Parthenon history of architecture. Architectural and artistic design of the Parthenon of ancient Greece. The further fate of the Parthenon

Athena patronizes those striving for knowledge, cities and states, sciences and crafts, intelligence, dexterity, and helps those who pray to her to increase their ingenuity in this or that matter. At one time she was one of the most revered and beloved goddesses, competing with Zeus, since she was equal to him in strength and wisdom. She was very proud of the fact that she remained a virgin forever.

Birth of Athena

She was born in an unusual way, like most divine creatures. According to the most common version, Almighty Zeus heeded the advice given by Uranus and Gaia, after which he absorbed his first wife Metis-Wisdom at the time of her pregnancy. A son could be born who would eventually overthrow the Thunderer. After being absorbed from the head of Zeus, his heir, Athena, was born.

Description

The warrior goddess differed from her companions in the pantheon in that she had an extremely unusual appearance. Other female deities were gentle and graceful, while Athena did not hesitate to use male attribute in conducting business. So, she was remembered for wearing armor. She also had her spear with her.

The patroness of urban planning also kept an animal near her, which was given a sacred role. She wore a Corinthian helmet, on the top of which there was a high crest. It is typical for her to wear an aegis, which was covered with goat skin. This shield was decorated with the head that the Winged One, a companion of Athena, lost in the past. The ancient Greeks considered the olive to be a sacred tree and associated it directly with this deity. The symbol of wisdom was the owl, which was not inferior to the snake in this responsible role.

According to legend, Pallas had gray eyes and brown hair. Her eyes were great. In addition to beauty, she also had good military training. She carefully polished her armor and was always ready for battle: her spear was sharpened, and her chariot was ready to rush to the battle for justice. In preparation for battle, she turned to the Cyclops blacksmiths for help.

Shrines erected in her honor

She came to us from ancient times, but the goddess is still worshiped today. Athena is widely revered. The temple is the place where everyone can come and turn to her. People are trying to preserve these places of worship.

One of the most significant buildings glorifying the goddess can be considered the temple created by Pisistratus. Archaeologists excavated two pediments and other details. The Hecatompedon was built in the sixth century. The dimensions of the cella reached one hundred feet. It was found in the nineteenth century by German archaeologists.

On the walls of the building there were paintings from the mythology of the ancient Greeks. For example, there you can see Hercules fighting terrible monsters. An extremely picturesque place!

When this happened, they began building the Opitodom, also dedicated to the warrior. The construction could not be completed, because the Persians soon attacked and plundered the city. Column drums from the northern walls of the Erechtheion have been discovered.

The Parthenon is also considered one of the most significant monuments. This is a unique structure, erected in honor of Athena the Virgin. The structure dates back to the mid-fifth century BC. The architect is considered to be Kallikart.

The old Parthenon left behind several details that were used to build up the Acropolis. Phidias did this during the era of Pericles. Due to the widespread veneration of Athena, temples in her honor were numerous and pompous. Most likely, many of them have not yet been found and will pleasantly please us in the future. Although even now there are a large number of buildings representing a rich historical heritage.

In Athens it can be called an outstanding monument. It was built by Greek architects. The temple of Pallas Athena is located in the north - near the Parthenon on the Acropolis. It was built between 421 and 406 BC, according to archaeologists.

Athena inspired the people to create this beautiful structure. The temple is a model In addition to the goddess of war and knowledge, within these walls you can venerate the ruler of the seas, Poseidon, and even the Athenian king Erechtheus, about whom we can learn from legends.

Historical reference

When Pericles died, Greece began to build the temple of Athena, whose construction was not such an easy task and was completed at the time when the city was destroyed.

According to legend, at the point where the structure was built, the warrior goddess and Poseidon once argued. Everyone wanted to become the ruler of Attica. Information about the Temple of Athena includes references to the most important relics of the polis kept here. Previously, the archaic Hecatompedon, which was built during the reign of Pisistratus, was allocated for this.

The temple was destroyed during the Greco-Persian conflict. The goddess Athena also played a big role in this place. The temple included her wooden idol, which was supposed to have fallen from the sky. Hermes was also revered here.

In the temple, great importance was attached to the flame of the golden lamp, which never went out. It was enough to pour oil into it just once a year. The temple was named in reference to the remains that used to be the tomb of Erechtheus. In addition to everything listed above, there were many other shrines, which, however, were not of such great importance.

Serving the Warrior Goddess

As one of the most important Greek deities, temples and statues of Athena are numerous and impressive. An olive tree was associated with the goddess, which was burned in 480, but it grew from the ashes and continued its life.

