-states throughout the country.

During the Persian wars, the Greeks endured all the hardships of the common struggle, but half a century later, the Athenians began to attribute the laurels of victory only to themselves. Allied policies responded to Athens with ever-increasing suspicion and barely restrained their indignation.

In 431 BC, the Peloponnesian War began between Athens and Sparta for supremacy over the rest of the city-states. Ancient Hellas. At that time, Sparta was ruled by kings. The war was fierce, devastating and bloody, but the forces for a long time were approximately the same, so after 10 years peace was concluded.

One of the most revered goddesses of the ancient Greeks, Pallas Athena, was born quite in an unusual way: Zeus, her father, swallowed her mother, Metis (Wisdom), when she was expecting a child. He did this for one simple reason: after the birth of his daughter, he was predicted the birth of a son who would overthrow the Thunderer from the throne.

But Athena did not want to sink into oblivion - therefore, after a while, an unbearable headache began to torment the Supreme God: her daughter asked to go outside. His head hurt so badly that the Thunderer, unable to endure, ordered Hephaestus to take an ax and hit him on the head with it. He obeyed and cut his head, releasing Athena. Her eyes were full of wisdom, and she was dressed in the clothes of a warrior, held a spear in her hand, and had an iron helmet on her head.

The goddess of wisdom turned out to be a non-idle inhabitant of Olympus: she went down to the people and taught them a lot, giving them knowledge and crafts. She also paid attention to women: she taught them to needlework and weave, took an active part in public affairs - she was the patroness of a just struggle (she taught to solve problems peacefully), she taught to write laws, thus becoming the patroness of many Greek cities. For such a majestic goddess, it was necessary to build a temple, which, according to the descriptions, would have no equal in the whole world.

The Parthenon is located in the capital of Greece, in Athens, in the southern part of the Acropolis, an ancient architectural complex located on a rocky hill at an altitude exceeding 150 meters above sea level. m. You can find the Athenian Acropolis Parthenon at: Dionysiou Areopagitou 15, Athens 117 42, and on geographical map find out its exact location at the following coordinates: 37° 58′ 17″ s. sh., 23° 43′ 36″ in. d.

The Parthenon Temple, dedicated to Athena, began to be built on the territory of the Acropolis around 447 BC. e. instead of the unfinished sanctuary destroyed by the Persians. Building this unique monument architecture was entrusted to the architect Kallikrat, who erected the building according to the project of Iktin.

It took the Hellenes about fifteen years to build the temple, which at that time was a rather short term, given that building and finishing materials were brought from all over Greece. Fortunately, there was enough money: Athens, whose ruler was Pericles, was just experiencing the period of its highest prosperity and was not only cultural capital, but also the political center of Attica.

Kallikrates and Iktin, having considerable funds and opportunities at their disposal, during the construction of the temple were able to implement more than one innovative design solution, as a result of which the architecture of the Parthenon turned out to be unlike any other building of this type.

The main feature of the sanctuary was that the facade of the building from one point was perfectly visible from three sides at once.

This was achieved by setting the columns in relation to each other not parallel, but at an angle. The fact that all the pillars had a different shape also played a role: so that from a distance the central columns seemed more slender and not so thin, all the pillars were given a convex shape (the outermost columns turned out to be the thickest), slightly tilting the corner columns towards the center, the central ones away from it .

Penelian marble mined near the Acropolis was used as the main building material, according to the description, quite interesting material, because initially it has a white color, but after a while under the influence of sunlight, it begins to turn yellow. Therefore, the Parthenon in Athens, at the end of construction work, turned out to be unevenly painted, which gave it an original and interesting view: on the north side, the temple had a gray-ash hue, on the south it turned out to be a golden yellow color.

Another feature of the ancient temple was that when laying the marble blocks, the Greek masters did not use either cement or any other mortar: the builders carefully turned them around the edges and adjusted them to size to each other (at the same time, the inside was not hewn - this saved time and labor force). Larger blocks were located at the base of the building, smaller stones were laid out on them, fastened horizontally with iron staples, which were inserted into special holes and filled with lead. Blocks were connected vertically with iron pins.

