Jan Mainzer, Ph. D.
Department of Art and Art History, Marist College, Poughkeepsie NY 12601
(845) 575-3000 x 2028 (Library) x 2280 (Donnelley); Jan.Mainzer@marist.edu

Text and images copyright Jan Mainzer 1995, 2000, 2001

Meetings 5 and 6: Ancient Greek Architecture: The Parthenon

Required Reading assignment to support meetings 5 and 6: Stokstad, pp. 162-column 1 of p. 165; 185-196.

Additional recommended reading posted on MERIT (Marist's electronic reserve room)

Required Reading assignment to support meeting 7: (Rome and the Emergence of Christianity. The Early Christian basilica.) Stokstad, pp. 233-236 "Roman History;" pp. 246-249; pp 263-264 "Domestic Architecture;" pp. 279 "The Tetrarchs" thru 284; pp. 289- top of p. 302.

"Flashcard" tutorial Review materials covered in class: Choose either the web-based interactive version of the tutorials, or click on "Microsoft Word version" for tutorials that you can print out and study away from the computer.

The Parthenon

The Parthenon--temple of the goddess Athena-- 
     is considered to be the greatest of the Greek temples in the doric style 
The Parthenon as it exists now is a 
    partial restoration of a sad ruin. 
This is one of the near misses of history:
     The Parthenon stood, more or less intact  until the late 17th century 
     Which is to say that it "made it" for some 2,000 years + 
        we've missed seeing it whole by a mere 300. 
The Turks were at war w/ the 
    Venetians  in the 17th cent (1687, to be exact)
      And they used the main room to store ammunition 
          The Venetians scored a direct hit 
          And that was the end of the Parthenon as a functioning building 
      By a functioning building  I mean that it 
         Had been used continuously as place of worship for close to 2,000 years: 
                  Greek temple 
                  Christian church 
                  a mosque--
                       after the Turks conquered Greece  (Ottoman Empire, ca. 1300-1919) 

The structure as it exists today was reassembled in the l9th century, +
     is now under further restoration


The Parthenon was sacred to Athena  the virgin goddess of Athens  
      --the Parthenon being the "Maiden's Apartment," 
          The Greek word "parthenos" means a young woman (or more rarely, a young man) 
                 who is of marriageable age but unmarried 

Athena was the goddess of orderly war
     She's associated not w/ reckless courage but w/ 
         the discipline + tactics of war 
She also had a peaceful side to her personality The olive tree was sacred to her +  
    She had a strong interest in the crafts:
         Patron of carpenters 
           invented:
               the chariot 
               bridle for the horse 
               the ship 
               wool-working 
                   skilled wool working was a   high status activity among Greek women

Athena was also the goddess of Wisdom
         In one story of her birth, Metis, goddess of wisdom 
              showed bad judgment in getting involved 
                   with Athena's father Zeus, the king of the gods  
         For Zeus was advised that if  Metis bore a son 
               the son would be greater than his father
         This wouldn't do at all, so Zeus dealt w/ this by 
               swallowing Metis whole. 
         Later he got into an argument w/ Hephaistos 
               (the smith god, who made armor for the other gods) 
         Hephaistos hit Zeus on the head w/ an axe and 
              Athena leaped forth out of Zeus's head 
                    fully grown + in armor, shouting a battle cry 

So the Parthenon was a temple in the Doric style
    sacred to Athena, the goddess of wisdom 
 -- but at first the wisdom associated with Athena
            was a crafty, devious + scheming wisdom 
Only later did the Greeks see it as being wisdom associated w/ ethics 
Later still, this idea of Athena's wisdom 
     blended w/ the Christian tradition: 
           Later it was identified in part with
                  Hagaia Sophia, holy wisdom, in the Eastern Christian church 
            Western Christianity: misinterpreted this + assumed that Hagaia Sophia was a 
                      PERSON rather than an idea + so came up with St. Sophia 
As we'll see later in the semester, this kind of
     migration of ideas from one culture to another is not uncommon


