The Stones of Greece





Athens
Google-Map


Athens from Philopappos Hill
Photo: RWFG 1953





The Acropolis
12th-5th cent BC


T
he entrance to th Acropolis

There is little doubt that a Mycenaean megaron stood upon the hill during the late Bronze Age.[citation needed] Nothing of this megaron survives except, probably, a single limestone column-base and pieces of several sandstone steps. Soon after the palace was constructed, a Cyclopean massive circuit wall was built, 760 meters long, up to 10 meters high, and ranging from 3.5 to 6 meters thick. This wall would serve as the main defense for the acropolis until the 5th century.

A temple sacred to "Athena Polias" (Protectress of the City) was quickly erected by mid-6th century BC. This Doric limestone building, from which many relics survive, is referred to as the "Bluebeard" temple, named after the pedimental three-bodied man-serpent sculpture, whose beards were painted dark blue. This temple of Athena Polias was built upon the Doerpfeld foundations.

To confuse matters, by the time the "Bluebeard" Temple had been dismantled, a newer and grander marble building, the "Older Parthenon" (often called the "Ur-Parthenon", German for "Early Parthenon"), was started following the victory at Marathon in 490 BC.

The Older Parthenon was still under construction when the Persians sacked the city in 480 BC. The building was burned and looted, along with the Archaios Naos and practically everything else on the rock.


Plan of the Acropolis from Planetware

Most of the major temples, including the Parthenon, were rebuilt under the leadership of Pericles during the Golden Age of Athens (460–430 BC). Phidias, a great Athenian sculptor, and Ictinus and Callicrates, two famous architects, were responsible for the reconstruction. During the 5th century BC, the Acropolis gained its final shape.

In the Byzantine period, the Parthenon was turned into a church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Under the Latin Duchy of Athens, the Acropolis functioned as the city's administrative center, with the Parthenon as its cathedral, and the Propylaia as part of the Ducal Palace.

After the Ottoman conquest of Greece, the Parthenon was used as the garrison headquarters of the Turkish army,[13] and the Erechtheum was turned into the Governor's private Harem. The buildings of the Acropolis suffered significant damage during the 1687 siege by the Venetians in the Morean War. The Parthenon, which was being used as a gunpowder magazine, was hit by artillery fire and severely damaged.
Wikipedia



The Propylaea
437-432 BC



View West from the Propylaia. The city, Piraeus and Salamis. The Nike temple on the left. RWFG 1954

According to Plutarch, the Propylaea were designed by the architect Mnesicles, but we know nothing more about him. Construction began in 437 BCE and was terminated in 432, when the building was still unfinished.

To the right of the Propylaea and further west, on the raised bastion prepared for it, stands the Temple of Athena Nike. As a result of the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta in 431 BCE, the Propylaea was never completed. Not only are the eastern wings missing, the wall surfaces were not trimmed to their finished shapes, and so-called lifting bosses remain on many blocks.

The Propylaea survived intact through the Greek, Roman and Byzantine periods. During the period of Latin Empire, it served as the palace of the de la Roche family, who held the title Duke of Athens from 1204 to 1311. It was severely damaged by an explosion of a powder magazine in 1656. A tower of French or Ottoman date, erected on the south wing, was pulled down in 1874.



The re-erected ionic column in the Propylea. The western face of the Parthenon in the background. RWFG 1954

Today the Propylaea has been partly restored, since 1984 under the direction of Dr. Tasos Tanoulas, and serves as the main entrance to the Acropolis for the many thousands of tourists who visit the area every year. In the period before the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, the Propylaea was shrouded in scaffolding as restoration work was undertaken. At the end of 2009 all scaffolding was removed, and the building is now open fully to view again. The famous ceilings have even been partly restored.



The Parthenon
447- 431 BC



Parthenon from the East, RWFG 1953

The Parthenon was built under the general supervision of the sculptor Phidias, who also had charge of the sculptural decoration. The architects, Ictinos and Callicrates, began in 447 BC, and the building was substantially completed by 432, but work on the decorations continued until at least 431. Some of the financial accounts for the Parthenon survive and show that the largest single expense was transporting the stone from Mount Pentelicus, about 16 kilometres from Athens, to the Acropolis.