The tree grew not far from the temple-sanctuary dedicated to the nymph Pandrosa. Having entered the holy place, one could look into the waters of the well, which was replenished from a salty water spring. It was assumed that the god Poseidon himself knocked him out.

Transfer of ownership of the temple

The goddess Athena did not always reign within these walls. The temple belonged to Christians for some time, who held their services here during the existence of Byzantium.

Until the 17th century, the structure was monitored, maintained and looked after. The damage was done when 1687 brought Venetian troops to Athens. During the siege, the shrine was damaged. When Greek independence was restored, the fragments that had fallen were put back in their proper places. At the moment, unfortunately, there is nothing left but ruins. You can still see the former features in the portico of Pandrosa, which is located on the north side.

Lord Elgin, who was sent by the British to Constantinople in 1802, received permission given by Sultan Selim III to remove from the country all parts of the shrine that could be found with inscriptions or images. One caryatid of the temple was transported to Britain. Now this relic, like the Parthenon frieze, is an exhibit of the British Museum.

Architectural design

This sanctuary has an unusual asymmetrical layout. This is due to the fact that there was a difference between the heights of the soil on which the construction took place. From south to north the ground level decreases. There are two cellas. Each of them had to have an entrance. The structure is abundantly filled with relics of antiquity. Parishioners entered from two entrances: northern and eastern. Ionic porticoes were their decoration.

In the eastern part of the Erechtheion, which was located higher, there was a space dedicated to the guardian of the city, who was Athena-Poliada. The wooden image of the goddess was kept here. When the Panathenaea passed, they made an offering to him of a new peplos. The portico of this cella has six columns.

Interior view of the temple

In the western part of the temple one could see things and elements that glorified Poseidon and Erechtheus. On the front side there is a restriction that is created by two antas. Between them there are four semi-columns.

The presence of two porticoes has been confirmed: northern and southern. The doorway's entrance frame to the north included carvings that included rosettes. The southern side is notable for the famous Portico of the Caryatids.

It was named after six statues just over two meters high. They support the architrave. The sculptures include Pentelicon marble. Today, they are replaced by copies. As for the originals, the British Museum became their repository. Lord Elgin brought one caryatid there.

Also the Acropolis Museum contains the rest. Pandrozeion - this was the name of the portico of the caryatids. Pandrosa was the daughter of Kekrops. The building is named after her. The myths telling about the Cecropids and Erechtheus were taken as the plot on which the frieze was built. Some remains of the monument have survived to this day. The statues, the material for which was Parian marble, were fixed in front of a dark background, which formed the Eleusinian material.

The famous ancient Greek temple, the Parthenon, is located on the famous Acropolis of Athens. This main temple in Ancient Athens is a magnificent monument of ancient architecture. It was built in honor of the patroness of Athens and all of Attica - the goddess Athena.

The construction date of the Parthenon is considered to be 447 BC. It was installed thanks to the found fragments of marble tablets, on which the city authorities presented resolutions and financial reports. Construction lasted 10 years. The temple was consecrated in 438 BC. on the festival of Panathenaia (which translated from Greek means “for all Athenians”), although work on decorating and decorating the temple was carried out until 431 BC.

The initiator of the construction was Pericles, an Athenian statesman, famous commander and reformer. The design and construction of the Parthenon was carried out by the famous ancient Greek architects Ictinus and Kallikrates. The decoration of the temple was made by the greatest sculptor of those times - Phidias. High quality Pentelic marble was used for the construction.

The building was built in the form of a peripterus (a rectangular structure surrounded by columns). The total number of columns is 50 (8 columns on the facades and 17 columns on the sides). The ancient Greeks took into account that straight lines are distorted at a distance, so they resorted to some optical techniques. For example, the columns do not have the same diameter along the entire length; they taper somewhat towards the top, and the corner columns are also inclined towards the center. Thanks to this, the structure seems ideal.

Previously, in the center of the temple there was a statue of Athena Parthenos. The monument was about 12 m high and made of gold and ivory on a wooden base. In one hand the goddess held a statue of Nike, and with the other she leaned on a shield, near which the serpent Erichthonius was curled up. On Athena's head there was a helmet with three large crests (the middle one with the image of a sphinx, the side ones with griffins). The scene of Pandora's birth was carved on the pedestal of the statue. Unfortunately, the statue has not survived to this day and is known from descriptions, images on coins and a few copies.

