The Athenian Acropolis

The Re-Building of the Athenian
Acropolis

The 5th century was the golden age of Athens

Under the leadership of the elected statesman Pericles, the city became the political, economic,
and cultural leader of Greece
Kresilas, Pericles, Roman marble herm copy of a bronze
original c. 429 BCE

Amongst its greatest accomplishments was the rebuilding of the Athenian acropolis, which had
been destroyed during the Persian wars

Although the city’s citizens voted to leave it in ruins as a monument to Persian barbarity, Pericles
launched an ambitious rebuilding program that would express the city’s cultural and economic
power

But the project was funded by the Delian league, an alliance of Greek city-states that
had been established after the Persian war

Members of the alliance contributed ships and men, or a fixed sum of money, which
was stored in a treasury on the island of Delos,

So it was like a joint bank account that members could draw upon in the event of
another threat to the Greek city States

But Pericles moved the treasury from Delos to Athens, and used the money to fund his
building project – which means that former rivals like Sparta were footing the bill!

Not surprisingly, this appropriation of funds alarmed the other Greek city-states, and
Pericles’ arrogance eventually led to the outbreak of the Peloponesian Wars (431-404
BCE), when the Greek city-states fell to fighting amongst each other again

The war, and the outbreak of plague in Athens (430-426 BCE) which took the life of
Pericles, brought an end to Greek democracy and to the golden age of Athens

As we have seen, the Parthenon was the largest and most important building on the
acropolis
Temple of Athena
Parthenos (The Parthenon)

It was dedicated to the city’s patron goddess Athena, and its grandeur proclaimed her
supremacy amongst the gods

The temple was richly decorated with sculptures and reliefs made under the
supervision of the sculptor Phidias
3D reconstruction of the Parthenon
Image source: http://athen.liebieghaus.de/en/

Phidias did not work alone – he likely had an army of artists working under his supervision –
but he was responsible for the overall design, and the distinctive quality of the sculptural
decorations is attributed to him

Inside the Parthenon was a colossal statue of Athena made of ivory and gold

The original statue no longer exists, and is known to us only through replicas
Reconstruction of Phidias’ statue of Athena

Replica of Phidias’ Athena, Centennial Park, Nashville
Wikipedia
This one is a full-sized replica, and is located in the Parthenon in Centennial Park, in
Nashville Tennessee

Wikipedia
The goddess is shown in her warrior aspect: she wears a helmet on her head, and is
armed with a spear, a serpent, and a shield

In her right hand she holds a winged Nike – symbol of victory, and on her chest she
wears the head of the Gorgon Medusa

Terracotta stand, Ergotimos (potter), Kleitias (painter), c. 570 BCE
Metropolitan Museum
The Gorgon medusa was a mythical monster with snakes for hair, and a face that was
so hideous it turned men to stone when she gazed upon them

Perseus slaying Medusa | Athenian red-figure pelike C5th B.C. | Metropolitan Museum of Art
With the help of Athena, the hero Perseus cut off her head and gave it to Athena as a
gift

Thereafter, the Medusa head became one of the goddess’s defining attributes, where it
still has the power to turn men into stone

Athena’s shield is also decorated with the Gorgon Medusa, and a carved relief
depicting the battle between the Greeks and Amazons

Terracotta Nolan Neck-amphora, attributed to the Dwarf
Painter, c. 440-430 BCE
Metropolitan Museum
The Amazons were a race of women who fought like men, and was a popular theme in
Greek Art
Greek Amazon

Metropolitan Museum
Like the story of the Lapiths and Centaurs, it would have been understood to symbolize
the triumph of order over chaos, and “civilization” over “barbarism”
Greek Amazon

In fact the story of the Lapiths and Centaurs is depicted on the base of her sandals

And the interior of her shield is decorated with another mythical story about good
triumphing over evil – the “gigantomachy”, when the Greek deities battled against the
Titans who preceded them

Metropolitan Museum
What all of these stories have in common is how the Greeks triumphed over alien
creatures deemed “other” to themselves
Greek Amazon Greek Centaur

Metropolitan Museum
To the Athenian citizens, these stories would have been understood as a political
allegory of the Greek triumph over the Persians – as the Lapith and Centaur story had
symbolized at Olympia
Greek Amazon
Greek Persian

Wikipedia
Only now, Athens was proclaiming the victory as her own by attributing it to the city’s
patron goddess!