Description

Three steps lead to the temple, which was dedicated to Athena and is a rectangular building. The Athenian Acropolis Parthenon, about seventy meters long and a little over thirty wide, was surrounded by ten-meter Doric columns about ten meters high along the perimeter. Along the side facades there were seventeen pillars, at the ends, where the entrances are located, eight each.

Unfortunately, due to the fact that most of the pediments were destroyed (only thirty statues in very poor condition survived), very few descriptions of exactly what the exterior of the Parthenon looked like have survived.

It is known that all the sculptural compositions were created with the direct participation of Phidias, who not only was the chief architect of the entire Acropolis and developed the plan for this architectural complex, but is also known as the author of one of the wonders of the world - the statue of Zeus at Olympia. There is an assumption that the eastern pediment of the Parthenon contained a bas-relief depicting the birth of Pallas Athena, and the western one depicted her dispute with the god of the seas, Poseidon, about who would be the patron of Athens and the whole of Attica.

But the friezes of the temple are well preserved: it is absolutely known that on the eastern side of the Parthenon the struggle of the Lapiths with the centaurs was depicted, on the western side - episodes of the times Trojan War, from the south - the battles of the Amazons with the Greeks. A total of 92 metopes with various high reliefs were installed, most of which have survived. Forty-two plates are kept in the Museum of the Acropolis of Athens, fifteen - in the British.

Parthenon from the inside

In order to get inside the temple, in addition to the outer steps, it was necessary to overcome two more inner ones. The platform in the middle of the temple had a length of 59 meters and a width of 21.7 meters and consisted of three rooms. The largest, central, was surrounded on three sides by 21 columns, which separated it from the two small rooms located on the sides of it. On the inner frieze of the sanctuary, a festive procession from Athens to the Acropolis was depicted, when the virgins carried a gift to Athena.

In the center of the main platform was a statue of Athena Parthenos, made by Phidias. The sculpture dedicated to the goddess was a real masterpiece. The statue of Athena was thirteen meters high and was a proudly standing goddess, with a spear in one hand and a two-meter sculpture of Nike in the other. Pallas was wearing a three-ridged helmet on his head, near his feet was a shield, on which, in addition to scenes from various battles, the initiator of the construction, Pericles, was depicted.

It took Phidias more than a ton of gold to make the sculpture (weapons and clothes were poured out of it); ebony, from which the frame of the statue is made; Athena's face and hands were carved from ivory top quality; gems shining in the eyes of the goddess; the most expensive marble was also used. Unfortunately, the statue has not been preserved: when Christianity became the ruling religion in the country, it was taken to Constantinople, where it was in the 5th century. burned down in a huge fire.

Near the western entrance to the shrine there was an opisthodome - a closed room in the back, where the city archives and the treasury of the maritime union were kept. The room was 19 meters long and 14 meters wide.

The room was called the Parthenon (it was thanks to this room that the temple got its name), which means “house for girls”. In this room, the chosen virgins, priestesses, made peplos (women's sleeveless outerwear sewn from light material, which the Athenians wore over a tunic), which was presented to Athena during a solemn procession that takes place every four years.

Dark days of the Parthenon

The last ruler who favored and cared for this architectural monument was Alexander the Great (he even installed fourteen shields on the eastern pediment and presented the goddess with the armor of three hundred defeated enemies). After his death, dark days came for the temple.

One of the Macedonian rulers, Demetrius I Poliorket, settled here with his mistresses, and the next ruler of Athens, Lacharus, tore off all the gold from the sculpture of the goddess, and the shields of Alexander from the pediments in order to pay off the soldiers. In III Art. BC e in the temple there was a major fire, during which the roof collapsed, fittings, marble cracked, the colonnade was partially destroyed, the doors of the temple, one of the friezes and ceilings were burned.

When the Greeks adopted Christianity, they made a church out of the Parthenon (it happened in the 6th century AD), making appropriate changes to its architecture, and completing the premises necessary for holding Christian rites. The most valuable thing that was in the pagan temple was taken to Constantinople, and the rest was either destroyed or badly damaged (first of all, this applies to the sculptures and bas-reliefs of the building).

