The Athenian Acropolis or High City is without question the symbol par excellence of classical Greek culture, a commanding and enduring icon of democracy and freedom of thought, of philosophical inquiry and man’s quest for perfection.
It was during the mid-5th century BCE, when the Athenians had become masters of the Delian League, that Pericles initiated his ambitious building program for the restitution of the sanctuaries destroyed years earlier by the Persians on the Sacred Rock. Construction began in 448/447 BCE under the supervision of the renowned master sculptor Pheidias and in less than forty years the Acropolis would acquire the most magnificent buildings ever built in antiquity … an accomplishment that would transform the city of Athens into the greatest cultural centre of the ancient world.
| THE PLAN OF THE ACROPOLIS AND IMMEDIATE ENVIRONS 1: Parthenon; 2: Erechtheion; 3: Pandroseion; 4: Statue of Athena Promachos; 5: Propylaia; 6: Altar of Athena; 7: Sanctuary of Pandion; 8: Temple of Athena Nike; 9: Chalkotheke; 10: Brauroneion; 11: Arrephorion; 12: Approach of Classical times; 13: Odeion of Herod Atticus; 14: Stoa of Eumenes; 15: Asklepieion; 16: Ionic stoa; 17: Nikias monument; 18: Thrasyllos monument; 19: Sanctuary of Dionysos Eleuthereus; 20: Odeion of Pericles; 21: Peripatos; 22: Theatre of Dionysus Orange: Monuments of the 5th century BCE ; Rose: Monuments of the 4th century BCE ; Blue: Hellenistic and Roman monuments (Drawing by J. Travlos, 1978) |
THE PROPYLAIA
The Propylaia, a term which in Greek denotes a monumental entrance, was designed and built by the architect Mnesicles between 437 and 432 BCE. It replaced the more humble building, dating from the time of the tyrant Peisistratos, whose modest appearance was no longer deemed suitable for the grand architectural ensemble that Pericles planned. This idiosyncratic structure dominates the top of the steep slope which worshippers climbed along a steep winding path that led to the sacred precinct.
The Propylon itself is set in a shallow recess and comprises of two wings that project, like outstretched welcoming arms, from a central portico. This portico, fronted by six Doric columns, leads to a hall which was open to the exterior on the west side but enclosed on its other three sides. Its exterior façade was crowned by a pediment, formed by the sloping roof, below which was a frieze divided into triglyphs and metopes with painted scenes.
The inner hallway was lined on either side by three slender Ionic columns that supported the portico’s ceiling. The far wall on the portico’s east side served to separate the profane world from the sacred precinct. It was pierced by five doorways, the central one of which was entered via a ramp provided for sacrificial animals, while the other four allowed access to the general public. A second Doric portico, also with six columns, opened east onto the sanctuary itself and formed the counterpart to the west portico.
The two projecting wings, on the north and south flanks respectively, are not oriented on the same axis as the central portico, but instead face each other. Mnesicles had originally planned these wings to be much wider, though his design was never realized owing to the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War in 431 BCE. Each wing was fronted by a small porch with three smaller Doric columns set between two pilasters. Behind the porch of the north wing stood a room called the Pinakotheke or Picture Gallery, famous in antiquity for its elaborate wall-paintings. The corresponding room of the south wing was never built. Instead, the wall behind the porch stops abruptly at the third column rather than the second pilaster, which was left standing in isolation, thus allowing free access to the small Temple of Nike. There is then, an obvious lack of symmetry between the two flanking wings.
THE TEMPLE OF NIKE
The Temple of Nike stands on the small terrace known as the Tower of Nike or Victory located near the south-west wing of the Propylaia, just outside the main walls of the Acropolis.
Originally designed by the architect Callicrates in 448 BCE, this elegant little marble temple, measuring 8.27m x 5.44m, was constructed some twenty years after its inception (probably between 428 and 424) and about a year after the death of Pericles. Its slanting orientation and slender Ionic columns were clearly intended to counteract the mass of the adjoining Doric Propylaia. The building in fact comprises little more than a walled room, open at the front, with four pilasters at the four corners and four monolithic columns on its east and west sides. Above them is an architrave and frieze. The area around the temple was surrounded by an elaborate sculptured marble balustrade in about 410 BCE.
THE PARTHENON
The Parthenon, built between 447 and 432 BCE, and located on the south side of the Acropolis is the undisputed crown jewel of the Sacred Rock.
