Parthenon Was an Architectural Achievement

Parthenon was an architectural achievement the likes of which ancient Greece had never seen before. Athens, by the time of its construction, had become a cultural hub -- a place of affluence and learning. The Parthenon, therefore, represented more than a place of worship: it represent an artistic, cultural, social, economic, political and historical monument. This paper will analyze the Parthenon in each of those contexts and show why this achievement of Greek antiquity still stands tall today.

Political and Cultural Context

The man behind the rise of the Golden Age of Greek Art in the fifth century BC was the great statesman Pericles. A patron from a family of aristocrats, Pericles rose to power following the wars against Persia, in which Athens proved itself a force to be reckoned with. Athens flourished in this time, and the reconstruction of Athens (begun by Themistocles and Aristides) was now continued by Pericles, who saw to the construction of several great architectural works, most notably the Parthenon -- a white marble temple dedicated to the goddess Athena. Built atop the Acropolis, "it was one of the most beautiful buildings in the world" (Haaren, Poland 85). The Parthenon was for Pericles one of his crowning achievements as statesman. Unfortunately, it would also prove to be his undoing. Since the Parthenon required such a vast amount of funds, Pericles' political enemies were quick to latch onto anything they could show that he was squandering the public's money. They threw the artist, Phidias into prison and accused both him and Pericles of theft. The accusations were not true and both men suffered as a result of them -- but the incident pointed out the political unrest that existed just below the surface of Athens. It was an unrest that not even the greatest Athenian monument could quell -- and Athens would soon find itself at war with Sparta.

Culturally speaking, Pericles set the bar for Athens' reconstruction when he said, "All kinds of enterprises should be created which will provide an inspiration for every art, find employment for every hand…we must devote ourselves to acquiring things that will be the source of everlasting fame" (The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization). Therefore, it is no wonder that Pericles (with the help of Phidias, the great artist) would oversee Athens' mightiest construction effort -- a symbol of Greek piety before its goddess protector. The Parthenon was majestic on every level: "Costing 5000 talents in the first year alone -- a figure equivalent to some $3 billion in today's money -- the building was completed in less than 15 years" (The Greeks). The white marble temple took 20 thousand tons of stone from Mount Pentelicus, and "in front of it stood a bronze statue of Athena, so large that it could be seen far out at sea" (Haaren, Poland 85). Contained within the temple was another statue of the Greek goddess. Constructed of ivory and gold, it towered over the Athenians at a height of nearly thirty feet.

Artistic and Economic Context

Artistically speaking, and most impressive of all, perhaps, is the fact that the Parthenon is "generally cited as the perfect expression of the Doric temple form" (despite its variations on the Doric tradition) (Johnson 56). As Paul Johnson notes, "It has eight columns at each end instead of the normative six, and seventeen on the sides instead of thirteen. This gives it a measurement of 101 by 228 feet, a size enabling it to dominate not only the Acropolis itself but the entire Athens skyline" (56). The Parthenon also had a number of resplendent carvings, which centuries later elicited the admiration of the British diplomat Lord Elgin, who removed "many of these [carvings] from the ruins in 1801" (The Greeks).

However, there are many questions that remain concerning the design of the Parthenon. For example, "Was the Parthenon a temple or a treasury?" (Neils 5). Such a practical inquiry actually reveals much about the function of the Parthenon: was it a repository of piety, or a safe house of wealth?

Economically speaking, Athens was now financially well off, but that did not mean it was not in danger of financial instability. As James Fergusson observes, the temples of the Greeks were both places of piety and riches: "Their statues were the most elaborate and most beautiful the world has yet seen, and the ornaments of the temples the richest and the most varied that could be conceived" (6). What caused Pericles' enemies to harass him and his artist may not have been so much a lack of religious zeal as a concern over fiscal responsibility. Was it possible, after all, for a state to bankrupt itself through art? Perhaps it was -- especially when the best artists and architects in the land were being consulted.

What Greek architecture excelled at doing was achieving an illusory effect that was uniquely aesthetic. Greek designers often thought long and hard about perspective in order to keep their temples from looking mechanistic. Greek architecture favored an organic feel, and the architects strove "to put a bit of life into buildings to make them breathe [and] flex their sensuality" (Johnson 69). The way they did this was by using any of five different tactics to convince the eye of a depth, line, and curve. Each tactic required more cost, as it required more labor, and so not every temple employed them. But the Parthenon used all five tactics -- which is one reason it was so expensive to build. The five tactics were: (1) to have a small but regular convexity in the overall horizontal lines, [from platform and stylobate to entabluature and pediment]; (2) the main vertical refinement, called entasis, took the form of an outward swelling on the column shafts; (3) the axis of columns was tilted towards the building's center by several degrees from the vertical…; (4) corner columns were made thicker than the rest, and tilted towards the diagonal axis of the building; (5) the walls of the interior parts of the temple were made thinner towards their top, and lean inwards, and their upper sections were set back. (Johnson 68-9)

Such technique created a grand, eloquent illusion that helped make Greek architecture so impressive.

Another impressive feature of Greek architecture was its acoustics. The great Greek theatres could hold up to 2,000 people, "each of whom could hear perfectly what was said on stage" (Johnson 53). The Epidaurus theatre is a supreme example of this kind of architecture -- a bowl shaped half-stadium with the stage at the bottom half-center.

Social and Historical Context

But Greek architecture during the fifth century also had a practical aspect. Athens had just come out of a war with Persia -- and it was soon to enter into a war with another Greek city-state, Sparta. Pericles, to protect Athens' important roadways that connected the heart of the city to her ports upon the sea, "which were about four miles away," put the finishing touches on the "Long Walls," upon which Cimon had begun construction some time earlier. The Parthenon was no doubt a monument that could restore a sense of social unity: it was to be not only a monument to the gods and goddesses but a monument to Athens' social identity.

Aesthetics were hugely important to the Greeks. Polykleitos, a contemporary of Phidias (who designed the statue of Athena for the Acropolis as well as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World -- the Statue of Zeus), had his own school of young artists for whom he wrote a treatise on art called "The Canon." "The Canon" was an accumulation of Greek learning which gave explicit attention to symmetry, clarity, and wholeness when producing works of art like Polykeitos' Spear-carrier. Aesthetics were not only emphasized by sculptors and architects but also by dramatists and philosophers like Aristotle, whose Poetics gave a formula for how to approach comedy and tragedy and answered the issues regarding the cathartic effect. Each of the arts complemented the other, and all art was aimed primarily in a religious direction. The great dramatists of the Golden Age of Greece all seemed to reflect positively on the gods, and in such a social context, one may think of the Parthenon as an expression of the aesthetic charm that the Greeks constantly sought to effect.

No greater monument to aesthetics was produced than the Parthenon. Even as numerous great statesman, from Themistocles to Cimon, helped transform Athens into a glorious city-state, it was Pericles who put everything into the Parthenon and viewed it as a symbolic memorial to Athens spirit of renewal. (After all, it must be remembered that Athens had been burned to the ground by the Persian forces that attacked Greece in the Persian Wars). The rebirth of Athens (both socially and historically) occurred under the reign of Pericles. In fact, it is often called the Golden Age of Pericles.