Over many centuries, the temple was attacked more than once, a significant part of the temple was destroyed, and historical relics were looted. Today, some parts of the masterpieces of ancient sculptural art can be seen in famous museums around the world. The main part of the magnificent works of Phidias was destroyed by people and time.

Restoration work is currently underway; reconstruction plans include maximum recreation of the temple in its original form in ancient times.

The Parthenon, part of the Acropolis of Athens, is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

One of the most revered goddesses by the ancient Greeks, Pallas Athena, was born in a rather unusual way: Zeus, her father, swallowed her mother, Metis (Wisdom), when she was expecting a child. He did this for one simple reason: after the birth of his daughter, he was predicted to have a son who would overthrow the Thunderer from the throne.

But Athena did not want to sink into oblivion - so after a while the Supreme God began to suffer from an unbearable headache: her daughter asked to come out. His head hurt so badly that the Thunderer, unable to bear it, ordered Hephaestus to take an ax and hit him on the head with it. He obeyed and cut his head, releasing Athena. Her eyes were full of wisdom, and she was dressed in warrior clothes, holding a spear in her hand, and an iron helmet on her head.

The goddess of wisdom turned out to be an active resident of Olympus: she came down to the people and taught them a lot, giving them knowledge and crafts. She also paid attention to women: she taught them to do needlework and weave, and took an active part in government affairs - she was the patroness of a just struggle (she taught them how to solve problems peacefully), taught them to write laws, thus becoming the patroness of many Greek cities. For such a majestic goddess it was necessary to build a temple, which, according to descriptions, would not be equal in the whole world.

The Parthenon is located in the capital of Greece, Athens, in the southern part of the Acropolis, an ancient architectural complex located on a rocky hill at an altitude exceeding 150 meters above sea level. m. You can find the Athenian Acropolis Parthenon at the address: Dionysiou Areopagitou 15, Athens 117 42, and on a geographical map you can find out its exact location at the following coordinates: 37° 58′ 17″ N. latitude, 23° 43′ 36″ e. d.

The Parthenon Temple, dedicated to Athena, began to be built on the Acropolis around 447 BC. e. instead of the unfinished sanctuary destroyed by the Persians. The construction of this unique architectural monument was entrusted to the architect Kallikrates, who erected the building according to the design of Iktin.

It took the Hellenes about fifteen years to build the temple, which at that time was a fairly short term, considering that construction and finishing materials were brought from all over Greece.

Fortunately, there was enough money: Athens, whose ruler was Pericles, was just experiencing a period of greatest prosperity and was not only the cultural capital, but also the political center of Attica.

Callicrates and Iktinus, having access to considerable funds and opportunities, during the construction of the temple were able to implement more than one innovative design solution, as a result of which the architecture of the Parthenon turned out to be unlike any other structure of this type.

This was achieved by installing the columns in relation to each other not parallel, but at an angle. Also, the fact that all the pillars had a different shape played a role: so that from a distance the central columns seemed slimmer and not so thin, all the pillars were given a convex shape (the outermost columns turned out to be the thickest), slightly tilting the corner columns towards the center, the central ones away from it .

Penelian marble, mined near the Acropolis, was used as the main building material; according to the description, it is a rather interesting material, since initially it is white, but after some time, under the influence of sunlight, it begins to turn yellow. Therefore, the Parthenon in Athens, upon completion of construction work, turned out to be unevenly painted, which gave it an original and interesting look: on the north side the temple had a gray-ash tint, on the south it turned out to be golden-yellow in color.

Another feature of the ancient temple was that when laying marble blocks, Greek craftsmen did not use either cement or any other solution: the builders carefully ground them around the edges and adjusted them to size to each other (at the same time, they did not trim the inside - this saved time and labor). Larger blocks were located at the base of the building; smaller stones were laid on them, fastened horizontally with iron fasteners, which were inserted into special holes and filled with lead. The blocks were connected vertically with iron pins.

Description

Three steps lead up to the temple, which was dedicated to Athena and is a rectangular building. The Athenian Acropolis Parthenon, about seventy meters long and a little more than thirty meters wide, was surrounded along the perimeter by ten-meter Doric columns about ten meters high. There were seventeen pillars along the side facades, and eight at the ends where the entrances were located.

Unfortunately, due to the fact that most of the pediments were destroyed (only thirty statues survived in very poor condition), there are very few descriptions of exactly what the Parthenon's exterior looked like.

