35 Facts About Parthenon

1.

Parthenon is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the goddess Athena during the fifth century BC.

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2.

Parthenon was built in thanksgiving for the Hellenic victory over Persian invaders during the Greco-Persian Wars.

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3.

Origin of the word "Parthenon" comes from the Greek word, meaning "maiden, girl" as well as "virgin, unmarried woman.

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4.

Jamauri D Green claims that the Parthenon was the room where the arrephoroi, a group of four young girls chosen to serve Athena each year, wove a peplos that was presented to Athena during Panathenaic Festivals.

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5.

Christopher Pelling asserts that the name "Parthenon" means the "temple of the virgin goddess, " referring to the cult of Athena Parthenos that was associated with the temple.

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6.

In that case, the room originally known as the Parthenon could have been a part of the temple known today as the Erechtheion.

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7.

Douglas Frame writes that the name "Parthenon" was a nickname related to the statue of Athena Parthenos, and only appeared a century after construction.

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8.

Parthenon contends that "Athena's temple was never officially called the Parthenon and she herself most likely never had the cult title parthenos.

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9.

The first instance in which Parthenon definitely refers to the entire building comes from the fourth century BC orator Demosthenes.

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10.

Parthenon was dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena it has sometimes been referred to as the Temple of Minerva, the Roman name for Athena, particularly during the 19th century.

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11.

Some scholars, therefore, argue that the Parthenon should be viewed as a grand setting for a monumental votive statue rather than as a cult site.

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12.

Parthenon's argues a pedagogical function for the Parthenon's sculptured decoration, one that establishes and perpetuates Athenian foundation myth, memory, values and identity.

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13.

The findings of this dig allowed Wilhelm Dorpfeld, then director of the German Archaeological Institute, to assert that there existed a distinct substructure to the original Parthenon, called Parthenon I by Dorpfeld, not immediately below the present edifice as previously assumed.

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14.

Dorpfeld's observation was that the three steps of the first Parthenon consisted of two steps of Poros limestone, the same as the foundations, and a top step of Karrha limestone that was covered by the lowest step of the Periclean Parthenon.

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15.

Hill claimed that the Karrha limestone step Dorpfeld thought was the highest of Parthenon I was the lowest of the three steps of Parthenon II, whose stylobate dimensions Hill calculated at 23.

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16.

One difficulty in dating the proto-Parthenon is that at the time of the 1885 excavation, the archaeological method of seriation was not fully developed; the careless digging and refilling of the site led to a loss of much valuable information.

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17.

The Parthenon was built under the general supervision of Phidias, who had charge of the sculptural decoration.

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18.

Parthenon was built primarily by men who knew how to work marble.

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19.

Big project like the Parthenon attracted stonemasons from far and wide who travelled to Athens to assist in the project.

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20.

Parthenon is a peripteral octastyle Doric temple with Ionic architectural features.

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21.

Parthenon has been described as "the culmination of the development of the Doric order.

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22.

The Parthenon had 46 outer columns and 23 inner columns in total, each column having 20 flutes.

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23.

Parthenon is regarded as the finest example of Greek architecture.

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24.

Frieze of the Parthenon's entablature contained 92 metopes, 14 each on the east and west sides, 32 each on the north and south sides.

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25.

Mythological figures of the metopes of the East, North, and West sides of the Parthenon had been deliberately mutilated by Christian iconoclasts in late antiquity.

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26.

Parthenon's identifies the central panel above the door of the Parthenon as the pre-battle sacrifice of the daughter of the king Erechtheus, a sacrifice that ensured Athenian victory over Eumolpos and his Thracian army.

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27.

Only piece of sculpture from the Parthenon known to be from the hand of Phidias was the statue of Athena housed in the naos.

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28.

Parthenon survived as a temple dedicated to Athena for nearly 1, 000 years until Theodosius II, during the Persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire, decreed in 435 that all pagan temples in the Eastern Roman Empire be closed.

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29.

Parthenon was converted into a Christian church in the final decades of the fifth century to become the Church of the Parthenos Maria or the Church of the Theotokos (Mother of God).

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30.

Parthenon became the fourth most important Christian pilgrimage destination in the Eastern Roman Empire after Constantinople, Ephesos, and Thessaloniki.

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31.

The apse became a mihrab, the tower previously constructed during the Roman Catholic occupation of the Parthenon was extended upwards to become a minaret, a minbar was installed, the Christian altar and iconostasis were removed, and the walls were whitewashed to cover icons of Christian saints and other Christian imagery.

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32.

Accounts written at the time conflict over whether this destruction was deliberate or accidental; one such account, written by the German officer Sobievolski, states that a Turkish deserter revealed to Morosini the use to which the Turks had put the Parthenon; expecting that the Venetians would not target a building of such historic importance.

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33.

The image of the small mosque within the Parthenon's cella has been preserved in Joly de Lotbiniere's photograph, published in Lerebours's Excursions Daguerriennes in 1842: the first photograph of the Acropolis.

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34.

Today it attracts millions of tourists every year, who travel up the path at the western end of the Acropolis, through the restored Propylaea, and up the Panathenaic Way to the Parthenon, which is surrounded by a low fence to prevent damage.

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35.

Dispute centres around the Parthenon Marbles removed by Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, from 1801 to 1803, which are in the British Museum.

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