Ancient Greece's Acropolis: A High City Fortress

 Greece is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and
Africa. Situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula.
 The mainland and islands of Greece are rocky, with deeply
indented coastline, and rugged mountain ranges with few
substantial forests.
 Greece is considered the cradle of Western civilization, being
the birthplace of democracy, Western philosophy, the Olympic
Games, Western literature, historiography, political science,
major scientific and mathematical principles, and Western
drama.

 From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organized into
various independent city-states, known
as poleis (singular polis), which spanned the
entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea.
 The religion of ancient Greece was a form of nature worship
that grew out of the beliefs of earlier cultures. However,
unlike earlier cultures, man was no longer perceived as
being threatened by nature, but as its sublime product. The
natural elements were personified as gods of completely
human form, and very human behavior.

 The home of the gods was thought to be Olympus, the highest
mountain in Greece. The most important deities were: Zeus,
the supreme god and ruler of the sky; Hera, his wife and
goddess of marriage; Athena, goddess of wisdom; Poseidon,
god of the sea; Demeter, goddess of the harvest; Apollo, god
of the sun, law, healing, plague, reason, music and
poetry; Artemis, goddess of the moon, the hunt and the
wilderness; Aphrodite, goddess of love; Ares, God of
war; Hermes, god of commerce and travelers, Hephaestus,
god of fire and metalwork, and Dionysus, god of wine and fruit-
bearing plants.
 Ancient Greek architecture is best known from its temples,
many of which are found throughout the region, mostly as ruins
but many substantially intact.

 Ancient Greek architecture is distinguished by its highly
formalized characteristics, both of structure and decoration.
 In particular the division of architectural style into three defined
orders: the Doric Order, the Ionic Order and the Corinthian
Order, was to have profound effect on Western architecture of
later periods.

•Doric order, one of the orders of classical
ARCHITECTURE, characterized by a simple and austere
column and capital.
•The doric order was invented in the second half of the
7th century, perhaps in Corinth. Its parts—the simple,
baseless columns, the spreading capitals, and the
triglyph-metope (alternating vertically ridged and plain
blocks) frieze above the columns—constitute
an aesthetic development in stone that incorporated
variants on themes used in earlier wood and brick
construction. Doric remained the favourite order of the
Greek mainland and western colonies for a long time, and
it changed little throughout its history. Early examples,
such as the temple at Thermum, were not wholly of stone
and still used much timber and fired clay.

Unlike the Greek Doric, the Roman Doric order almost
invariably had a base molding that was probably taken from the
Etruscan Doric or Tuscan column. Examples of Roman Doric
are to be found in the Tabularium (78 BC), Rome, and in the
lowest order of the Colosseum (AD 80), where it was used in
conjunction with the arch. The Temple of Hercules at Cori, Italy
(c. 80 BC), is one of the few known Roman Doric temples.

The Etruscans formed the most powerful nation in pre-Roman
Italy. They created the first great civilization on the peninsula,
whose influence on the Romans as well as on present-
day culture is increasingly recognized. Evidence suggests that it
was the Etruscans who taught the Romans the alphabet and
numerals, along with many elements of architecture, art,
religion, and dress. The toga was an Etruscan invention, and
the Etruscan-style Doric column (rather than the Greek version)
became a mainstay of architecture of both the Renaissance and
the later Classical revival. Etruscan influence on the ancient
theatre survives in their word for “masked man,” phersu, which
became persona in Latin and person in English.

● The Ionic dialect appears to have originally spread from the Greek
mainland across the Aegean at the time of the Dorian invasions,
around the 11th century BC.
● The Ionic dialect is generally divided into two major time periods,
Old Ionic (or Old Ionian) and New Ionic (or New Ionian).
● The transition between the two is not clearly defined, but
600 BC is a good approximation.
● Among Greek dialects, Ionic was the fondest of long
vowels and was thus considered especially suited to
solo singing; the more austere, broad-sounding Doric
was preferred in choral singing.