The Hymettos and the southeastern corner of the Parthenon, RWFG 1953

Even in antiquity, its architectural refinements were legendary, especially the subtle correspondence between the curvature of the stylobate, the taper of the naos walls and the entasis of the columns. Entasis refers to the slight bulge of the columns as they rise, though the observable effect on the Parthenon is considerably more subtle than on earlier temples with their noticeably cigar-shaped columns. The stylobate is the platform on which the columns stand. As in many other classical Greek temples, it has a slight parabolic upward curvature intended to shed rainwater and reinforce the building against earthquakes. The columns might therefore be supposed to lean outwards, but they actually lean slightly inwards so that if they carried on, they would meet exactly a mile above the centre of the Parthenon; since they are all the same height, the curvature of the outer stylobate edge is transmitted to the architrave and roof above.

The Parthenon, an octostyle, peripteral Doric temple with Ionic architectural features, housed the chryselephantine statue of Athena Parthenos sculpted by Phidias and dedicated in 439 or 438 BC. The decorative stonework was originally highly coloured. The temple was dedicated to Athena at that time, though construction continued until almost the beginning of the Peloponnesian War in 432. By the year 438, the sculptural decoration of the Doric metopes on the frieze above the exterior colonnade, and of the Ionic frieze around the upper portion of the walls of the cella, had been completed. The richness of the Parthenon's frieze and metope decoration is in agreement with the function of the temple as a treasury: “A Jewel Box of the Gods.”



Block II from the west frieze of the Parthenon, ca. 447–433 BC

The Parthenon frieze is the low relief, pentelic marble sculpture created to adorn the upper part of the Parthenon’s naos. It was sculpted between ca. 443 and 438 BC, most likely under the direction of Pheidias.

A new Interpretation of the Parthenon Frieze
The Parthenon Frieze Re-interpreted by Joan Breton Connelly (1996, 2014).

The conventional interpretation of the Parthenon frieze is that it depicts the Greater Panathenaic Festival procession from the Leokoreion (a burial shrine for three virginal sacrifices!) to the Acropolis. This contention solved nothing and is fraught with problems; only in recent years has an alternative thesis emerged in which the frieze depicts the founding myth of the city of Athens instead of the festival.


The center of the Frieze over the Eastern Door to the Cella: “The Peplos Scene”, photo Wikipedia

The culminating event of the procession are five figures on the east side (above the door to the cella, the focal point of the procession): three girls and an older man. The man, is handing a piece of cloth to the youngest girl on the right. This is usually assumed to be the presentation of Athena’s peplos,

Connelly identifies the central scene on the east frieze not as the handing over of Athena’s peplos, but the donning of sacrificial garb by the daughter of King Erechtheus (the man) in preparation for the sacrifice of her life. This interpretation rests on the text of a fragmentary papyrus of Euripides' play "Erechtheus" where the sacrifice of the life of Erechtheus' youngest daughter Pandora is demanded by the Delphic oracle in order to save the city from destruction by the Eleusinians under Eumolpos. Eumolpos, a son of Poseidon, was trying to take revenge for the choice of Athena as protector of Athens over his father. Pandora's sisters, carrying sacramental gifts, had taken an oath that they would die with her. Pandora was killed by Erechtheus, who was victorious over Eumolpos, and Athens was saved....Pandora's sisters later jumped from the Acropolis to their death, and Erechtheus was swallowed by an earthquake staged by Poseidon.

By implication this interpretation revolutionizes our classical view of the Parthenon and the Acropolis.

For anyone interested in this reinterpretation of the Greek paradigm I highly recommend Connelly's just appeared book “The Parthenon Enigma” (Alfred Knopf, New York, January 2014, 484 pages, ISBN 978-0-307-59338-2). An immensely readable account answering all questions and elaborating on Connelly's thesis of 1996.

