The metopes of the Parthenon all represented various instances of the struggle between the forces of order and justice, on the one hand, and criminal chaos on the other. On the west side, the mythical battle against the Amazons Amazonomachy ; on the south, the battle between the Lapiths and the Centaurs Centauromachy ; on the east, the battle between the gods and the giants Gigantomachy ; on the north, the Greeks versus the Trojans.
Of the panels the best preserved are those showing the Centauromachy. For a complete catalogue, with images and descriptions of all the Parthenon metopes, see Perseus' Parthenon Metope Page photos will be available only if you are on a Reed computer or a computer on another campus which has enhanced access to the Perseus photos by license agreement , and theAustralian National University collection photos, but no text.
These relief sculptures, larger than those of the metopes, occupied the triangular space above the triglyphs and metopes. Those at the west end of the temple depicted the contest between Poseidon and Athena for the right to be the patron deity of Athens Athena's gift of the olive tree was preferred over Poseidon's spring. The eastern pedimental group showed the birth of Athena from Zeus' head. The pedimental sculpture suffered badly when the Parthenon was hit by a Venetian shell in and the powder magazine inside exploded.
This reclining god probably Dionysus from the east pediment gives some sense of the quality of the sculpture:. For a complete catalogue, with images and descriptions of all the Parthenon pedimental sculpture, see Perseus' Parthenon East Pediment Page and West Pediment Page photos will be available only if you are on a Reed computer or a computer on another campus which has enhanced access to the Perseus photos by license agreement.
The Parthenon frieze runs around the upper edge of the temple wall. Its relatively small size 3 feet 5 inches tall and placement inside from the triglyphs and metopes made it fairly hard to see from the ground.
As a demonstration of the extensive of the sculptural program all 92 metopes in the Doric frieze course have sculptured reliefs [for architectural terms see the glossary at the end of this webpage].
The Athena Parthenos. The centerpiece of the sculptural programme of the Parthenon was the monumental statue of Athena in the main cella of the temple. The statue was a chryselephantine statue made of gold and ivory, and was approximately 38 feet tall. Although no longer extant, Ancient copies and literary descriptions have allowed scholars to produce fairly accurate reconstructions.
The one above is from the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Athena as the warrior maiden is a perfect embodiment of Athens. Athena was understood as the protector and champion of the city and as the giver of the urban arts and handicrafts especially spinning and weaving. As seen in the Parthenon statue, Athena was regularly represented as wearing military garb including a helmet, breastplate, spear, and shield.
This brings out her warrior identity. The statue and the Parthenon as a whole are clearly monuments to Athena's gifts of the urban arts.
This is well echoed in the following passage from Plutarch's account of the Periclean building campaign included in the Life of Pericles:. Consideration of elements that form the statue clearly echo the political meaning of the work.
Athena holds in her right hand a Nike figure, or Winged Victory, to commemorate the Greek victory over the Persians.
Her helmet bears images of a sphinx in the center and griffins on either side. The eastern origin of these monsters would probably not have been lost on the Athenian observer, who would have made the identification of the monsters to Persia. On the upper-chest of Athena appears an aegis on which appears a gorgoneion head of Medusa in the center. The inclusion of these "monsters" plays an apotropaic function of warding off evil, but these figures also echo the Greek subjugation of the monstrous.
This is especially true of the gorgoneion. It was Athena who helped Perseus defeat Medusa. Perseus, one of the great Athenian heroes, gave the severed head of Medusa to Athena in thanks. The snake that appears on the inside of Athena's shield is a reference to mythical origins of Athens. The snake was understood as a representation of Erichthonius who was the off-spring of Hephaestus and Ge, or Earth.
He was thus understood as a reference back to the aboriginal origins of Athens, and to the time before the Olympian God's triumph over the Giants, the off-spring of Ge.
Ericthonius's aboriginal nature is suggested by his snake form. According the myth, Ge entrusted Ericthonius in the care of Athena. The serpent was contained in a box, and Athena, in turn, gave the box to the three daughters of Cecrops with the explicit instructions that the box should not be opened. The daughters did not obey, and when they saw the monstrous shape, they were driven crazy and jumped off the Acropolis.
The inclusion of the snake had rich meaning for the Athenians. On one level, that Ericthonius was the off-spring of Ge, was a demonstration of the autocthonous nature of the original Athenians as being original inhabitants of the land. To be an Athenian one had to have parents that both come from families that were Athenian citizens. So an Athenian citizen would see himself [sic since only males could be citizens] as an off-spring of Ericthonius.
That Athena was given responsibility of looking after Ericthonius who was placed in a box was understood as part of the succession myth where the Olympian Gods overcome the off-spring of Ge and bring them into order. The disobedience of the daughters of Cecrops and their punishments would have been understood as references to the folly of women and the patriarchal structure of Athenian society.
Images of conflict also appear on other details of the work. According to ancient literary descriptions, the Athena's sandles bore representations of the battle between the Lapiths and centaurs Centauromachy , while the inside of the shield was apparently painted with images of the battles of the Gods and Giants Gigantomachy.