● The Ionic order came from eastern Greece, where its
origins are entwined with the similar but little known
Aeolic order.
● It is distinguished by slender, fluted pillars with a large
base and two opposed volutes (also called scrolls) in the
echinus of the capital.
● The Ionic base has two convex moldings called tori which
are separated by a scotia.
● The Ionic order is also marked by an entasis, a curved
tapering in the column shaft. A column of the ionic
order is nine times its lower diameter.

● The frieze comes without the Doric triglyph and metope.
The frieze sometimes comes with a continuous ornament
such as carved figures instead.
● The major features of the Ionic
order are the volutes of its capital,
which have been the subject of
much theoretical and practical
discourse, based on a brief and
obscure passage in Vitruvius.

● The only tools required to design these features were a straight-edge,
a right angle, string (to establish half-lengths) and a compass.
Ionic order: 1 –
entablature, 2 – column,
3 – cornice, 4 – frieze, 5
– architrave or epistyle,
6 – capital (composed
of abacus and volutes),
7 – shaft, 8 – base, 9 –
stylobate, 10 – krepis.

 The Corinthian order is the most decorative and is usually the
one most modern people like best. Corinthian also
uses entasis to make the shafts look straight.
 The Corinthian capitals have flowers and leaves below a small
scroll.
 The shaft has flutes and the base is like the Ionian.
 Unlike the Doric and Ionian cornices, which are at a slant, the
Corinthian roofs are flat.
 The earliest examples of the Greek Corinthian Order were the
three (or possibly only one) at the end of the naos of the
temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae (c.429–c.400 BC)

Detail of Corinthian Order
Terminology
•Cornice :- A horizontal molded projection
crowning a building or structure, especially the
uppermost member of the entablature of an order,
surmounting the frieze.
•Frieze :- The part of an entablature between the
architrave and the cornice.
•Architrave :- A main beam resting across the
tops of columns, specifically the lower third
entablature.
•Capital :- It is the topmost part of the column
which bears all the load and transfers it into the
shaft
•Shaft :- The principal portion of the column
between the Base and the Capital
•Base :- The lower most part of the column which
discharges all the load into the ground evenly.

The Corinthian Order The Temple of
Zeus Olympia, Athens
Grant-Humphreys Mansion
Denver, Colorado

 An ACROPOLIS is any citadel or complex built on a high hill.
 The name derives from the Greek
• AKRO- High or extreme/extremity or edge
• POLIS- City
 Translated as 'High City’, 'City on the Edge’ or 'City in the Air’.
 The most famous being the Acropolis of Athens, Greece, built in the
5th century BCE.
 The Castle Rock in Edinburgh, Scotland, for example, upon which
looms the famous castle, was fortified as early as 850 BCE and
would be known as an acropolis.
 There were other city-states in ancient Greece boasting an
impressive acropolis (such as Thebes, Corinth and, most notably, at
Kolona on the Island of Aegina).
 The designation 'acropolis’ was also used in Ancient Rome for a
series of buildings set on a higher elevation than the surrounding
geography, in modern times the word 'acropolis’ is synonymous with
the ancient site at Athens.

 The Acropolis of Athens was planned, and construction begun, under
the guidance of the great general and statesman Pericles of Athens.
 Over two years of detailed planning went into the specifications and
contracting the labour for the Parthenon alone, and the first stone
was laid on 28 July 447 BCE, during the Panathenaic festival.
 Wishing to create a lasting monument which would both honour the
goddess Athena (who presided over Athens) and proclaim the glory
of the city to the world.

 Pericles spared no expense in the construction of the Acropolis and,
especially, the Parthenon, hiring the skilled architects Callicrates, Mnesikles,
and Iktinos and the sculptor Phidias to work on the project.
 Hundreds of artisans, metal workers, craftspeople, painters, woodcarvers,
and literally thousands of unskilled laborer's worked on the Acropolis.
 Phidias created a gold and ivory statue of Athena which stood either in the
Parthenon, known as the Temple of Athena Parthenos ('Athena the Virgin’ in
Greek), or in the centre of the Acropolis near the smaller temple of Athena.