Rare photos of the Elgin Marbles are available at Pheidia's Parthenon Frieze in the British Museum in London 
And for a discussion of the history of the
political dispute over the Elgin Marbles see Wikipedia 



The Erechtheion
421-405 BC



Erechtheion, RWFG 1953

The Erechtheion as seen today was built between 421 and 405 BC. Its architect may have been Mnesicles. It derived its name from a shrine dedicated to the legendary Greek hero Erichthonius or King Erechtheus. It is believed to have been a replacement for the Peisistratid temple of Athena Polias destroyed by the Persians in 480 BC.

The entire structure is on a slope, so the west and north sides are about 3 m lower than the south and east sides. It was built entirely of marble from Mount Pentelikon, with friezes of black limestone from Eleusis which bore sculptures executed in relief in white marble. It had elaborately carved doorways and windows, and its columns were ornately decorated (far more so than is visible today);like the Pathenon scuulptures they were painted, gilded and highlighted with gilt bronze and multi-colored inset glass beads. The building is known for early examples of egg-and-dart, and guilloche ornamental moldings.



Erechtheion from the south. The hall of the Karyatids and the Poseidon vestibul, between the two the sacred olive tree of Athena.
An instant photographer had his stand in the shade of the Karyatids. RWFG 1953

On the south side is the porch with the famous Karyatids, six draped female figures as supporting columns, each sculpted in a manner different from the rest and engineered in such a way that their slenderest part, the neck, is capable of supporting the weight of the roof while remaining graceful and feminine. The porch was built to conceal the giant 15-ft beam needed to support the southwest corner of of the building when it had to be drastically reduced in size because of budget cuts following the onset of the Peloponnesian war.

The Erechtheion was associated with some of the most ancient and holy relics of the Athenians: the Palladion, which was a xoanon (a wooden effigy fallen from heaven - not man-made) of Athena Polias (Protectress of the City); the marks of Poseidon's trident and the salt water well (the "salt sea") that resulted from Poseidon's strike; the sacred olive tree that sprouted when Athena struck the rock with her spear in her successful rivalry with Poseidon for the city; the supposed burial places of the mythical kings Cecrops and Erechtheus; the sacred precincts of Cecrops' three daughters, Herse, Pandrosus and Aglaurus; and those of the tribal heroes Pandion and Boutes.

The Erechtheion was dedicated to Athena Polias and Poseidon Erechtheus. Within its foundations lived the sacred snake, who represented the spirit of Cecrops and whose well-being was thought essential for the safety of the city. The snake was fed honey-cakes by the Canephorae, the priestesses of Athena Polias, by custom the women of the ancient family of Eteoboutadae, the supposed descendants of the hero Boutes. The snake's occasional refusal to eat the cakes was thought a disastrous omen.

The Caryatids have been transferred from the old Acropolis Museum (where they had beeen stored after the 1990s) to the New Acropolis Museum. The first was carried over safely on December 9, 2007, via an elaborate system of aerial cranes.
Wikipedia



Athena Nike Temple
427-424

Athena Nike temple above the entry stairs to the Acropolis. RWFG 1985

The Temple of Athena Nike was built between 427 and 424 BC, during the Peace of Nicias. It is a tetrastyle (four column) Ionic structure with a colonnaded portico at both front and rear facades (amphiprostyle), designed by the architect Kallikrates. This building was erected on top of the remains of an earlier 6th century BC temple to Athena, destroyed by the Persians in 480 BC.

The friezes of the building's entablature were decorated on all sides with relief sculpture in the idealized classical style of the 5th century BC. The north frieze depicted a battle between Greeks entailing cavalry. The south frieze showed the decisive victory over the Persians at the battle of Plataea. The east frieze showed an assembly of the gods Athena, Zeus and Poseidon, rendering Athenian religious beliefs and reverence for the gods bound up in the social and political climate of 5th Century Athens.



Dionysos Theater
6th cent - 325 BC

Dionysos Theater at the foot of the south side of the Acropolis, RWFG 1985

During the sixth century BC, performances associated with the festivals of Dionysus were probably held in the Athenian agora . After the collapse of the orchestra there, the dramatic and musical contests were moved to the precinct of Dionysus on the slope of the Acropolis.