The ancients referred to this monumental edifice as the ‘temple of the thousand talents’ – an immense sum of money in those days. Designed by the architects Ictinus and Callicrates, this Doric style temple is surrounded by a peristyle of eight columns on the short sides (rather than the customary six of other Doric temples) and seventeen on the long sides. It was built entirely from bright Pentelic marble, with the exception of the roof and carved ceiling which were fashioned from scented Cypress wood.
It is worth noting that the proportional relationship between the number of columns on the short and long sides is apparently dictated by the so-called ‘golden ratio’ (4:9) as are all the proportions of this extraordinary structure. Thus, for example, the relationship between the width and length of the Parthenon is determined by this very same ratio (30.88m x 69.5m = 4:9), as is the temple’s height (less the pediments) in relation to the length of its short sides (13.73m x 30.88m = 4:9) and also the proportion between the diameter of a column and the distance between any two columns (1:2.25 = 4:9).
Another characteristic feature of the Parthenon is the deliberate departure from the use of straight lines, whether horizontal or vertical, anywhere in the building. All the external columns, for instance, are slightly inclined towards the interior walls whereas the corner columns, which are slightly thicker than the others, lean diagonally so as to bear the weight of the roof at the corners. The corner columns, moreover, are also placed a little closer to their adjoining columns than are the other columns to each other.
The walls on the long sides follow the same inward inclination as the outer columns, though the cross walls are perpendicular, as were the interior columns of both the pronaos and the opisthodomos. As a result, the whole structure is inclined somewhat like a pyramid which, had it continued upwards to form a single point, would have stood some 1.872m tall. The clear outward inclination of the cornices and the tiled roof nevertheless served to keep this upward movement in check making it difficult to perceive this subtle pyramidal form.
In addition to these modifications there are also the so-called convexities or horizontal inclinations of the temple’s base and foundations. The interior pavement, for example, curves faintly towards the centre, whereas the stylobate of the colonnades has an upward curvature of some seven centimetres in the short and eleven on the long sides. Likewise, all the columns have a subtle bulge as they rise from the stylobate. These architectural refinements were, of course, intended to give the impression that the entire building is comprised of perpendicular and horizontal elements.
Though essentially Doric in rhythm, a number of Ionic elements were also incorporated into the overall design of the temple. There were, for example, four Ionic columns supporting the ceiling of the second interior room into which the opisthodomos opened and where the state’s treasure was stored. Also, in addition to the usual sculpted Doric frieze (metopes) of the entablature outside, there was an other, Ionic in style, which ran unbroken around the cella under the ceiling of the peristyle and which was normally left unadorned in traditional Doric temples.
All the sculptures that decorated the Parthenon - frieze, pediments and metopes - were, of course, conceived and executed by Pheidias and his disciples. These great works of art will be dealt with in a later post. For now, it will suffice to say that Pheidias’ greatest tour de force was the huge chryselephantine statue of the goddess Athena Parthenos which stood in the cella of the Parthenon and for which and around which the great temple was in fact built.
THE ERECHTHEION
Construction on the Erechtheion began in about 421 BCE, some ten years after the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, following the signing of a truce between Athens and Sparta that had been negotiated by the Athenian general Nicias. The project was, however, unavoidably delayed when war broke out once again and the temple was eventually completed in about 408 BCE, just a few short years before Athens would fall to the Spartans. Although the name of the architect is no longer known, the temple’s unique design is generally attributed to Mnesicles, while a certain Philocles is thought to have completed the building.
The Erechtheion is quite unusual in comparison to most classical Greek temples in that it is both smaller in scale and lacks the traditional peristyle of columns. Its pediments also evidently lacked sculptures. The building in fact comprises little more than a central rectangular structure with two porches of unequal size projecting from its north and south sides. The interior of this structure was separated into four distinct areas. To the east was the main sanctuary, fronted by six slender Ionic columns, consecrated to Athena Polias and housing the Archaic wooden statue or xoanon of the goddess from the earlier Peisistratid temple.
Above the Ionic capitals was a three-banded epistyle, surmounted by a frieze that surrounded the whole building, sheltered under a projecting cornice and pediment. Adjoining the eastern sanctuary were two smaller ones, the first consecrated to Erichthonios and Poseidon, and the second to Hephaistos and the hero Boutes. These shrines, oriented west to east, were accessed by a closed vestibule running north to south that led, at either end, to the two porches. This vestibule is reputed to have been built over the salt spring which Poseidon struck from the rock with his trident during his famous quarrel with Athena.