It is known that all sculptural compositions were created with the direct participation of Phidias, who was not only the main architect of the entire Acropolis and developed the plan for this architectural complex, but is also known as the author of one of the wonders of the world - the statue of Zeus at Olympia. There is an assumption that the eastern pediment of the Parthenon contained a bas-relief depicting the birth of Pallas Athena, and the western pediment depicted her dispute with the god of the seas, Poseidon, about who would be the patron of Athens and the whole of Attica.

But the friezes of the temple are well preserved: it is absolutely known that on the eastern side of the Parthenon the struggle of the Lapiths with the centaurs was depicted, on the western side - episodes from the Trojan War, on the southern side - the battle of the Amazons with the Greeks. A total of 92 metopes with various high reliefs were installed, most of which have been preserved. Forty-two slabs are kept in the Acropolis Museum of Athens, fifteen in the British Museum.

Parthenon from inside

To get inside the temple, in addition to the external steps, it was necessary to overcome two more internal ones. The area in the middle of the temple was 59 meters long and 21.7 meters wide and consisted of three rooms. The largest, central one, was surrounded on three sides by 21 columns, which separated it from two small rooms located on either side of it. The inner frieze of the sanctuary depicted a festive procession from Athens to the Acropolis, when the maidens carried a gift to Athena.

In the center of the main platform was the statue of Athena Parthenos, made by Phidias. The sculpture dedicated to the goddess was a real masterpiece. The statue of Athena was thirteen meters high and showed a proudly standing goddess, with a spear in one hand and a two-meter sculpture of Nike in the other. Pallas wore a three-crested helmet on his head, and near his feet there was a shield on which, in addition to scenes from various battles, the initiator of construction, Pericles, was depicted.

It took Phidias more than a ton of gold to make the sculpture (weapons and clothes were poured from it); ebony from which the frame of the statue is made; Athena's face and hands were carved from ivory of the highest quality; precious stones shining in the eyes of the goddess; the most expensive marble was also used. Unfortunately, the statue did not survive: when Christianity became the ruling religion in the country, it was taken to Constantinople, where it was in the 5th century. burned during a strong fire.

Near the western entrance to the shrine there was an opisthodome - a closed room in the back where the city archives and the treasury of the maritime union were kept. The length of the room was 19 m and the width was 14 m.

The room was called the Parthenon (it was thanks to this room that the temple got its name), which translated means “house for girls.” In this room, selected maidens, priestesses, made peplos (sleeveless women's outerwear sewn from light material, which Athenians wore over a tunic), which was presented to Athena during a solemn procession that took place every four years.

Dark days of the Parthenon

The last ruler who favored and cared for this architectural monument was Alexander the Great (he even installed fourteen shields on the eastern pediment and presented the goddess with the armor of three hundred defeated enemies). After his death, dark days came for the temple.

One of the Macedonian rulers, Demetrius I Poliorcetes, settled here with his mistresses, and the next ruler of Athens, Lacharus, tore off all the gold from the sculpture of the goddess, and the shields of Alexander from the pediments, in order to pay off the soldiers. In III Art. BC e a major fire occurred in the temple, during which the roof and fittings collapsed, the marble cracked, the colonnade partially collapsed, the doors of the temple, one of the friezes and ceilings burned down.

When the Greeks adopted Christianity, they made a church out of the Parthenon (this happened in the 6th century AD), making appropriate changes to its architecture and completing the premises necessary for Christian rituals. The most valuable thing that was in the pagan temple was taken to Constantinople, and the rest was either destroyed or severely damaged (primarily this applies to sculptures and bas-reliefs of the building).

In the XV century. Athens came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, as a result of which the temple was transformed into a mosque. The Turks did not make any special alterations and calmly held services among Christian paintings. It was the Turkish period that turned out to be one of the most tragic events in the history of the Parthenon: in 1686, the Venetians shelled the Acropolis and Parthenon, where the Turks stored gunpowder.

After about seven hundred cannonballs hit the building, the shrine exploded, as a result of which the central part of the Parthenon, all the internal columns and rooms were completely destroyed, and the roof on the north side collapsed.

After this, the ancient shrine began to be robbed and destroyed by everyone who could: the Athenians used its fragments for domestic needs, and Europeans were able to take the surviving fragments and statues to their homeland (currently, most of the found remains are located either in the Louvre or in the British Museum ).

Restoration

The revival of the Parthenon began no earlier than Greece gained independence, in 1832, and two years later the government declared the Parthenon a monument of ancient heritage.