The Theater of Dionysus in its present state dates largely to the period of the Athenian statesman Lycurgus (ca. 390-325/4 BCE), who, as overseer of the city's finances and building program, refurbished the theater in stone in monumental form. The fourth century theater had a permanent stage extending in front of the orchestra and a three-tiered seating area (theatron) that stretched up the slope. The scene building had projecting wings at both ends (paraskenia), which might have accommodated stairways or movable scenery.

Alterations to the stage were made in the subsequent Hellenistic period, and 67 marble thrones were added around the periphery of the orchestra, inscribed with the names of the dignitaries that occupied them. The Theater of Dionysus underwent a modernization in the Roman period, although the Greek theater retained much of its integrity and general form. An entirely new stage was built in the first century AD, dedicated to Dionysus and the Roman emperor Nero.

The theatre was dedicated to Dionysus, as the patron of drama; it hosted the City Dionysia festival. Among those who competed were the dramatists of the classical era: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, and Menander. The advent of tragedy, in particular, is credited to the Athenians with festivals staged during specific times of year. These dramatic festivals were competitive among playwrights and involved the production of four plays, three tragedies and one satyr play featuring lighter themes. Early on, the subject matter of the four plays was often linked, with the three tragedies forming a trilogy, such as the Oresteia of Aeschylus. This famous trilogy (Agamemnon, Choephori, and Eumenides) won the competition of 458 BCE held in the Theater of Dionysus. One famous trilogy by Aeschylos told the story of the curse on the House of Atreus: Agamemnon’s murder by his wife, the revenge of their son, Orestes, upon his mother, and Orestes’ trial in Athens. These performances were not diversions they were sacred acts that redefined Greek religion.
Wikipedia



Herodes Atticus Odeon
161 BC

A modern stage performance in the Herodes Atticus Theater

The Herodes Atticus Theatre was built in 161 AD by the Athenian magnate Herodes Atticus in memory of his wife, Aspasia Annia Regilla. It is a steep-sloped theater with a three-story stone front wall and had a wooden roof made of expensive, cedar of Lebanon timber.

The seats and the stage were restored using pentelic marble in the 1950s. Since then it has been the main venue of the Athens Festival, which runs from May through October each year, featuring a variety of international musical performances as well as revived ancient Greek plays - unique experiences in every respect....
Wikipedia



Ariopagos
5th-4th cent BC

The Ariopagus or Areios Pagos (Ancient Greek: Ἄρειος Πάγος) is the "Rock of Ares", north-west of the Acropolis.

In classical times it functioned as the high Court of Appeal for criminal and civil cases in Athens. Ares was supposed to have been tried here by the gods for the murder of Poseidon's son Alirrothios (a typical example of an aetiological myth). 

The origin of its name is not clear. In Greek pagos means big piece of rock. Areios could have come from Ares or from the Erinyes, as on its foot was erected a temple dedicated to the Erinyes where murderers used to find shelter so as not to face the consequences of their actions.

In pre-classical times (before the 5th century BC), the Areopagus was the council of elders of the city, similar to the Roman Senate. Like the Senate, its membership was restricted to those who had held high public office, in this case that of Archon. In 594 BC, the Areopagus agreed to hand over its functions to Solon for reform. He instituted democratic reforms, reconstituted its membership and returned control to the organization. 
In 462 BC, Ephialtes put through reforms which deprived the Areopagus of almost all its functions except that of a murder tribunal (in favour of Heliaia). 

In The Eumenides of Aeschylus (458 BC), the Areopagus is the site of the trial of Orestes for killing his mother (Clytemnestra) and her lover (Aegisthus). 

Phryne, the hetaera from 4th century BC Greece and famed for her beauty, appeared before the Areopagus accused of profaning the Eleusinian mysteries. Legend has it that she let her cloak drop, so impressing the judges with her almost divine form that she was summarily acquitted. 
In an unusual development, the Areopagus acquired a new function in the 4th century BC, investigating corruption, although conviction powers remained with the Ekklesia. 
Wikipedia



The Agora
5th-4th cent BC

The Agora, the Acropolis, and the Areopag from the Hephaisteion ("Thesion" Temple), RWFG 1953
The houses have since been removed.

