About forty paces from the Propylæa, straight on, we come to a large cutting in the rock, the supposed site of the bronze statue of Athena Promachos, about 26 ft. high, by Phidias, erected with the booty of Marathon. The goddess was represented in full armour, with shield and lance. The gilded point of the lance, gleaming in the sun, was a landmark for sailors rounding Cape Colonna. The principal roadway, once used by the festal processions, passes between the Erechtheion and the Parthenon to the E. front of the latter.
The **Parthenon, the most perfect monument of ancient art, once far surpassing all other Athenian buildings in the brilliancy of its plastic and polychrome decoration, and even in its ruins a marvel of majestic beauty, stands on the highest S. margin of the Acropolis precincts. On this site, as early as the middle of the 6th cent., a large temple was begun, adjoining the ancient Hekatompedon (p. [518]), in poros or Piræan stone, and after the battle of Marathon down to the Persian occupation was continued in marble. In the time of Perikles, after 447, the whole edifice as it now stands was rebuilt in Pentelic marble. The architects were Iktinos and Kallikrates, but Perikles himself presided over the works and provided the funds. The external sculptures are attributed to Phidias and his pupils. The temple was probably opened for worship in 438, on the occasion of the erection of the statue of Athena at the Panathenæan Festival. This marvellous work must therefore have been completed within ten years. Its decoration alone included 98 columns, 50 life-size statues for the pediments, a frieze 524 ft. long, 92 metopes, and a gold and ivory figure of Athena 43 ft. high.
On the massive basement in three steps, whose Stylobate, or platform for the colonnade, measures 75½ by 33 yds., rise 46 Doric columns averaging 34 ft. high, eight at each end and seventeen on each side (the corner-columns being counted twice). On the abaci of the columns rests the undivided Architrave or Epistyle, above which runs a Triglyph Frieze, the most characteristic feature of the Doric order. This consists of triglyphs or triple grooves, alternating with metopes or flat spaces, which in this case are adorned with reliefs. Above the frieze is the geison, or lowest flat moulding of the cornice, while below each triglyph hang regulae (guttae, or drops), corresponding with drops above it. The triglyphs and drops were painted blue, the ground of the metopes blue or red, and the lower surface of the geison and the continuous moulding above the frieze and architrave red. The smooth spaces in front were left white, as were also the columns, with the exception of the four rings or annuli below the capitals.
The gable-roof rose at an angle of 13½°. At each end is a pediment, framing the tympanum, or receding space for statuary 91½ ft. long, 3 ft. deep, and in the centre 10½ ft. high. It was painted red at the back, so as to throw the statues into strong relief. The raised edges (simae) of the external members of the pediment, 18½ inches high, are intended to prevent the rain-water from escaping over the front; they were adorned with wreaths of foliage. The pediment was crowned with a boldly executed palmette, and at each corner was placed a golden oil-jar.—The roof, resting partly on timber and partly on stone framework, consisted of slabs of Parian marble 1¼ in. thick; it was edged with artistic antefixae, or hollowed tiles, between which the rain-water escaped. The lions’ heads at the ends of each side were purely ornamental.
The Cella, or sanctuary proper, enclosed by the outer colonnades, is raised two steps above the stylobate. At each end a portico is formed by six Doric columns, 33 ft. high, and by the projecting sides. Above the architrave, round the whole building ran a frieze, of which hardly any traces remain except on the W. side (comp. p. [517]).—The porticos were closed by high bronze railings between the columns. From the E. portico massive folding doors led into the interior, which was divided by a partition into an eastern and a smaller western section. The former, the inner sanctuary, was known as the Hekatompedon, being ‘100 ft. long’ (comp. p. [518]). It was divided into three aisles by two rows of Doric columns (9 in each). On a square of darker stone in the pavement stood the famous gold and ivory statue of Athena Parthenos by Phidias. The ceiling was of wood in lacunars, which were doubtless richly coloured. Light was admitted by the door alone. The walls were painted dark-red, but no adequate idea can now be formed of the original wealth of colouring.—Between the partition and the W. portico, which is supposed to have formed a kind of treasury (opisthodomos), lay the W. section of the cella, 14 yds. in depth, sometimes called the Parthenon in the narrower sense.
The crowning glory of the Parthenon consisted in its plastic decoration, executed under the direction of Phidias. Most of the sculptures still preserved were taken to London by Lord Elgin in 1802–3 and are now in the British Museum, but there are several others in the Acropolis Museum (see p. [519]).
The E. Tympanum was devoted to the nativity of Athena. All that remains of its sculptures in their original position consists of two horses’ heads belonging to the chariot of the rising Helios, on the left, and remains of a horse’s head of the chariot of the setting Selene, on the right. In the W. Tympanum, which illustrated the victory of Athena over Poseidon in their contest for the possession of Attica, are still seen, near the left angle, a half-recumbent male figure, round whose neck is the arm of a kneeling woman (Æsculapius and Hygieia?), and in the right angle a female figure supposed to be Kallirrhoë (p. [512]).
The Metope Reliefs are of inferior artistic value. Of the 92 there still exist the 28 at each end and 12 on the N. side. They represent the conflicts of the gods with the Giants (E.), of the Lapithæ and Athenians with the Centaurs (S.), of the Athenians with the Amazons (W.), and lastly the siege of Troy. The high relief in some cases assumes an almost entirely rounded form.
The masterpiece of Attic bas-relief is the *Frieze of the cella wall, 175 yds. long and 39 in. high. On the W. front the greater part of it has been preserved, but on the S. side there are only scanty fragments. Twenty-two slabs are now in the Acropolis Museum (see p. [519]). The reliefs represented the festal procession in which every four years, at the close of the Panathenæa, the maidens of Athens presented the goddess with a magnificent woven robe. Over the chief entrance is the presentation of the robe to Athena; to the right and left of it are the assembled gods; on the sides and at the back are Athenians. The figures were executed in low relief of 2–2½ in. only, in order to prevent strong shadows being thrown by the light entering the covered hall from below. The effect was enhanced by painting and mountings in metal.
In the hollows on the S. side of the Parthenon, far below, may be traced the line of the Pelasgic Wall (p. [512]), which was covered up when the terrace of the temple was formed. Excavations here, and notably also to the N.W. of the Erechtheion, brought to light a number of archaic statues and architectural fragments dating from the Persian destruction.