Greek Parthenon
The Greek Parthenon is an ancient temple which was built for the Greek goddess Athena. Athena was the Goddess of the City, Education, Science, and War. She was also a virgin goddess. Her parents were her father, Zeus, and her mother was Metis. It was believed that Athena was her father’s favorite daughter. The Parthenon temple was built in the 5th century B. C. On the Acropolis of Athens. It is the most important building from the Classical Greece period that has managed to survive. This is also considered by some to be the beginning of the Doric order. The decorative columns on the Temple are considered to be the Doric style. There are three styles of columns in Greek Architecture and the Doric style was the simplest of them all. The decorative sculptures in the Temple are said to be some of the high points of Greek art. The Parthenon is one of the world’s greatest cultural monuments of all time. The Parthenon is currently being restored and reconstructed.
The Parthenon, along with the Propylaia, the Erechtheion, and the Temple of Athena Nike, are all the most important buildings visible on the Acropolis in Athens today and they were all built in the mid 5th century. The Athenian Acropolis became the seat of the Delian League and Athens was the greatest cultural center of it’s era. There are some of the account records which survived through time and these records show that the biggest expense of building the Parthenon was the moving of the stone from Mount Pentelicus to Athens which was about a 16 kilometer distance to travel. The Parthenon is considered to be the finest temple built of them all, even though the Temple of Hephaestus is more complete after all of these years.
It was said that in early ancient Greece, the buildings were built from wood, unbaked bricks, or clay, limestone and marble. The unbaked bricks and the wood was used in the common buildings. The wood was used for roof beams and supports. In the centuries which followed, the buildings became more and more made of limestone and less of wood. The earlier columns on the buildings were made from wood but they were later replaced with stone or marble columns. The Parthenon had delicate curves, tapered walls, and the slight bulge in the columns and this is what gave it the distinction it so justly deserved. The Parthenon measures 228 by 101.4 feet. The columns which hold up the roof are 6.2 feet in diameter by 34.1 feet high. There were both columns inside and outside of the Parthenon. The structure had Doric columns and Ionic architectural features. Ionic style was a more decorative style of columns used. The Ionic style was a scroll design which was one of the designs used in many buildings in that era.
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