After the ancient Agora of Theseus in the 7th Century BC was no longer sufficient, Solon in the 6th century BC ordered the construction of an administrative center. After the site was developed by Solon, Peisistratus and his sons began around 427 BC to build altars and buildings for the state administration. Kleisthenes (end of 6th century BC) continued to expand it. Musical and dramatic competitions were held at an orchestra in the center of the square.

Plan of the Agora from Planetware

After the Persian Wars, the Agora was devastated, but Kimon (c. 510-450 BC) rehabilitated it. Under Pericles (c. 500-429 BC), a relief of the Agora began. He built the theater of Dionysus for the musical and dramatic competitions. Lycurgus (mid-4th century BC.) moved to the Ekklesia to the Pnyx, the athletic competitions and the horse races into the stadium. He also had the agora expanded. The Hellenistic and Roman times created more buildings.



Temple of Hephaistos
421- 416 BC

The Hephaisteion in the Agora Panoramio

After the battle of Plataea, the Greeks swore never to rebuild their sanctuaries destroyed by the Persians during their invasion of Greece, but to leave them in ruins, as a perpetual reminder of the war. However, when Pericles came to power, he envisioned a grand plan for transforming Athens into the centre of Greek power and cultur and construction started in 449 BC. Some scholars believe that the building was not completed for some three decades, funds and workers having been redirected towards the Parthenon.

Tauromachy on the opisthodomos of the inner cella of theHephestaion, Photo dogsbollocks

The western frieze was completed between 445-440 BC, while the eastern frieze, the western pediment and several changes in the building's interior are dated to 435-430 BC, largely on stylistic grounds. It was only during the Peace of Nicias (421-415 BC) that the roof was completed and the cult images were installed. The temple was officially inaugurated in 416-415 BC.
Wikipedia



Kerameikos
5th cent BC

Tombs and Grave Stele in the antique Cemetery

The area was originally marshland along the banks of the Eridanos river which was used as a cemetery as long ago as the 3000 BC. It became the site of an organised cemetery from about 1200 BC; numerous cist graves and burial offerings from that period have been discovered.



The building of the new city wall in 478 BC, following the Persian sack of Athens in 480 BC, fundamentally changed the appearance of the area. At the suggestion of Themistocles, all of the funerary sculptures were built into the city wall and two large city gates facing north-west were erected in the Kerameikos. The Sacred Way ran through the Sacred Gate, on the southern side, to Eleusis.
Wikipedia

Plan of the Kerameikos from Planetware





Olympeion
530-175 BC

Temple of Olympian Zeus, Panoramio

Around the year 530 BC the Peisistratids began to build a huge temple for the Olympian Zeus, which at the time would exceeded the dimensions of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. The temple was built in the Ionic order, with fluted columns of Poros marble not stone. The building remained unfinished at the fall of the Peisistratids in 510 BC.

It was not until 175 BC that the Syrian king Antiochus IV Epiphanes commissioned the Roman architect Cossutius tocontinue the building. The design was changed to feature three rows of eight columns across the front and back of the temple and a double row of twenty on the flanks, for a total of 104 columns. The columns would stand 17 m (55.5 feet) high and 2 m (6.5 ft) in diameter. The building material was changed to the expensive but high-quality Pentelic marble and the order was changed from Doric to Corinthian, marking the first time that this order had been used on the exterior of a major temple. However, the project ground to a halt again in 164 BC with the death of Antiochus. The temple was still only half-finished by this stage

In 124-125 AD, when the Philhellene Hadrian visited Athens, a massive building programme was begun that included the completion of the Temple of Olympian Zeus including a statue of Hadrian himself and an equally colossal chryselephantine statue of Zeus.

The Temple of Olympian Zeus was badly damaged during the Herulian sack of Athens in 267 AD. It is unlikely to have been repaired, given the extent of the damage to the rest of the city. Assuming that it was not abandoned it would certainly have been closed down in 425 AD by the Christian emperor Theodosius II when he prohibited the worship of the old Roman and Greek gods.
Wikipedia