The Parthenon | History | Acropolis of Athens | Greece | 4K

in the year 480 bc the acropolis lay in ruins after their defeat in the battle of marathon in 490 bc the persians came back with a vengeance and destroyed the acropolis from these ruins would rise the greatest temple in the greek world built almost 2 500 years ago its advanced architectural details continue to amaze us today it was the most heavily sculpted ancient greek temple ever built filled with treasures of gold and silver and held a colossal statue of athena made by the greatest sculptor of his time from the acropolis in athens join us as we explore the one and only parthenon construction of the parthenon began in 447 bc during what would be known as the golden age of athens it took just 15 years to build with most of the building being done by 438 bc and more sculptural decoration added until 432 at the time of the building of the parthenon the most celebrated temple of its time was the temple of zeus at olympia built about 20 years earlier there was likely some competition between the two greek cities at 228 feet by 101 feet the parthenon was built about 9 feet longer and 15 feet wider than the temple at olympia it was also built on an unusually large base which helped it to be more visible from below a part of this base comes from an earlier temple buried sculpture has been discovered on necropolis from around 570 bc which may come from an earlier temple on the site of the parthenon its sculpture is surprisingly well preserved and we can even see the original coloring it shows hercules also known as heracles battling the sea monster triton and on the right is a three-headed demon whose torso combines to form a snake after a great victory over the persians in the battle of marathon in 490 bc the athenians set out to build a large new temple on the site of the parthenon a temple which they would not get a chance to complete as the persians would return 10 years later and destroy the acropolis when peace was declared with the persians in 450 bc an ambitious building program was begun to rebuild the acropolis which would lead to generally what we see on the acropolis today it was led by the general and statesman pericles who was known as a great orator this being a democracy pericles could not simply order it to be built himself it was put before an assembly which had a minimum of six thousand people participating in the vote out of the 50 000 male citizens who were allowed to vote at the time pericles was able to persuade the assembly to vote on the ambitious and expensive building project as general overseer of the building of the parthenon pericles shows phidias a great sculptor you may know him from creating one of the seven wonders of the ancient world the statue of zeus at olympia the sculptor phidias was going to make sure that this temple would be the most heavily sculpted temple ever built this large building project attracted a lot of attention and it's likely many wanted to be a part of this important construction construction on the hephaesteon below seems to have stopped completely in order for work to be diverted to the parthenon aside from the wooden beams that helped hold up the roof the parthenon was made entirely from marble the blocks of marble had to be hauled over from a quarry 10 miles away it is estimated that 500 to 600 people transporting materials 150 stone cutters and about 50 sculptors were employed to work on the parthenon one of these stone cutters could have been socrates himself whose father was the stonemason socrates was born in 470 bc and would have been 23 years old when the parthenon started construction in 447 bc the sculpted decoration consisted of three main areas the square panels known as metapiece the inner sculpture known as the freeze and this triangular area at the top known as the pediment each of which was unprecedented in its own way previous temples had either no sculpted metal piece or they had metal piece sculpted in the front or the back building only these went entirely around the building a total of 92 individual panels were sculpted on two sides of the temple the metapees show victories by the legendary hero and founder of athens theseus he defeats the centaurs on the south side and the amazons on the west side on the north side it depicts the sack of troy which again would show the greeks victorious against a foreign enemy many of these metapiece were chiseled down probably when the parthenon was converted to a christian church but on the far left we can make out the remains of a chariot and here towards the right side is thought to show the rescue of helen helen on the right grasps the statue of athena where aphrodite stands to her left one metapee for the fall of troy survives relatively intact this could be the goddess hera and her daughter hera was on the side of the greeks against the trojans mainly because paris had not chosen her as the fairest of the goddesses and on the east side which is the entrance of the temple it shows the triumph of gods over giants where athena played a large part here we can make out the winged chariot of hera or zeus the battle of the centaurs is the most preserved of all the metapiece which gives you an idea of how the temple would have looked before the metapiece were chiseled down so just with what we've talked about we already have an unprecedented amount of sculpture on the parthenon but this wasn't enough the builders of the parthenon would draw inspiration from another style of architecture that was popular across the mediterranean sea this style called the ionic which started in ionia had several differences including thinner columns with more decoration on the top and they had a different type of sculpture running on a singular band called a freeze the word freeze comes from the word phrysium meaning embroidered cloth which is derived from an ancient country of phrygia in turkey whose people were skilled in embroidery this like an embroidered cloth ran continuously without interruption instead of the metapee style on the greek mainland which was called doric the builders of the parthenon decided to also include