 The Acropolis rises 490 feet (150 meters) into the sky above the city of
Athens and has a surface area of approximately 7 acres (3 hectares).
 The site was a natural choice for a fortification and was inhabited at least as
early as the Mycenaean Period in Greece (1900-1100 BCE) if not earlier.
 There was already a complex built on the hill, and a temple to Athena in
progress, which was destroyed by the Persians under Xerxes in 480 BCE
when they sacked Athens.

 The later structures, famous today, were built as a testament to the
resilience of the Athenians following the defeat of Xerxes’ forces at
the Battle of Salamis(480 BCE) and to exemplify the glory of the city.
 The four main buildings in the original plan for the Acropolis were
the Propylaia, the Parthenon, the Erechtheion, and the Temple of
Athena Nike.
 The Propylaia was the ornate entranceway into the temple complex, while
the Parthenon was the central attraction.

 In Greek ,Athena(daughter of Zeus)and Poseidon(son of Zeus ) fought for a city Athens . In
the end ,Athena won by giving the reason that she can bring peace and wealth to Athens .
And so, the citizens of Athens started to worship Athena.
 The Parthenon is a former temple, on the Athenian Acropolis (Athens), Greece dedicated to
the goddess Athena. It was designed by Architects Iktinos , Callicrates
 Construction began in 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was at the peak of its power. It
was completed in 438 BC although decoration of the building continued until 432 BC.
 It is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece, generally considered the
zenith of the Doric order. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points
of Greek art.
 It is considered as a symbol of Ancient Greece, Athenian democracy and western
civilization, and one of the world's greatest cultural monuments.
 To the Athenians who built it, the Parthenon and other Periclean (characteristic of the
Athenian statesman and general Pericles), monuments of the Acropolis, were seen
fundamentally as a celebration of Hellenic victory over the Persian invaders and as a thanks
giving to the gods for that victory.
 During the 5th century BC., the Ancient Persian Empire attacked Athens. Athens won the
battel for twice but lost at the third time .the Persians offence the city and destroy every
thing.

 The Parthenon is a peripteral octastyle Doric temple
with Ionic architectural features
 It stands on a platform or stylobate of three steps. In
common with other Greek temples, it is of post and
lintel construction and is surrounded by columns
("peripteral") carrying an entablature.
 There are eight columns at either end ("octastyle") and
seventeen on the sides. There is a double row of columns
at either end.
 The colonnade surrounds an inner masonry structure,
the cella or naos is the inner chamber of a temple in
classical architecture, which is divided into two
compartments.
 At either end of the building the gable is finished with a
triangular pediment (a triangular shape, placed above the
horizontal structure) originally occupied by sculpted
figures.
 The roof was covered with large overlapping marble tiles
known as imbrices and tegulae.

 The columns are of the Doric order, with simple capitals, fluted shafts and no bases. Above the architrave of the entablature is
a frieze of carved pictorial panels (metopes), separated by formal architectural triglyphs, typical of the Doric order.
 Around the cella and across the lintels of the inner columns runs a continuous sculptured frieze in low relief. This element of the
architecture is Ionic in style rather than Doric.
 Measured at the stylobate, the dimensions of the base of the Parthenon are 69.5 by 30.9 metres (228 by 101 ft). The cella was
29.8 metres long by 19.2 metres wide (97.8 × 63.0 ft).
 On the exterior, the Doric columns measure 1.9 metres (6.2 ft) in diameter and are 10.4 metres (34 ft) high. The corner columns
are slightly larger in diameter.
 The Parthenon had 46 outer columns and 23 inner columns in total, each column containing 20 flutes (concave shaft carved into
the column form.) The roof was covered with large overlapping marble tiles known as imbrices and tegulae.
 It has a slight parabolic upward curvature intended to shed rainwater and reinforce the building against earthquakes.