The Sculptural Decorations of the
Parthenon

We want to turn now to an examination of the exterior decorations of the Parthenon

The sculptures decorating the east and west pediments were all related to Athena

Reconstruction of the Parthenon
The east pediment depicted the Birth of Athena, and the west pediment depicted the
contest between Athena and Poseidon for divine rights to the city of Athens

The sculptures are no longer in place, as the building has suffered extensive damage
over the centuries (including a direct hit from a Venetian shell in 1687)

Archibald Archer, Temporary Elgin Room, British Museum, 1819
In the 19th century Lord Elgin brought the sculptures to England for safekeeping

The Elgin Marbles at the British Museum
Image source: https://hyperallergic.com/310384/british-mps-propose-bill-to-return-the-elgin-marbles-to-greece/
The so-called “Elgin Marbles” are now stored in the British Museum, and have become
the subject of much controversy because the Greek nation wants them back

The east pediment of the Parthenon represents the Birth of Athena

As you can see, the center section (where the miraculous birth took place) is now
missing

To the left of the central scene, a female goddess rushes forth to announce the news
Iris

The goddesses on either side of her react to the announcement

These three goddesses appear to the right; experts are still unsure about which
goddesses are represented, but they seem to embody three sequential moments in
their reaction to the news

The first goddess seems as though she is poised to stand up, in reaction to news of the
Athena’s birth

The second goddess seems to have only just become aware of the news

And the third goddess seems to be completely unaware of the event, as she reclines in
complete relaxation

The most distinctive aspect of the sculptures is the sense of dramatic movement that is
created by the drapery, which falls in complex folds, and seems to move with the
figures’ bodies

The drapery clings to the figures’ torsos and limbs, revealing the body underneath

Art historians call this the “wet drapery style” because of the way the drapery clings to
the body – almost like a wet T-shirt contest

Phidias’ “wet drapery” style marked a significant advance in the treatment of the
clothed figure, when compared to the stiff and lifeless Kore statues studied earlier

The drapery enhances the naturalism of the figures by introducing a sense of lifelike
movement

Phidias’ “wet drapery” style, with its windswept fabrics, introduced a new way of
expressing lifelike movement as well as excitement and drama

The metopes on the exterior of the Parthenon were also decorated with relief
sculptures

There were originally 92 sculpted metopes – several of which no longer survive

Those that have survived are now in the British Museum

The metopes depict mythological stories that focus on the familiar theme of good
triumphing over evil

This one shows the familiar story of the Lapiths and Centaurs, which had been a theme
at Olympia

The Greek hero is represented as an ideally perfect male, youthful, physically fit, and in
complete control of his surroundings

As at Olympia, the citizens of Athens would have recognized this image as a coded
reference to the Greek victory over the Persians

Like the Persians, the Centaurs were considered to be “barbarian,” and inferior to the
more superior Greeks

The Parthenon is a Doric Temple, but it contains some Ionic elements

Behind the outer row of columns is a second row of columns, that are topped by an
Ionic frieze (instead of the customary triglyphs and metopes)

The frieze runs continuously around the building

The Parthenon Frieze
It depicts the Panatheniac procession, which was a religious festival held every four
years in honor of the goddess Athena

The narrative begins on the west side of the building, as riders begin preparing for the
chariot race

The narrative picks up momentum as the chariot races begin

The riders seem calm and in control of the horses, who seem powerful and full of wild
energy

And here, the overla[ping legs of the animals create a rushing sense of wild energy and
excitement, while the riders remain placid and in control

As we move to the east, offerings are brought to the goddess

Here the scene resembles the subject matter of the Warka Vase – animals and jars are
brought as offerings to the goddess to thank her for her bounty and protection