How did a Greek temple function?
       It was place of worship, often built on a hill above the city
                to shelter:
                   cult images 
                   a holy place 
                   an altar 
                   a tree 

       Temples seem to have functioned in economic sense as well: 
             as a bank: guarded gifts to god 
             as a record office 
                  gifts to god inventoried 
                  Sometimes also served as business or administrative archives + 
                  Place where citizen lists were kept 

         Sacrifices + sacred rites 
              Some were held inside (sacrifices on indoor altar) 
              but
              Most of the rites were held outside  

This preference for the outdoors  is not really surprising, 
    because Greeks were an outdoor people 
        AND because of this,  
           The exterior of building was emphasized + tended to very sculptural 
            So in a certain sense, the outside was more important than the inside 

(We then looked at a slides of reconstruction drawings of the Parthenon)
Sculptural aspects of Greek temples:
Not only did temples have lots of sculptural ornamentation
   BUT 
     1. they were meant to be approached from all sides 
     2. they had a lot of open space: colonnades (rows of columns) invited walking 
     3. Colonnade around the inner chamber was meant to produce strong contrasts of light + shadow 

Parthenon a variation of a traditional ground plan

Altho there were many variations of Greek temples 
     These temples tended to be variations of a basic and simple design 
Altho the Parthenon is unusual in some ways, basically it follows a typical plan 

Here is an image map of the ground plan of the Parthenon:
(remember that you're responsible for knowing the info linked to the image map)   

The Parthenon is built in a style called doric,
    which is one of 3 main orders, or styles of Greek temple architecture
              Doric
              Ionic +
              Corinthian
Doric is the oldest one, + developed on the Greek mainland 

It's beyond the scope of our class to discuss the 
   differences between these styles or the complex details of how they developed 
But as you can see in the diagram below, 

the Parthenon follows the design of a typical Greek temple:
   3 large steps at the bottom 
   columns 
      and you can tell its a Doric column 
             because the capital, or top of the column is very simple 
   the top (or entablature) which is a horizontal section w/ 
         some ornamentation
         a  sloped roof + 
         a triangular space, or pediment which usually had sculpture in it 
             In Parthenon, 
                 West facade: 
                     contest between Athena + Poseidon --god of sea 
                     over who would be patron of Athens 
                 East facade: The birth of Athena 

 The Architectural elements were painted 
        Only at the top (the entablature), + 
        Only the non-essential elements painted
 It's thought that 
      Horizontal elements were painted red, + 
      Vertical elements blue 
           Possibly to make the shape of the temple show clearly against the sky  

Greek sculpture was painted  
  So that means that the 
       sculpture in the triangular part--or pediment--was also painted

Where did this traditional temple form come from? 
It's thought that it evolved from the domestic architecture of Mycenae:
       from a characteristic building called a megaron (literally, "big room")
The earliest temples were built 
      mostly of perishable materials 
          Including:
             mud brick 
             wood + and 
             thatch 
                (a roof made of straw, or other plant material)

Gradually, (ca. the 7th century BC)
     these materials were replaced by stonework, +
      w/ terra cotta (ceramic) tiles for the roof
It's thought that some of the 
     rather strange traditional ornamentation 
           the smooth horizontal part architrave
               w/ the textured part above, triglyphs + metopes
     reflects the structure of the earlier forms--
          in the same way that today vinyl siding--used widely in our domestic architecture--
               reflects an older style of building in wood

Below is an image map

Remember that you're responsible for knowing info linked to image maps

  


Before it was blown up 
   The Parthenon was a beautifully constructed building  + 
        demonstrated (+ still demonstrates) 
             a characteristic or trick of the building trade called entasis

If you look carefully at a picture of the Parthenon 
 you'll see that the columns aren't straight--They bulge slightly.

