The Parthenon is not just an ancient temple or the main structure of the Athenian Acropolis. It is the architectural manifesto of an entire era, the symbol of the golden age of Athenian democracy, and arguably the most recognizable monument of antiquity in the world. Built in the 5th century BCE, it has served for two and a half thousand years as a standard of beauty, harmony, and perfection, influencing architecture and art right up to the present day.
History of the Parthenon
The history of the Parthenon begins with tragedy. On the site of the current temple stood an earlier one, which the Greeks called the "Pre-Parthenon". It was begun after the Battle of Marathon (490 BCE) but was never completed. In 480 BCE, when the Persian king Xerxes invaded Attica, the unfinished sanctuary was brutally destroyed and burned to the ground.
For about 30 years, the ruins stood as a grim reminder of the enemy`s barbarism. Only when Athens took the lead of the Delian League (a military alliance of Greek city-states) and effectively became a maritime empire, did their leader Pericles decide: it was time to rebuild the sanctuary, but on an even grander scale than before.
Construction of the new, present-day Parthenon began in 447 BCE and took only 9 years — an incredibly fast pace for such a monumental marble structure. The architects Ictinus and Callicrates directed the work, while the great Phidias, a friend of Pericles, acted as the chief sculptor and artistic director.
The final decoration (including the pediment sculptures) lasted until 432 BCE. The Parthenon became not just a temple, but a symbol of Athens` power, wealth, and cultural supremacy.
What an Ancient Athenian Would Have Seen
Color: The Parthenon was not white. Archaeological research has proven that all the sculptures and many architectural details were brightly painted. The frieze could be blue, red, or gold. Statues of gods had blue hair and purple robes. The metopes (reliefs between the triglyphs) stood out against a dark blue or red background. The building shouted with color, like a giant fresco, not a stiff white palace.
Gold and Ivory: The main thing that caught your eye when you looked inside the cella (sanctuary) was the 12-meter tall statue of Athena Parthenos by Phidias. Its core was wooden, the face and hands were of ivory plaques, and the clothing, helmet, shield, and spear were of solid gold (about 1,150 kg!). This gold was not just decoration; it was Athens` state gold reserve, which could be melted down and used in a crisis.
Radiance: The marble was fresh, untouched by erosion. On a sunny day, the Acropolis blazed so brightly it was hard to look at. The horizontal lines of the steps and entablature were perfectly polished. The roof was probably marble or covered with tiles.
Sculptures All Around: You could not take your eyes off the figures on the pediments. On the east side — the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus in the presence of all the Olympian gods. On the west side — the contest between Athena and Poseidon for the patronage of Attica. And running around the entire perimeter of the building, at a height of 12 meters, stretched a 160-meter frieze depicting the Panathenaic procession — hundreds of figures of horsemen, sacrificial animals, maidens with offerings, and gods. It was a hymn to the Athenian people, placed on equal footing with the gods.
Architecture of the Parthenon
The architectural miracle of the Parthenon lies in its "imperfections". It is a Doric peripteros (a temple surrounded by columns on all sides) — 8 columns on the façades and 17 on the sides. But the genius of Ictinus and Callicrates lies in the fact that they deliberately broke the rules to deceive the human eye and create a perfect visual perception.
Main Architectural Secrets (Optical Illusions)
Curvature: The steps of the stylobate (the upper platform) are not horizontal. They are curved upward towards the center. If you hold a ruler to the edge of a step, there will be a gap in the middle. This was done to compensate for the sagging under the weight of the building and to ensure rainwater did not pool but drained to the edges.
Entasis: The columns of the Parthenon are not perfectly cylindrical. They are slightly thickened in the middle. If a column were perfectly straight, from a distance its middle would appear thinner than its ends (because of perspective). Entasis creates a feeling of elasticity and strength, as if the column is swelling under the weight of the roof.
Inward Lean of Columns: All the columns lean inward toward the walls of the cella. If you mentally extend their lines upward, they would meet at a height of several kilometers. This technique visually increases the height of the building and gives it stability.
Thicker Corner Columns: The corner columns are slightly thicker than the others. Against the background of the sky, a thin corner column would look like it was "disappearing", while a thicker one appears the same as its neighbors against the dark background of the cella wall.
Varying Spacing Between Columns: The intercolumniations (spaces) at the corners are smaller than in the center of the façade. This compensates for the fact that the corner columns are illuminated by the sun from two sides.
Result: The Parthenon does not look like a dead geometric scheme, but like a living, breathing organism. It is perfectly harmonious from any viewpoint.
Destruction: The Venetian Explosion and the British Looting
What you see today is not simply the "age" of an ancient building. The Parthenon was still almost intact as recently as 350 years ago. Its current state is the result of two tragic events, separated by just over a century.
The 1687 Explosion: A Gunpowder Magazine on the Sacred Rock
By the end of the 17th century, Greece was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. The Turks used the Parthenon as a functioning mosque (having converted it from a Christian church, which it had become in Byzantine times). But in 1687, an event occurred that sealed the temple`s fate.
The Venetian army, commanded by Francesco Morosini, was besieging Athens, trying to drive the Turks out of the Acropolis. The Ottomans, in turn, made a fateful decision: they used the Parthenon as a gunpowder magazine. Inside the ancient sanctuary, they stored barrels of gunpowder and ammunition.
On September 26, 1687, a Venetian mortar fired a shell toward the Acropolis. It hit its target precisely. The resulting explosion was of monstrous force: the roof of the Parthenon collapsed, the central part of the walls was blown to pieces, columns were shattered into drums, and dozens of sculptures were smashed to dust. The explosion killed about 300 people (mostly Turkish soldiers and civilians who had taken refuge on the Acropolis).