a long continuous freeze on the intersection of the parthenon now this may be the first time these two styles had ever been combined in this way but again they took it to the extreme this freeze went entirely around the building which has never been done before the freeze was about 525 feet in total length the most popular interpretation of the freeze is that it represents the pan-ethnic procession this was held every year to celebrate the birthday of athena and every fourth year there was even a greater festival known as the great panathinaia this great procession started at kiramiko cemetery and culminated at the top of the acropolis on the west side which is the side we see when approaching the parthenon people are shown getting ready for the procession and we can see animals being brought up for sacrifice on the long sides the procession advances forward it then stops to show a special kind of chariot race called the apobatai which took place in the agaro below in this type of chariot race the second participant had to wear armor and had to dismount and remount the chariot while it was moving these particular sections are thought to show the armored hoplite ready to dismount and remount the chariot on the east side we see where the procession comes to an end on the top of the acropolis which is the most famous part of the freeze this shows the olympian gods who are larger than the mortals below and we see a folded cloth which is thought to be the peplos this was a great woven cloth which was brought up as an offering to athena in the great processions every four years the cloth was used as the sail of a ship and the whole ship was brought up on a wheeled cart to the acropolis and was presented to the wooden statue of athena in the erecthion this cloth was woven with the scene of gods vs giants and a small image of this may have been painted on the peplos this freeze and the upper portion of the parthenon was originally painted in bright colors on the pediments of the temple we will see a new style of sculpture that would influence generations to come as well as the story of how athens got its name this style known as the phidian style can be seen on this part of the east pediment over the entrance to the ancient temple this group of goddesses known as three goddesses show elaborate drapery but also we can still see the highlights of the body this is sometimes known as wet drapery and it was influential generations later you can compare and contrast the impediment from the famous temple of zeus at olympia which still used the more stiff severe style to these figures to more organic in the far corners we have the chariot of the sun god helios who ignores the limits of this space and is shown partially out of the pediment symbolize the sun rising as he leads it with his chariot across the sky nearby is dionysus the god of wine looking perfectly relaxed and on the other side are the horses of celine goddess of the moon the subject of this pediment was the birth of athena which happened at dawn symbolized by the rising chariot of helios on the other side we had the competition between athena and poseidon to be the patron of athens which athena of course won each god offered a gift to the people poseidon created a spring from the ground with his trident but the spring was made from salt water which was not very useful to the athenians athena planted an olive tree which is now replanted in modern times and she was hailed for her wisdom we're still not completely sure what this full pediment look like but luckily we have a drawing made in 1674 by the entourage of the french ambassador which was just before the great explosion when turkish forces used the parthenon as a store of gunpowder and it was ignited by a venetian siege now the parthenon is famous for its construction and my new details and deservedly so researchers would come to discover that there are almost no right angles and no straight lines on the building at all in the 19th century when the parthenon was being cleaned something was discovered that caused some debate they found that the floor was not actually flat it curved so that on the long sides the center rises about four and three-eighths of an inch and on the short size it rises about two and three eighths of an inch the ceiling was also curved the columns actually become thicker in a small bulge before they become smaller towards the top also the columns leaned inward slightly so that if the corner columns continued upwards indefinitely they would meet over a mile in the air there was actually almost no straight lines on the building at all even the sides bent inwards slightly the space between the columns becomes smaller as you get towards the edge and the columns and the corners are very slightly thicker than the other columns even the sculpted metapiece becomes smaller as they move towards the end of the freeze and lean outwards now these refinements have been practiced in temples before the parthenon combined all of these together and was more perfect in its execution and it had less errors than any other ancient greek temple before or since but why did they go through all this effort to do all these small refinements the answer may lie in a text written by the architect of the parthenon himself centuries later the roman architect vitruvius wrote a book on architecture in the late first century bc and he claimed to have access to a book written by the architect of the parthenon ignos he states that the reason for the curved ceiling and floor is to compensate for optical illusions which would naturally make the temple seem to sag in the middle he also suggests that the outer columns were thicker because they naturally look thinner when contrasted against the blue sky rather than the shadows of the inner column nearer to the center we aren't 100 sure if what vitruvius wrote was true but this really gives you an idea of the level of sophistication of the ancient greek architects study of the parthenon is still going on today it is known that one common ratio the building uses is four by nine which is the relation of the length of the building to its width 100 