 The cella of the Parthenon housed the chryselephantine statue of Athena
Parthenos sculpted by Phidias and dedicated in 439 or 438 BC.
 By the year 438, the sculptural decoration of the Doric metopes on
the frieze above the exterior colonnade, and of the Ionic frieze around the upper
portion of the walls of the cella.
 Metopes- The frieze of the Parthenon's entablature
contain ninety-two metopes, fourteen each on the
east and west sides thirty-two each on the north
and south sides. They were carved in high relief,
a practice employed until then only in treasuries
(buildings used to keep votive gifts to the gods).
According to the building records, the metopes
sculptures date to the years 446–440 BC.
 Frieze- The most characteristic feature in the
architecture and decoration of the temple is the
Ionic frieze running around the exterior walls of
the cella, which is the inside structure of the
Parthenon. The bas-relief frieze was carved in situ;
it is dated to 442 BC-438 BC.

 Pediments- Each pediment is composed of 15 wall section panels painstalingly alined to
correspond to the slope of the roof.
 East pediment- East pediment depicts the birth of Athena.
 West pediment- West pediment depicts the conquest between Athena and her uncle
Poseiden.
• Athena Parthenos-
The only piece of sculpture from the Parthenon
known to be from the hand of Phidias was the
statue of Athena housed in the naos. This massive
chryselephantine sculpture is now lost and known
only from copies, vase painting, gems, literary
descriptions and coins.

• Greek temples typically covered
the wooden roof rafts with fired clay
tiles.
•In contrast, the roof of parthenon
was covered with light weight
,thinly-sliced , nearly translucent
marble tiles.
•Along the roof line , parthenon
builders removed the appearance
of ‘fussiness’ and clutter by
positioning decorative roof lined
ornaments(antefixes) between
alternate rows of roof tiles, rather
than the traditional placement at
the end of each row of tiles

The Erechtheion or Erechtheum is an
ancient Greek temple on the north side of
the Acropolis of Athens in Greece which was
dedicated to both Athena and Poseidon.

 The temple as seen today was built between 421 and 406
BCE.
 The entire temple is on a slope, so the west and north sides
are about 3 m (9 ft) lower than the south and east sides.
 It was built entirely of marble from Mount Pentelikon,
with friezes of black limestone.
 It had elaborately carved doorways and windows, and its
columns were ornately decorated.
 On the north side, there is another large porch with six Ionic
columns.
 The porch was built to conceal the giant 15-ft beam needed
to support the southwest corner over the Kekropion.

 The Erectheum was associated with some of the
most ancient and holy relics of the Athenians.
 An olive tree remains on the Western side of the
Erechtheus.
 In front of the main statue, a golden lamp called
"asbestos lychnia" made by the
sculptor Callimachus burned continuously with
its asbestos wick and was refueled once a year.
 The eastern part of the building was dedicated to
Athena Polias, while the western part served the cult
of Poseidon-Erechtheus and held the altars of
Hephaistus and Voutos, brother of Erechtheus.

 In 1800, the east porch together with the overlying section
of the entablature were removed by Lord Elgin in order to
decorate his Scottish mansion, and were later sold to
the British Museum.
 During the Greek War of Independence, the building was
bombarded by the Ottomans and severely damaged, the
ceiling of the north porch was blown up and a large section
of the lateral walls of the cella was dismantled.
 The Erechtheum went through a period of restoration from
1977 to 1988.

 The word Agora
(pronounced 'Ah-go-RAH’)
is Greek for 'open place of
assembly’
 Agora is the area in the city
where free-born citizens
could gather to hear civic
announcements, muster for
military campaigns or
discuss politics.
 Later the Agora defined the
open-air, often tented,
marketplace of a city (as it
still does in Greek).

 The Agora of Athens today is an archaeological site
located beneath the northwest slope of the Acropolis and
open-air markets are still held in that same location in the
modern day.
 Agora of Athens used as an assembly, as a commercial,
or as a residential area for about 5000 years.
 The area has undergone countless building, destruction,
and rebuilding cycles.
 Temple of Hephaestus (which is the best preserved
ancient Greek temples) is situated in north west of Agora
of Athens and left of Stoa of Attalos- a building of the
Hellenistic period that was rebuilt from the ground up
based on its ancient appearance.
 These two buildings are main attraction of Agora of Athens
along with other ruins.

