Introduction
Parthenon's symmetrical and idealistic architecture is the result of the continuous changes of styles and ideologies in the past (see fig. 1); despite the ruined state in the modern age, Parthenon temple still continues to be the role model for all architects throughout the world. The role of the Parthenon was not only limited for priests’ rituals and to appease the deities of the Olympus. Historically, the Parthenon itself was the center of the commercial and civic activity of the ancient Greeks since many people visited the temple to worship to their Gods and this was also the perfect place for the philosophers to discuss their thoughts to all of the people; therefore, the Parthenon and its associated buildings became an important symbol of democratic society of Athens. This majestic marble architecture was one of the finest examples of man’s excellent abilities as an architect and artist for the Parthenon combines not only symmetrical perfection but also its simple portico designs, the absence of the opulent corruption is the prime reason why this building still remains as the role model for all of the buildings in the world (see fig, 6). This paper will examine how the Parthenon temple played in its historical, cultural, and economic contexts. In addition, this paper will also examine the layout of the architecture and the symbolic ornamentations that adorned its ruined walls as well as the circulation of people, and the buildings influence to the later modernist styles.
The Parthenon in History
The Athenians won over the Persians at the Conflict of Salamis; the Spartans defeated the Persians at the Battle of Platea. The great war of the Greeks versus the Persians were already over but although they may been the winners of the battle, the Athenians chaotic homeland was a mess full of dead people murdered by the invaders; structures such as temples, buildings, and houses were also burnt to the death. In other words, the fight resulted to 50-50 since Persia also suffered losses from the destruction of its naval fleet while the Athenians became problematic about the issue of how to revitalize their land after the war. A legend explains that before Parthenon had been built atop the Acropolis, the weary and brave Athenian soldiers marched their way up to the Acropolis hill and found out Athena’s spear erected onto the soil of Acropolis perhaps as a marker signifying her claim on the land. From its place, people saw the emergence of the Olive tree. As a result, the people who saw it were filled their hope and courage to build their city once more (Rockwell 30-31).
Parthenon was indeed a magnificent building showcasing the true genius of the Greek architecture. In the 480 B.C., Athens and Persia were struggling for power but the Athenian empire was defeated and the buildings in Athens were destroyed to the ground by their Persian enemies. When King Pericles assumed throne, he immediately hired the help of two great master architects and sculptors of all time. Iktinos and Kallikrates were hired to create a new design of temple as a replacement for the damaged created by the Persian Wars. In 450 B.C, laborers began to work digging and drilling out the remains and putting together the few blocks of stones and cleared the area to erect a new building that will become the symbol of Greece later on (Sayre 428). What makes the Parthenon stand-out amongst famed Greek temples was its simple yet modern design. Tall and slender ridged columns stood dignified, towering the entire Acropolis as if these columns tell the modern world of their centuries old experiences. Ruined walls had been gone for so long; sculptures still adorned the temple yet in bad conditions. However, the sculptures portray none less than humans and gods in the form of mortal attempting to liberate Athens from the evils of wars that constantly plagued their city. Different people were illustrated by the sculptors from all of the metopes on the temple, and somehow, this explains that in a way, Parthenon stood for equality and to reflect the new Athenian way of life. With the establishment of a new political system known as ‘democracy’, many people including the Athenian freemen eagerly participated to discussion related to the government. Parthenon is a Greek temple dedicated to the Greek Goddess Athena. Athena was the goddess of wisdom and the Athenians dedicated the Parthenon especially to Athena to show the world that their city was no longer embodied as a barbarian (Sayre 428; Nardo 27-29).
