AMAZING STRUCTURES

PARTHENON

The magnificent temple on the Acropolis of Athens, known as the Parthenon, was built between 447 and 432 BCE in the Age of Pericles, and it was dedicated to the city’s patron deity Athena. The temple was constructed to house the new cult statue of the goddess by Pheidias and to proclaim to the world the success of Athens as leader of the coalition of Greek forces which had defeated the invading Persian armies of Darius and Xerxes. The temple would remain in use for more than a thousand years, and despite the ravages of time, explosions, looting, and pollution damage, it still dominates the modern city of Athens, a magnificent testimony to the glory and renown the city enjoyed throughout antiquity.   

The Parthenon is considered a symbol of Ancient greece and Athenian

"Athenian democracy"> democracy , and is one of the world's greatest cultural monuments.

the acropolis itself measures some 300 by 150 metres and is 70 metres high at its maximum. The temple, which would sit on the highest part of the acropolis, was designed by the architects Iktinos and Kallikratis, and the project was overseen by the sculptor Phidias (Pheidias). Pentelic marble from the nearby Mt. Pentelicus was used for the building, and never before had so much marble (22,000 tons)  been used in a Greek temple. Pentelic marble was known for its pure white appearance and fine grain. It also contains traces of iron which over time has oxidised, giving the marble a soft honey colour, a quality particularly evident at sunrise and sunset.

The name Parthenon derives from one of Athena’s many epithets: Athena Parthenos, meaning Virgin. Parthenon means ‘house of Parthenos’ which was the name given in the 5th  BCE to the chamber inside the temple which housed the cult statue. The temple itself was known as the mega neos or ‘large temple’ or alternatively as Hekatompedos neos, which referred to the length of the inner cella: 100 ancient feet. From the 4th  BCE the whole building acquired the name Parthenon.
However, the most important pieces now reside in the Acropolis Museum, a purpose built state-of-the-art exhibition space which opened in 2011 CE and stands in full view of the ruined temple just 300m away, still majestically dominating the skyline of Athens.





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QUESTION!

1. What do you think about that temple?
2. What will you do, if you come this place?
3. From the paragraph above, what are the main ideas of the last paragraph?
4. What is the synonim of magnificent?
5. What is the meaning of the parthenon?