 Prehistory to Iron Age
 It was used as a cemetery during the Mycenaean
and the later Iron Ages.
 Around 50 tholos tombs had been found along with
multiple burials from the period between 1600 and
1100 BCE (the era known as Mycenaean)
 Also 80 graves containing inhumations and
cremations from the Iron Age (1100-700 BCE)
were found during excavation of site.
 Numerous water wells were also there suggesting
it might have been used as residential area later in
that period.

Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic Eras
During this time, the Agora's political, cultural, and
economic influence shaped some of the most important
decisions undertaken in the shaping of what we
commonly call today Western Civilization.
Well structured arguments by the likes of Socrates and
Plato echoed in its streets during this period.
The courts and prisons enforced Athenian laws.
The Prytanes determined political affairs in the Tholos.
Randomly selected Athenian citizens prepared the laws
for the assembly in the Bouleuterion.
The fine temple of Hephaestus was built on the low
knoll of Kolonos Agoraios in 450 BCE as part of the
rebuilding of sacred places initiated by Pericles.

 The early buildings were destroyed by the Persians in
480 BCE, but soon afterward the entire area was
rebuilt with the erection of three Stoas--the Poikile, the
Southern, and the Stoa of Zeus Eleutherios--, the
Tholos, the New Bouleuterion, the Mint, The Dikastiria
(law courts), several fountains, along an assortment of
artisan workshops.
 The fine temple of Hephaestus was built on the low
knoll of Kolonos Agoraios in 450 BCE as part of the
rebuilding of sacred places initiated by Pericles.
 The growth of Agora continued until the 2nd c. BCE
when the the impressive Stoa of Attalos was
dedicated, but eventually, as Athens declined in
importance during the late Hellenistic Era so did the
development of its Agora.

 Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman Times
 The Romans under Sulla destroyed Agora in 86 BCE,
but later constructed impressive buildings until the end
of the 2nd century CE.
 Marcus Agrippa funded the Odeion and probably the
Temple of Ares.
 In 52 CE St. Paul introduced Christianity to Athenians
and debated with Stoic and Epicurean philosophers on
Agora streets.
 In 267 CE Heruls invaded Athens and the Agora
stopped functioning as a public place for a long time,
especially after Alaric, King of the Visigoths plundered it
in 396 CE.
 in 400 CE a large Gymnasium was erected over the
ruins which is further destroyed by raiding Slavs in the
end of the 6th century CE.
 After that, it was deserted for about three hundred
years.
 The Christian church of Agioi Apostoloi and few houses
were built in the Agora around 1000 BCE.

 In the 7th century and until the beginning of 19th
century, the Temple of Hephaestus was converted
into a Christian church dedicated to Ag. Georgios
(St. George).
 After the invasion and sacking of the Agora in
1204 by invaders from the Nafplion it was
abandoned for another four hundred years.
 After 1821 and for the duration of the Greek
revolution, sporadic clashes with the occupying
Ottomans in its grounds brought further damage
to the existing buildings.
 According to Camp II (12), the Temple of
Hephaestus was converted into a Protestant
cemetery where a number of European
philhellenes, who died fighting for Greek
independence, were buried.

 The Modern Era
 With the expulsion of the Turks and the establishment of
the modern Greek state, the area was quickly urbanized
with residential and commercial buildings.
 In 1831 isolated excavations began around new
construction.
 Soon the Greek government to define 121,000 square
meters as a dedicated archaeological site, prompting the
removal of four hundred contemporary buildings and
systematic excavations begin.
 In 1832, the day after King Otto took his oath in it, the
Hephaisteion became the first Greek archaeological
museum.
 Between 1953 and 1956, the Stoa of Attalos was rebuild
according to the ancient plans.
 The archaeological site today includes a large part of the
ancient Agora but much of it still remain buried under the
shops of the Monastiraki area.

Ancient Greece's Acropolis: A High City Fortress

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Ancient Greece's Acropolis: A High City Fortress