Analysis of Style and Layout
What makes Parthenon an ideal example to all edifices? What makes it so unique to the point that the Romans copied it and even the buildings of the modern world were based from its style? The layout of the Parthenon temple was based on the Doric peripteral style. Temples built in this style normally had an emphasis on having many walls and a large naos which can be found inside the temple. The naos was the biggest room containing the cult image of Athena; the patron of Greece whose spear became the source of positive moral influence to fight the negative ones brought by the war. The temple was erected with the aim to preserve the monumental statue of Athena. The statue was made up of ivory and gold. The statue of Athena is surrounded by 23 small Doric columns. They are arranged in a two story and rows; thereby semi-enclosing the figure from the rest of the structure as if shielding it from harm. In this way, the artists had created the visual divide between the holy and natural worlds. The Parthenon is a remarkable building. The huge construction of this architecture has used mainly the limestone, while the columns are erected in marble. The Parthenon is an exquisite specimen of ancient Doric architecture (Neils 88; Green 53; Fergusson 104; Sayre 428). Rhodes also characterized Doric architecture as a “symmetrical architecture” (Rhodes, 55). Doric columns support the front and back porch of the temple. The focus of Doric architecture is basically on the symmetry and the main reason behind the symmetrical architecture is to accommodate religious tradition and to create the surface, the impression of Doric regularity of symmetry (Rhodes, 55). The symmetrical pattern of Parthenon lies in its eight columns at its façade, and seventeen at the flank. Furthermore, Neils finds the architecture as the remarkable decorative sculptural adornment (88). The large space within the Parthenon was reserved for important sculpture (see fig. 2) and they were distinct because of their sizes; the smaller ones were either reserved for other temple rites. Furthermore, spaces were separated by walls. The most important and notable architectural elements of Parthenon are the rhythmic arrangement of the columns; alternate triglyphs and metopes (see fig. 3); bilateral symmetry characterized by the equal and same arrangement of pillars, repeated flutes on columns, and harmonic arrangement of solids and the voids. The temple was built based from peripteral design (see fig. 4); taking up a perfect rectangular shape while the front and back cornices and pediments form a precise triangular shape. Parthenon also had the ‘Golden Ratio’ or aesthetically pleasing natural proportions seen on its sculptural and column arrangement which many believed to reflect the correct body proportion and symmetry (Meisner n.p.). The building is closed because of the thick marble walls (peripteral) encompassing the inner part of the temple. Sculptures of lesser importance were depicted as small compared to Athena’s statue, as a goddess of wisdom had a large and tall ivory and gold statue of herself located at the center part (cella) of the temple (Sayre 428). From the outside, these sculptures had dominated the outer façade of the building; showcasing the rich history of ancient Greece. Yet hidden in plain sight was another style of Parthenon which was plain and less elaborates compared to the front. Kleiner explained that sculptures was important for the temple because in an age where only few were able to read and write, sculptures engraved onto the marble provides a detailed account of the deity’s life and legacy. Furthermore, despite the old age, the Parthenon mellowed with age; although ruined due to the many wars that ravaged the land (Kleiner xxvi). The temple was built atop the Acropolis to honor the goddess Athena; columns starting from the front façade to the inner columns of the second façade tend to cluster due to the slightly crowded pillars separated by narrow friezes. Parthenon's peripteral styles also meant a simple floor plan. The floor plan became a basis on how columns, walls, and other parts of the temple were placed. Both left and right sides of the temples consists of repetitive rows of columns placed atop each other in order to enclose the whole naos. The doorway had been strategically placed to create a rather intimidating atmosphere for visitors. Athena's statue was supposedly at the center of the naos and people who somehow enter through the doorway will be astonished by the huge figure of the goddess facing them. The columns also separate the flow of traffic making it linear and neat. Aside from temple workers and architects, sculptors were also one of the most important workers in the area. For everyone who had seen the Parthenon in person, the place has numerous types of designs and ornamentation in order to make the plain building standout and be remembered by the people of both past and the present. Unlike any other building, the Parthenon does not use opulent ornaments that do not have a meaning or a connection to its history. Therefore, the sculptures of the Parthenon tell its viewers some tidbits of the history in a manner that they can understand. The sculptures carved on the friezes, metopes, and pediments have different categories. Both metopes and friezes can be considered as low-relief sculptures because they do not emerge that much from the stone. Only minimal carvings can be traced from them such as the outline of the body. The metopes sculptures were divided by triglyphs in an alternate manner just to make the sculpturing process aligned and equal to each other. This method allowed sculptors to sculpt 14 images from the metopes on the side whilst a total of 32 metopes can be found just on the sides of the building. The majority of the scenes depicted in these sculptures were related to Athenian and Greek history in the past. One event that was portrayed in the scenes in the eastern side was the war between the great Olympian gods versus the Titan Gods of whom the former wanted to depose of their rule. The northern imagery also showed the parts of the Trojan conflict including the detailed illustrations of violence and helplessness of the people during the event. Other metopes also showed the Amazonian battles as well as the Centaurs issue versus the Lapiths (Nardo 43-44). In Greek sculpture, there was a reliance on the use of magical beings that does not exist in the real life situation. The famous Greek sculptor Phidias made the sculpture of the lost goddess, the pale eyed Athena. The symbolism of the Parthenon temple was Athena herself. The people dedicated it to her because of her work and loyalty to the people of Athens. According to Nardo, the Parthenon and its perfection should embody the attributes of a perfect goddess. In a way, the construction of the Parthenon temple was an example of propaganda for the people since the majority of the people worships her.