Literary descriptions and copies have modern archaeologists to reconstruct the outside of the shield which represented the conflict between Greeks and Amazons Amazonomachy :. The Centauromachy, Amazonomachy, and the Gigantomachy were repeated along with the addition of the Battle of Greeks and Trojans the Iliouspersis in the metopes on the exterior of the Parthenon.
All of these scenes reiterate the common theme of the Greeks overcoming the other. In the case of the Gigantomachy, it is the story of the victory of the Olympian Gods over giants who are the offspring of Ge and Ouranos --earth and sky.
This is the subject of Hesiod's Theogony - one of the earliest works from Greek literature. This is the archetype of all the other conflict scenes.
They all echo the victory of order cosmos over chaos, civilization over barbarism developed in webpage dedicated to Greek and the Other. It is striking from a modern perspective to note that though the Parthenon was constructed in clear response to the Greek victories over the Persian, there are no direct representations of these victories on the Parthenon. Though not directly represented, the defeat of the Persians finds echoes in the conflict scenes.
For example, the Amazons were female warriors who come from the east like the Persians, and the Troy's location on the boundary between the Greek world and Persia would have clearly been understood to be a parallel to the victory of the Greeks over the Persians.
Basking in glory, the Athenians planned their new temple complex on a lavish, unprecedented scale—with the Parthenon as the centerpiece. But unforeseen problems arose as soon as workers started disassembling the temples. For example, the ancient Greek builders had secured the marble blocks together with iron clamps fitted in carefully carved grooves. They then poured molten lead over the joints to cushion them from seismic shocks and protect the clamps from corrosion. But when a Greek architect, Nikolas Balanos, launched an enthusiastic campaign of restorations in , he installed crude iron clamps, indiscriminately fastening one block to another and neglecting to add the lead coating.
Rain soon began to play havoc with the new clamps, swelling the iron and cracking the marble. Less than a century later, it wasclear that parts of the Parthenon were in imminent danger of collapse.
In a set of vivid drawings, he depicted how the ancient builders extracted some , tons of marble from a quarry 11 miles northeast of central Athens, roughly shaped the blocks, then transported them on wagons and finally hauled them up the steep slopes of the Acropolis.
To speed up the job, engineers built a flute-carving machine. The device, however, is not precise enough for the final detailing, which must be done by hand. This smoothing of the flutes calls for an expert eye and a sensitive touch.
To get the elliptical profile of the flute just right, a mason looks at the shadow cast inside the groove, thenchips and rubs the stone until the outline of the shadow is a perfectly even and regular curve. The ancients spent a lot of time on another finishing touch. With hundreds of thousands of chisel blows, they executed this pattern in precisely ordered rows covering the base, floors, columns and most other surfaces.
The dates come from the inscribed financial accounts. One key factor may have been naval technology. Since the Athenians were the greatest naval power in the Aegean, they likely had unrivaled mastery of ropes, pulleys and wooden cranes. Such equipment would have facilitated the hauling and lifting of the marble blocks.
Another, counterintuitive possibility is that ancient hand tools were superior to their modern counterparts. After analyzing marks left on the marble surfaces, Korres is convinced that centuries of metallurgical experimentation enabled the ancient Athenians to create chisels and axes that were sharper and more durable than those available today. The idea is not unprecedented. Modern metallurgists have only recently figuredout the secrets of the traditional samurai sword, which Japanese swordsmiths endowed with unrivaled sharpness and strength by regulating the amount of carbon in the steel and the temperature during forging and cooling.
At this time, the whole of the middle section of the east pediment was removed, destroying a dozen statues. Part of the east frieze was taken down, and almost all of the metopes on the east, north and west sides were deliberately defaced.
William Pars c. Pen and grey ink and watercolour, with bodycolour, over graphite, Mainland Greece was conquered by the Ottoman empire by and the building became a mosque in the early s. When Athens was under siege by the Venetians in , the Parthenon was used as a gunpowder store.
A huge explosion blew the roof off and destroyed a large portion of the remaining sculptures. The building has been a ruin ever since. By only about half of the original sculptural decoration remained. From , after obtaining permission from the Ottoman authorities, the British ambassador to the Ottoman empire Lord Elgin removed about half of the remaining sculptures from the fallen ruins and the building. Elgin was passionate about ancient Greek art and transported the sculptures to Britain at his own expense.
Their arrival in London made a profound impression upon European art and taste, at a time when the European Enlightenment was revising its idea of what art should be. Archibald Archer, The Temporary Elgin Room constructed to display the Parthenon sculptures, with portraits of staff, a trustee and visitors.
Oil painting on canvas, However, Elgin had bankrupted himself transporting the sculptures to Britain. In Parliament decided to acquire the collection for the British Museum.
Since the sculptures have always been on display to the public in the British Museum, free of charge. The Parthenon sculptures as they were displayed in at the British Museum.
This is now Room Photo by Donald Macbeth.
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