This departure from a straight line is easier to see in temples built earlier than the Parthenon. If you look at illustrations 5-9 and 5-10 on page 162 of Stokstad ( the Temple of Hera at Paestum) you'll see that the columns are almost shaped like fat cigars.

Why would the Greeks do this? 

The prevailing theory  is that meant to correct the 
   optical illusion that a long line that is truly straight 
          will tend to appear to be concave--to look like it's sagging 
By departing from a straight line it also gives the building a
         liveliness it would not otherwise have

I saw a good demonstration of this in the well-intentioned efforts of a developer in my old neighborhood in Brooklyn. He built a townhouse in an empty lot + tried to make it fit into the federal style of the buildings on either side, which meant they had columns on either side of the front door. All the other columns on the block had entasis, while his were dead straight and the result was awful. Visually, that doorway was very weak + had no life to it at all

SO: entasis is a correction for the optical illusion 
     that a straight line tends to appear concave. 
       And it's used in the making of columns  
In the Parthenon (+ in other temples as well) 
      the principle is extended further. 
The base w/ the steps (Stylobate) +  the architrave curve upward about 4" at center
            Or precisely 1/1,000 of its length 
               (on the short sides) 
              ((Long side: a little more pronounced))  
    There's entasis on the doorjambs  
    And all of the columns tip in very slightly: 
       If you extended the lines of the corner columns up into the air 
          they'd meet about a mile + a half up 
These are very slight modifications
      But the result is that there are no true right angles in the building 

And if you look carefully  at a good photo of the Parthenon, 
    you'll see that the  building is  scrunched a little bit: 
The columns at the center are more widely placed than at the sides. 
    As a result, the plaques with the sculptures (metopes) are widest in the center as well.
Reason for this lies in  the problem of what do you do with the triglyphs when you reach a corner:
    Especially if the triglyph is "supposed"  to be exactly above the center of each column? 
      Slight contraction of the facade is the answer, so that the illusion is that the triglyphs are evenly spaced; 
BUT  the outside ones land neatly  in the corners of the building

The Parthenon, then, is a building 
    that at first might look like it could be a deadly exercise in repetition 
But in reality it has an aliveness that comes from 
    slight deviations from 
          straight lines + 
          absolutely even spacing







(above: drawing from the Parthenon Frieze)
  
One of the most famous + well-loved parts of the 
    Parthenon is a very long 
       relief sculpture (sculpture that's carved on 
          a flat surface, rather than being freestanding) called the Parthenon frieze 
                   (a frieze is a horizontal band of ornament or sculpture)
    It's essentially a carved mural 
      which goes around the top of the outside of the cella, 
          inside the colonnade that goes around the building 

This is an unusual thing to find in a Doric temple, +
     the sculpture itself two unusual features 
        1. It shows the passage of TIME 
        2. It's the FIRST representation of mortals on temple sculpture

The concept of the sculpture is simple + lovely: 
   It  represents the Panathenac procession 
     in which the Athenians paraded up to the 
       Acropolis (where the Parthenon is) 
         every four years to present a new peplos (or dress) to the 
              ancient image of Athena that was kept 
                not in the Parthenon but in another building on the Acropolis, 
         This is quite appropriate, for you'll
             recall that Athena was the inventor + patron of working in wool 

But even though the frieze was put in an out-of-the-way place under the eves 
        there were many people at the time who were uncomfortable w/ the Athenians 
              putting images of themselves on a temple along w/ images of the gods

(We then looked at a number of slides of the Parthenon Frieze)

The procession begins on the west end 
    where the riders are busy w/ last minute preparations 	
The procession then picks up speed  + 
  goes up both north + south sides toward the East end, 
      where it ends over the door to the cella
The horses + riders gallop energetically
     then things slow down a bit + become more dignified
          w/ heroes, maidens, elders, youths carrying water jars
              musicians + folks leading sacrificial animals
And then at last, the gods, seated on the east end over the door