In the XV century. Athens was ruled Ottoman Empire, as a result of which the temple was transformed into a mosque. The Turks did not make any special alterations and calmly held services among Christian murals. It was the Turkish period that turned out to be one of the most tragic events in the history of the Parthenon: in 1686, the Venetians shelled the Acropolis and the Parthenon, where the Turks kept gunpowder.

After about seven hundred cores hit the building, the shrine exploded, as a result of which the central part of the Parthenon, all internal columns and rooms were completely destroyed, the roof on the north side collapsed.

After that, the ancient shrine began to be robbed and destroyed by everyone who could: the Athenians used its fragments for domestic needs, and the Europeans were able to take the surviving fragments and statues to their homeland (currently, most of the remains found are either in the Louvre or in the British Museum ).

Restoration

The revival of the Parthenon did not begin until Greece gained independence, in 1832, and two years later the government proclaimed the Parthenon a monument of ancient heritage. As a result of the work carried out fifty years later, there was practically nothing left of the “barbarian presence” on the territory of the Acropolis: absolutely all the buildings that had nothing to do with the ancient complex were demolished, and the Acropolis itself began to be restored according to the surviving descriptions of how the Parthenon looked in ancient greece(Currently, the temple, like the entire Acropolis, is under the protection of UNESCO).

In addition to the fact that the Parthenon was restored to the extent possible, and the original statues were replaced with copies and sent to the museum for storage, the Greek government is actively working to return the exported fragments of the temple to the country. And here there is interesting point: British museum agreed to do so, but on the condition that the Greek government recognizes the museum as their rightful owner. But the Greeks do not agree with such a formulation of the issue, since this would mean that they forgave the theft of the statues two hundred years ago and are actively fighting for the statues to be returned to them without any conditions.

On the famous Athenian Acropolis is the famous ancient Greek temple Parthenon. This main temple in Ancient Athens is a magnificent monument of ancient architecture. It was built in honor of the patroness of Athens and all of Attica - the goddess Athena.

The start date for the construction of the Parthenon is 447 BC. It was installed thanks to the found fragments of marble tablets, on which the city authorities presented resolutions and financial reports. Construction lasted 10 years. The temple was consecrated in 438 BC. at the Panathenaic festival (which in Greek means “for all Athenians”), although the decoration and decoration of the temple was carried out until 431 BC.

The initiator of the construction was Pericles, an Athenian statesman, famous commander and reformer. The design and construction of the Parthenon was carried out by the famous ancient Greek architects Iktin and Kallikrates. The decoration of the temple was done the greatest sculptor those times - Phidiem. High quality Pentelian marble was used for the construction.

The building was built in the form of a periptera (rectangular structure surrounded by columns). Total 50 columns (8 columns on the facades and 17 columns on the sides). The ancient Greeks took into account that straight lines are distorted at a distance, so they resorted to some optical techniques. For example, the columns do not have the same diameter along the entire length, they taper somewhat towards the top, and the corner columns are also inclined towards the center. Thanks to this, the building seems to be perfect.

Earlier in the center of the temple stood a statue of Athena Parthenos. The monument was about 12 m high and made of gold and ivory on a wooden base. In one hand, the goddess held a statue of Nike, and with the other she leaned on a shield, near which the serpent Erichthonius curled up. On the head of Athena was a helmet with three large crests (the middle one with the image of a sphinx, the side ones with griffins). On the pedestal of the statue was carved the scene of the birth of Pandora. Unfortunately, the statue has not survived to this day and is known from descriptions, images on coins and a few copies.

For many centuries, the temple was attacked more than once, a significant part of the temple was destroyed, and historical relics were looted. Today, some parts of the masterpieces of ancient sculptural art can be seen in famous museums peace. The main part of the magnificent works of Phidias was destroyed by people and time.

Currently, restoration work is underway, the reconstruction plans include the maximum reconstruction of the temple in its original form in ancient times.

The Parthenon as part of the Acropolis of Athens is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.