by 228 feet which equals a four by nine ratio also in the height of the facade to its width but it can be found in other unexpected places such as the diameter of the column versus the spacing between the columns which is also four by nine ratio now vitruvius also claims that the parthenon uses the golden ratio a common ratio found in nature which would later inspire this famous drawing by leonardo da vinci this doesn't seem to be true but once in a while you'll see a new research paper coming up with ideas as to where the golden ratio could have been used in the parthenon now the interior building of the parthenon was unusually wide probably because the sculptor phidias wanted to make sure he had ample room to display his great statue to athena made from gold and ivory a statue that was so ambitious it would lead to his death the justification for building such a lavish statue was that the parthenon was actually the treasury for the entire athenian empire which stretched as far as byzantium so the gold used on the statue would technically still be part of the treasury and if it was needed it could be taken off and melted down later most of the treasury was stored in this room in the back which was originally called the parthenon before that name became used for the entire building which is a greek word that meant something like an unmarried woman's apartments it was a closed off room with no windows at all and four ionic style columns in the inventory of 434 bc just after it was constructed we can see items such as gold crowns gold corn stalks and golden ivory liars and golden persian swords the treasury was guarded by two massive doors the doors were adorned with leaves decorated with gold foil and was some sort of a scene involving abor a ram and the head of medusa some of these treasures were taken out of the parthenon to be displayed at the panathenaic procession we mentioned earlier this part of the freeze here could show some elaborate gold and silver bowls that were stored in the parthenon treasury and brought out for the procession fideos designed his statue with removable panels of gold which covered an interior base made of bronze and wood when completed it was about 37 and a half feet tall it was so large that it had a depiction on her sandals which was the battle of greeks vs centaurs on her left side was a shield and the snake erecthonius and a spear on the right hand was a winged victory and she wore an elaborate helmet of a sphinx flanked by two griffins even the base of the statue was sculpted which showed the birth of pandora the first human woman alphidius also ensured that the statue would be prominently displayed because of the unusually large width of the building the statue was surrounded by a double colonnade which could make it seem even more grand and had never been done before in greek temples which basically always consisted of single columns running straight towards the back of the building in the interior on the front of the statue was also a shallow pool of water which could reflect the light from the windows that were carved in the sides of the building now if the parthenon had a colossal statue of gold and ivory the temple of olympia had to have one too around 4 35 bc videos went to olympia to build the great statue of zeus one of the seven wonders of the world and the rest of the parthenon decoration was completed by other sculptors at some point phidias was accused of stealing some of the gold he used from the statue in the parthenon probably from political opponents of pericles he was supposedly proved innocent by removing sections of gold one by one and weighing each piece he was later accused obtaining himself and pericles on the shield of athena in a scene fighting amazons this seems to have been true but at some point he is said to have died in prison before all of his trials could be resolved but more decoration would yet be added to the parthenon this time by alexander the great above the columns of parthenon you may notice some large holes surrounded by a faded circular outline these were where fourteen gilded shields were hung these were presented after alexander the great won a victory in 334 bc against the persians near the ancient site of troy according to his biographer he hung up 300 suits of armor as well possibly on the sides he seemed to have been replaced by smaller shields at some point or possibly wreaths you can also see multiple smaller holes these were once bronze letters added by the roman emperor nero which mentions himself as the son of a god and mentions others as the general of hoplites and a priestess of athena these were likely added in 61ad and were quickly removed after nero's death in 68 a.d despite being allowed to use the golden ivory from the statue the athenians would not remove the gold from the statue although they were involved in several wars including the great peloponnesian war in sparta which they would lose and later being conquered by macedon it was finally taken down by la caris around 298 bc who used the gold to pay his mercenaries along with other treasure of the parthenon and also the gold from the shields given by alexander he took control of athens as a tyrant but was soon reconquered by macedon by demetrius the procedure in 294 bc although we know the shields were removed as we mentioned this later inscription by nero was added between the space for the shields which shows that the shields of some kind must have been added to replace them the great statue to athena is also known to have been replaced as well because we have ancient detailed descriptions of the statue from the 2nd century a.d the statue was mentioned to have been moved in the 5th century a.d and there was a mention of a statue of athena made of precious metals in constantinople as late as the 10th century so there is a theory that it was moved to constantinople and it remained there until the sack of constantinople during the fourth crusade in 1204 a.d in the next stage of the life of the parthenon it would be converted to a christian church covered in wall paintings mosaics filled with precious relics at an ancient marble