As a result of the work carried out, after fifty years on the territory of the Acropolis, practically nothing remained of the “barbarian presence”: absolutely all buildings that were not related to the ancient complex were demolished, and the Acropolis itself began to be restored according to the surviving descriptions of what the Parthenon looked like in ancient Greece (currently the temple, like the entire Acropolis, is under the protection of UNESCO).

the main temple of the Athenian Acropolis, dedicated to Athena Parthenos (i.e. the Virgin), the patron goddess of the city. Construction began in 447 BC, the consecration of the temple took place at the Panathenaic festival in 438 BC, but decoration (mainly sculptural work) continued until 432 BC. The Parthenon is a masterpiece of ancient Greek architecture and a symbol of the Greek genius. Story. The new temple was erected at the highest point of the Acropolis, on a site dedicated to the gods. The ancient temples were probably small in size, and therefore significant leveling of the Acropolis was not required. However, in 488 BC. a new temple was founded here to thank Athena for the victory over the Persians at Marathon. Its dimensions in plan are very close to the current Parthenon, and therefore it was necessary to erect a retaining wall in the middle of the southern slope and lay lime blocks at the base, so that the southern edge of the construction site rose above the rock of the Acropolis by more than 7 m. The planned temple was a peripterus with , apparently, there are 6 columns at the ends and 16 at the sides (counting the corner columns twice). Its stylobate (upper platform) and steps, like the columns themselves, as well as other structural elements, were made of marble (or at least intended to be marble). When in 480 BC The Acropolis was captured and plundered by the Persians, the temple under construction, which by that time had been brought only to the height of the second drum of columns, was destroyed by fire, and work was interrupted for more than 30 years. In 454 BC The treasury of the Delian Maritime League was transferred to Athens, where Pericles then ruled, and soon, in 447 BC, construction work on the almost finished site resumed. The Parthenon was erected by the architects Ictinus and Callicrates (also called Carpion), as well as Phidias, who was primarily responsible for the sculpture, but in addition exercised general supervision over the progress of work on the Acropolis. The creation of the Parthenon was part of Pericles' plan for Athens to gain primacy not only in the military and economic fields, but also in religion and art. Other layout changes were also made, and a bell tower was erected in the southwestern corner of the temple. In 662 the temple was re-dedicated in honor of the Most Holy Theotokos (“Panagia Athiniotissa”). After the Turkish conquest, ca. 1460, the building was converted into a mosque. In 1687, when the Venetian military leader F. Morosini was besieging Athens, the Turks used the Parthenon as a gunpowder warehouse, which led to disastrous consequences for the building: a hot cannonball flying into it caused an explosion that destroyed its entire middle part. No repairs were carried out then; on the contrary, local residents began to take away the marble blocks to burn lime from them. Lord T. Elgin, appointed British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in 1799, received permission from the Sultan to export the sculptures. During 1802-1812, the lion's share of the surviving sculptural decoration of the Parthenon was transported to Great Britain and placed in the British Museum (some of the sculptures ended up in the Louvre and Copenhagen, although some remained in Athens). In 1928, a foundation was created with the goal of, as far as possible, replacing the fallen columns and entablature blocks, and on May 15, 1930, the northern colonnade of the temple was inaugurated.
In addition to the fact that the Parthenon was restored to the best of its ability, and the original statues were replaced with copies and sent to the museum for storage, the Greek government is actively working to return the exported fragments of the temple to the country. And here there is an interesting point: the British Museum agreed to do this, but on the condition that the Greek government recognizes the museum as their legal owner. But the Greeks do not agree with this formulation of the issue, since this would mean that they have forgiven the theft of the statues two hundred years ago and are actively fighting for the statues to be returned to them without any conditions. The Parthenon in its current form is a Doric order peripter standing on three marble steps (total height approx. 1.5 m), having 8 columns at the ends and 17 on the sides (if you count the corner columns twice). The height of the peristyle columns, made up of 10-12 drums, is 10.4 m, their diameter at the base is 1.9 m, the corner columns are slightly thicker (1.95 m). The columns have 20 flutes (vertical grooves) and taper towards the top. The dimensions of the temple in plan (according to the stylobate) are 30.9 * 69.5 m. The interior of the temple, or cella (external size 21.7 * 59 m), is raised above the stylobate by two more steps (total height 0.7 m) and It has six-column protile porticoes at the ends, the columns of which are slightly lower than in the outer colonnade. The cella is divided into two rooms. The eastern one, longer and called hecatompedon (internal size 29.9 * 19.2 m), was divided into three naves by two rows of 9 Doric columns, which