The north porch is somewhat monumental in appearance, with six tall Ionic columns supporting an epistyle above which there was yet another frieze and pediment. The plinth on which the columns rest is said to cover the very spot where Erichthonios was struck by lightning. The south porch, on the other hand, was partly built over the tomb of Kekrops, and is of course today known as the Porch of the Maidens or Caryatids. Here six elegantly sculpted female figures gently support the epistyle under a slightly projecting cornice. Finally, the west façade consists of a low wall upon which stand four columns flanked by two pilasters.
A single roof covered the entire structure which gave this otherwise disparate building a semblance of unity. Adjoining the temple to the west was a small open enclosure, the so-called Shrine of Pandrossos, containing the olive tree which Athena had given to her loyal subjects. Near this stood the Altar of Zeus Herkeios.
OTHER STRUCTURES ON THE ACROPOLIS
Adjacent to the south wall of the Acropolis, between the Parthenon and the Temple of Nike were located the so-called Chalkotheke or Bronze Depot and the Brauroneion or Sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia.
The former was a large oblong shaped building measuring 43m by 14m, with six interior columns supporting the roof. Thought to have been built about the same time as the Parthenon, it served primarily as a repository for weapons, armor and various other metal objects. A long portico some 4.5m wide, lined with no less than eighteen Doric columns, was later added to the front of the building in c.375 BCE.
The Brauroneion was located in the southwest corner of the Acropolis plateau, between the Chalkotheke and the Propylaia. This unusual Π shaped structure was little more than a large portico or stoa, measuring some 38m by 6.8m, and built to house the Archaic wooden statue of the goddess Artemis. In 346 BCE a second cult statue, said to have been executed by the sculptor Praxiteles, was also erected in the sanctuary. It is generally agreed that it was built around the same time as the Propylaia.
To the northwest of the Parthenon stood the colossal nine meter bronze statue of Athena Promachos, fashioned by Pheidias and erected between 450 and 448 BCE. It was said that the gilt tip of the statue’s spear could be seen as far as Corinth on a clear day. A giant shield rested on the goddess’ left side, decorated with scenes from the battle between the Centaurs and Lapithae engraved by the sculptor Mys.
Other monuments which have been completely obliterated by the passage of time include the great Altar of Athena, the Sanctuaries of Zeus Polieos and the hero Pandion, and the so-called House of the Arrhephoroi. Countless statues, stelae and votive offerings once populated the various sacred precincts.
THE FATE OF THE ACROPOLIS
While the number of votive offerings continued to increase with the passage of time, the basic plan of the great sanctuary remained essentially unchanged for the best part of eight centuries. During the latter half of the 2nd BCE a pedestal was erected before the Propylaia, near the ramp leading to the sacred precinct, and which supported a statue of the Roman general Agrippa from 15 BCE onwards.
A small circular monopteral temple dedicated to the glory of Augustus and Rome was also built east of the Parthenon in 27 CE. The only other major alteration to the Sacred Rock was the addition of a monumental stairway which replaced the zigzagging path leading up to the Propylaia, the construction of which was begun in the reign of Caligula or Claudius and only finally completed a century later.
It was not until the rise of Christianity that the aspect of the Acropolis and its monuments suffered significant changes. All the votive statues and stelae disappeared and the great chryselephantine statue of Athena was removed to Constantinople in the late fifth century CE. The Parthenon was itself converted into a Christian church during which time the temple’s east façade was badly damaged with the addition of an apse and much of the sculptural decoration of the temple, especially the pediments and metopes, was either badly defaced or smashed by fanatical Christians.
The city of Athens was all but forgotten and was slowly reduced to little more than another small provincial town in the great Byzantine Empire.During the course of the Middle Ages, Athens suffered repeated invasions by the Franks, the Catalans, the Florentines and finally the Turks. A Turkish garrison was eventually stationed on the Acropolis, around which grew the densely populated residential quarter of the Turks. The Parthenon was converted into a mosque and the Propylaia became the dwelling of the Turkish Governor. The Erechtheion was used to house his harem. In 1656, a lightning bolt struck the Propylaia, igniting the powder kegs stored therein and destroying the central portico.
In 1687, the Venetian general Morosini besieged and bombarded the Acropolis. It was then that the greater part of the Parthenon, which the Turks had been using as a powder magazine, was blown apart.
Equally ruthless was the systematic and merciless assault in 1801 by the English ambassador to Constantinople, Thomas Bruce, also known as the Earl of Elgin, who removed, with irreparable damage to the monuments, not only the greater surviving portion of the Parthenon sculptures but also, amongst other priceless artefacts, an Ionic column and Caryatid from the Erechtheion.
Author: Ioannis Georgopoulos | Source: Ancient Emporium [first published: November 28, 2009]