“The name Parthenon reflected new image of the goddess; In Greek houses a Parthenon was a room in which a woman, ideally a virgin, dwelled before marriage. Therefore, Athena Parthenos, the name of the statue that would stand in Parthenon meant ‘Athena the virgin’ Emphasizing her character stressed her feminine and the purity of her power and wisdom, balancing and complementing her existing images as ‘victor’ and ‘warrior’” (Nardo 31).
Influence of the Parthenon on the Modern Architecture Styles
“You employ stone, wood and concrete, and with these materials you build houses and palaces. That is construction. Ingenuity is at work. But suddenly you touch my heart, do me good, I am happy and I say: “This is beautiful.” That is architecture. Art enters in.”
-Le Corbusier, Toward New Architecture 1927 (qtd. from Ching 407).
A great building is not a finite entity like a painting or sculpture. A Painting or a sculpture is limited to a respective space but architecture always amazes people due to its grandeur. Even though one can describe architecture as building monuments by employing wood, stone or concrete, Architecture is not just defined by the materials required and the procedure of making the building but is also defined by the artistic elements of the building. A construction is a mere building of bricks, stones or concrete but architecture is a blend of construction and art. As stated by Solomon, architecture is not to be equated with building, but it is more than a mere building; it is one of the arts. Architecture is transforming a simple construction into a piece of art. This is what Le Corbusier is trying to convey through the above definition of architecture (19).
However beauty can be found in either decorative forms or symmetrical forms. The architects of Parthenon respect the involvement of art in construction and have proved that simplicity, symmetry and geometry have their own way of displaying grandeur and beauty. The Parthenon is a symbol of beauty in simplicity. Like other architectures in either Egypt or India or any part of the world, Parthenon is like the home of humanity at ease, calm and ordered (Launcher, 294), and that is the sign of simplicity. It is mainly made out of white marble and limestone and yet is beautiful in its own way. The main reason why the architects must have thought to display the beauty of their construction in a grand yet simple manner is due to the fact that it is regarded as a temple dedicated to the Greek Goddess of Wisdom, Athena. Being the goddess of wisdom she definitely would have appreciated this beauty. Hence the Parthenon is a monument which depicts magnificence in geometry, symmetry and simplicity but at the same time is a construction which is still intact despite countless invasions and stands tall, symbolizing the might of the then Athenian empire. Parthenon is the result of refinement in the building of temples in Greece (Cole & Gealt 7). Thus the Parthenon aptly fits Le Corbusier’s definition and is regarded as one of the oldest yet finest works of architecture. The Parthenon temple was the greatest temple ever built by man using simple working tools to hoist and carve stones to a desired shape (Nardo 39) in order for it to fit into the project. Yet, although the ancient Greeks experienced savage wars and loss of livelihood, their lack of it made it possible for them to create a democratic form of government still used up to this day as well as to provide the 21st century of the Parthenon, a building that serves as the gateway to the past. Through its old marble columns, cracked walls, and ruined sculptures, the grandeur and strength of the Parthenon reflects the mastery of their builders to create a wonderful work of art without relying on any modern machinery.
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