were closed at the western end by a transverse row of three additional columns. It is assumed that there was a second tier of Doric columns, which was located above the first and provided the required height of the ceilings. In the space enclosed by the inner colonnade, there was a colossal (12 m in height) chrysoelephantine (made of gold and ivory) cult statue of Athena by Phidias. In the 2nd century. AD it was described by Pausanias, and its general appearance is known from several smaller copies and numerous images on coins. The ceilings of the western room of the cella (internal size 13.9 * 19.2 m), which was called the Parthenon (the treasury of the Delian League and the state archive were kept here; over time, the name was transferred to the entire temple), rested on four high columns, presumably Ionic. All elements of the Parthenon's structure, including the roof tiles and stylobate steps, were hewn from local Pentelic marble, almost white immediately after quarrying, but over time acquiring a warm yellowish tint. No mortar or cement was used and the masonry was done dry. The blocks were carefully adjusted to each other, the horizontal connection between them was carried out using I-beam iron fasteners placed in special grooves and filled with lead, the vertical connection was made using iron pins.
Sculpture. The decoration of the temple, which complemented its architecture, is divided into three main categories: metopes, or square panels, equipped with high reliefs, located between the triglyphs of the frieze above the outer colonnade; a bas-relief that encircled the cella from the outside in a continuous strip; two colossal groups of free-standing sculptures filled the deep (0.9 m) triangular pediments. On 92 metopes scenes of martial arts are presented: gods and giants on the eastern side, lapiths and centaurs (they are best preserved) on the southern side, Greeks and Amazons on the western side, participants in the Trojan War (presumably) on the northern side. The sculptural group on the eastern pediment depicted the birth of Athena, who, fully armed, jumped out of the head of Zeus after the blacksmith god Hephaestus cut the head with an ax. The group on the western pediment represented the dispute over Attica between Athena and Poseidon, when the olive tree donated by the goddess was considered a more valuable gift than the source of salt water discovered in the rock by Poseidon. A few statues have survived from both groups, but it is clear from them that this was a great artistic creation of the mid-5th century. BC. The bas-relief strip on top of the cella (total length 160 m, height 1 m, height from the stylobate 11 m, in total there were about 350 foot and 150 horse figures) depicted the Panathenaic procession, which annually presented Athena with a new robe - peplos. Along the northern and southern sides are horsemen, chariots, and citizens of Athens moving from west to east, and closer to the head of the procession are musicians, people with gifts, sacrificial sheep and bulls. Along the western end wall, above the portico, there are groups of cavalrymen standing near their horses, mounted on them or already leaving (this part of the bas-relief remained in Athens). At the eastern end there is a central group of the procession, consisting of the priest and priestess of Athena with three young servants: the priest accepts a folded peplos. On the sides of this scene are figures of the most important gods of the Greek pantheon. They are divided into two groups and turned to face outward, towards the corners of the building, as if watching the approach of the procession. Next to them, on the right and left, are two groups of citizens or officials, and on the edges are slowly moving people leading the procession.
"Refinements" of the Parthenon. The meticulous thoughtfulness of the Parthenon's design, with the goal of depriving the building of mechanical straightforwardness and giving it life, is manifested in a number of “refinements” that are revealed only with special research. Let's mention just a few. The stylobate rises slightly towards the center, the rise along the northern and southern façade is approx. 12 cm, in the north and west - 6.5 mm; the corner columns of the end facades are slightly inclined towards the middle, and the two middle ones, on the contrary, are inclined towards the corners; the trunks of all columns have a slight swelling, entasis, in the middle; the front surface of the entablature is slightly inclined outward, and the pediment inward; The diameter of the corner columns, visible against the sky, is slightly larger than that of the others, and in addition, in cross section they represent a complex figure, different from a circle. Many details of the building were painted. The lower surface of the echinus (the extensions on the capitals of the columns) was red, as was the tenia (the belt between the architrave and the frieze). Red and blue colors were used on the bottom surface of the cornice. The marble caissons covering the colonnade were shaded in red, blue and gold or yellow. Color was also used to emphasize the elements of sculpture. Bronze wreaths were also used in the decoration of the building, as evidenced by holes drilled in the architrave for their fastening.

Collier's Encyclopedia. - Open Society. 2000 .

Restoration work is currently underway; reconstruction plans include maximum recreation of the temple in its original form in ancient times.

The Parthenon, part of the Acropolis of Athens, is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.