The Venetians temporarily captured the Acropolis and, in a cynical act of vandalism, tried to remove the surviving sculptures from the west pediment, but they fell and shattered. The Turks soon returned, but the Parthenon was never the same again — it had been turned into a heap of marble rubble.
The Looting by Lord Elgin (1801–1812): The Marbles Leave for London
Just over a hundred years passed. Greece was still under Ottoman rule. In 1801, the British ambassador to Constantinople, Thomas Bruce, known as Lord Elgin, obtained a firman (permit) from the Sultan. The exact content of this document is still disputed, but Elgin interpreted it as permission to "remove some stones with inscriptions and figures".
What followed was a systematic, industrial-scale looting. A team of artists and workers under Elgin`s direction, over 11 years (1801–1812), removed from the Parthenon everything they could reach:
• 56 metopes (reliefs depicting battles) — almost all that survived.
• 17 figures from the pediments (including the famous horses and gods).
• about 80 meters of the sculptural frieze (roughly half of what remained).
To remove the sculptures, the workers used saws, crowbars, and even winches. Many blocks were broken into pieces for easier transport. What had survived the 1687 explosion was systematically extracted from the ruins and loaded onto ships.
In 1816, the British government bought Elgin`s collection for £35,000 (less than he had spent). Since then, the "Elgin Marbles" (or "Parthenon Marbles", as the Greeks call them) have been in the British Museum in London, displayed in a special gallery.
Greece, since gaining independence (in the 1830s), has waged a continuous struggle for the return of the sculptures. The dispute remains unresolved to this day, and many consider Elgin`s removal to be one of the most egregious acts of cultural vandalism in history.
What Tourists Can See Now
Today`s Parthenon is a tragic beauty. It resembles an ancient skeleton from which the flesh has been stripped, and then they tried to glue the broken bones back together.
Basic Framework: You will see the outer colonnades (many columns partially restored), the entablature (the upper horizontal section), and parts of the cella walls. The north and south sides are better preserved than the west and east.
The Main Wound — The Center of the Building: The most destroyed part is the center — a direct result of the 1687 explosion. It was here that the gunpowder barrels blew apart the inner walls and collapsed the roof. Many marble blocks still lie on the ground around the temple, exactly as they fell after the explosion.
Missing Roof and Pediments: There is no roof. Of the pediment sculptures, only a few torsos and heads remain (and only because they fell and were discovered later by archaeologists). What you see on the east pediment are plaster copies.
Traces of the Looting: Look carefully at the upper part of the building, at the frieze and metopes. Where there were sculptures, you now see gaping voids or metal clamps sticking out of the marble — these are traces of Elgin`s workers prying off the reliefs.
Scaffolding and Cranes: Since 1975, continuous conservation and restoration has been underway. You will almost certainly see scaffolding, cranes, and teams of restorers. Don`t be alarmed — this is part of the process of saving the monument. Greek restorers are literally reassembling the Parthenon like a giant three-dimensional puzzle, using titanium clamps and new pieces of marble from the same Mount Pentelicus.
Color: Instead of bright painting, the marble now has a noble golden-honey hue, especially beautiful at sunset. You can also see dark, almost black spots — traces of ancient fires and 20th-century pollution (acid rain damaged the surface).
What to Pay Attention To (A Practical Guide for Tourists)
The Southeast Corner of the Stylobate. Approach this spot (on the right side when facing the temple). From here, you can best see how the corner columns protrude slightly forward compared to their neighbors. Try to spot the curvature of the steps with your eye — it is especially noticeable at sunset, when long shadows emphasize the curve.
Traces of Cannonballs. On the outer columns on the south side (the side facing the sea), you can see deep gouges and chips. This is not erosion, but traces of cannonballs from the Venetian army of 1687. Some cannonballs remain embedded in the marble — you can see them as round indentations. These are living witnesses to the explosion.
Gaping Holes from the Sculptures. Look at the metopes (the square panels with reliefs, alternating with triglyphs). Many are empty or severely damaged — this is the result of Lord Elgin`s work. Where scenes of battles between Centaurs and Lapiths once stood, there is now smooth marble or ragged edges.
Inner Structure (East Side). Walk around the temple to the east (the side where the entrance to the sanctuary with the giant statue of Athena once was). Here you can clearly see the difference between the outer columns (almost intact) and what remains of the inner walls — a pile of unidentifiable blocks.
The Acropolis Museum (a separate visit, essential!). Be sure to visit the glass museum at the foot of the rock. It is there that the originals of the surviving Parthenon sculptures (those not taken to London) are exhibited. You will see:
• The Caryatids (although they are from the Erechtheion, they are there too).
• The metopes with battles of Centaurs and Lapiths.
• The stunning east pediment with figures of Dionysus, Demeter, and the horse of Helios.
• The original frieze (north and south sides).
• A video reconstruction of how the Parthenon looked in color.
The museum is situated so that from its glass halls you have a view of the actual Parthenon — the architecture of past and present merge into one.
Pentelic Marble Up Close. Touch any block at the base with your hands (this is allowed). Feel its smoothness, its coolness. Notice the veins of quartz embedded in the marble — it is these that create the famous glow in the sun. Imagine that this same stone was used by Phidias and his students.
Final advice: Come at opening time (8:00 AM) or about two hours before sunset. In the morning light, all the nuances of the architecture are visible, and in the rays of the setting sun, the Parthenon blazes with warm gold — this is the very effect for which it is worth enduring the crowds of tourists. And as you look at this gold, remember: you are looking at the same marble that Pericles saw, but disfigured by gunpowder and looted. That makes it even more precious.