And finally everything converges on the east side where the Olympian deities are
gathered

In this scene, the young women in charge of weaving a new garment for the goddess
are greeted by two priests as they walk in procession towards the assembly of gods

Here, I’d like to pause for a moment to analyze some of the stylistic features of this
relief

When we compare it to relief sculptures from Egypt and Mesopotamia, the
extraordinary advances in naturalism become evident

The figures are no longer flat and two dimensional; instead, they are fully three
dimensional, and seem to occupy real space

The figure in the center is standing in the contraposto pose, much like the pose we saw
in free-standing statues like the Doryphoros

The drapery clings to his body, revealing his tilted hip and bent knee

And notice how the shoulders of the women are not twisted frontally, as was common
in the composite pose

Instead, the shoulders project into space, in foreshortened perspective

So the formulaic treatment of the human form has been replaced by a more lifelike,
naturalistic style of representation

The east frieze culminates with an assembly of the Olympian deities, who appear to be
spectators at the event

Poseidon Apollo Artemis Aphrodite Eros
Here we see Poseidon, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, and Eros

AresDemeterDionysosHermes
And in this scene we see Hermes, Dionysos, Demeter, and Ares, the god of war, who
clasps his knee in a remarkably casual and “human” pose

Athena Hephaistos
Athena and Hephaistos are represented to the right of a group of young maidens who
prepare the peplos they will give her as a gift

Hera Zeus
And on the other side are Hera and Zeus

What is so extraordinary about the way the gods are represented on the Parthenon
frieze is that they are not differentiated in any way from the Athenian citizens who they
intermingle with

Tablet of Shamash, 888-855 BCE
British Museum
In most of the ancient world, mortal individuals were subordinate to the gods, and
differentiated from them by scale; and the only mortals who could gain access to the
gods were kings, rather than ordinary individuals

But on the Parthenon frieze, the citizens of Athens have literally been elevated to the
level of the gods

And the Olympan deities seem to mingle with them as equals

As the authors of Gardner’s Art Through the Ages sum up:
“The role assigned to the Olympian deities is extraordinary. They do not take part
in the festival or determine its outcome but are merely spectators. They watch the
Athenian people, the new masters of a new Aegean empire who consider
themselves worthy of depiction on a temple. The Parthenon celebrated the
greatness of Athens and the Athenians as much as it honored Athena.”
Fred S. Kleiner, Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, p. 73

Greek Temple Decorations
The rebuilding of the Acropolis
included several other buildings

The Parthenon
The Propylea
The Erectheion
The Temple of Athena
Nike

The Erectheion is unique because it is
not symmetrical
This is because it had to incorporate
many different shrines
The Erectheion, Acropolis, Athens, c. 421-405 BCE

The south porch features caryatids –
columns carved in the shape of figures
Caryatid, on the Erectheion, Acropolis, Athens, c. 421-405 BCE

The last building to be erected was the
Temple of Athena Nike
Temple of Athena Nike, Acropolis, Athens, 427-424 BCE

It is a small ionic temple dedicated to
Victory

The carved relief on the frieze
depicted the Battle of Marathon – a
decisive victory in the war against the
Persians

Battle between Greeks and Orientals. Block from the South frieze of the Temple of Athena Nike, Athenian Acropolis. Marble, made in Athens, ca. 425 BC
British Museum
Image source: Wikimedia

Temple of Athena Nike
• Previously it had been the custom
to represent contemporary events
through the “ideal” form of myth

But the sculptors of this relief chose to
depict the actual historic event itself

Like the Parthenon Frieze, the
decorations of the Temple of Athena
Nike elevated Athenian mortals to the
level of the gods

Hubris: excessive pride or self-
confidence; arrogance
Nemesis: the Greek goddess of
retributive justice
“Hubris is excessive pride (or
"overweening" pride), and is
often called "the pride that
comes before the fall." It had
serious consequences in
Greek tragedy and law.”
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The Athenian Acropolis

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The Athenian Acropolis