throne where it would remain as a church for a thousand years [Music] probably in the fifth or sixth century a.d the parthenon was turned into a church dedicated to the virgin mary the entrance was converted from east to west not too many structural changes were needed for the building but many of the metapees were chiseled down unless they could be identified with christian symbols for example this metaphy of hera we talked about is thought to have been identified with the virgin mary later in the 12th century the church was renovated a larger absence was added which required the removal of this part of the freeze which is the famous peplo scene which was then used as part of the wall and was moved to the british museum in the 19th century from the mosaic pieces on the site we know that there was once a mosaic ceiling in the apps filled with gold and other colors possibly similar to these at josie's lucas monastery the large original doors of the parthenon began to be used again and were gilded with silver some believed in medieval times that the ancient doors of the temple were taken from the city of troy an elaborate sculpted marble throne was reused from classical times and it was known as the bishop's throne and still survives it can be seen in the acropolis museum it was placed where the great statue of athena once stood this church had many famous relics and other legends that it had a miraculous lamp with oil that would never fail and burn continuously another one of its treasures was a golden dove at this time the parthenon was a very popular christian pilgrimage destination and the golden dove was likely given by the byzantine emperor basil ii who made a pilgrimage to the parthenon in 1018 it is said to have circled continuously above the altar of the church a new bell tower was also added near the entrance on the south side this bell tower would later be converted to a minaret when it was converted to a mosque after the conquest of athens by the ottomans in 1458 in the book of travels which is written by a turkish traveler he praises the new mosque and former parthenon for its beauty he describes elaborate colored marble on the walls and floors with carved designs in the 17th century during the ongoing wars with the venetians the acropolis was put under siege the parthenon was used to store ammunition and gunpowder which erupted an explosion caused by venetian artillery the explosion killed as many as 300 people including women and children and 28 columns were demolished as well as parts of the freeze and much of the internal rooms which served as the church and mosque other parts of the sculpture were accidentally destroyed when the venetians attempted to remove the sculpture which was now out of place after the explosion and some of it crashed to the ground including the horses and chariot seen above near athena but this was not the end of the story of the parthenon as some of its sculpture would end up at the bottom of the mediterranean sea in 1803 sculpture was removed from the parthenon by thomas bruce 7th earl of elgin this action was immediately controversial in its own time even while the sculpture was still being removed and it was criticized by many most notably by lord byron who wrote a poem against this in 1807 more sculpture of the parthenon was removed as late as 1812. about half of the freeze as well as some metapiece and sculpture from the pediments were eventually removed on its way back to england the ship carrying the first load of marbles was shipwrecked near the greek island of kathira after three years of effort the sculpture was able to be retrieved from the sea study of the area of the shipwreck is still going on today and in 2019 more discoveries were made that came from other greek sites the collection was sold in 1816 to the british government for 35 000 pounds which is about 4 million dollars today this was about half of the cost of lord elgin's expedition to retrieve the artifacts from athens he declined other offers for more money for the collection from others including napoleon one of the mysteries of the parthenon is the lack of an altar typically with greek temples the altar is on the eastern side where when the sun rises offerings can be made on the altar while the sun illuminates the interior of the temple we would expect it to look something like this altar of zeus found at the agora below the ruin we see on the eastern side today is actually a small temple to the roman emperor augustus the solution could be in a recent discovery that the colonnade on this side of the parthenon actually once had a shrine and an altar which predates the building perhaps it was part of an ancient structure that the athenians wanted to leave intact or maybe the parthenon was not actually a temple and it was more of a treasury one more recent discovery is that there seems to actually be yet another freeze in the interior porch of the building which we have very little surviving but we seem to have four female figures in the third century a.d there was a great fire in the parthenon possibly related to invasions from the germanic pirates called the heruli and the freeze was likely destroyed during that time perhaps the great ship was once depicted here during the panathenaic possession or maybe it showed the real subject of the freeze which is now lost this new discovery would be just one more unique feature in a building like no other that can only be described as the one and only parthenon but i hope you enjoyed this i'll give some book recommendations as well if you're interested for my part i'm actually excited to go back and visit the parthenon again knowing what i know now and see it in a different light we'll release some more videos on the crop list coming up so look out for those thanks for joining historic tour my name is james if you have anything else to add let us know in the comments and thanks for watching

Channel: History Victorum

Views: 350,891

Keywords: The Parthenon, The Parthenon Documentary, HistoryVictorum, Parthenon Frieze, Parthenon Sculpture, Parthenon Metopes, Phidias, Parthenon 4k, history documentary, acropolis of athens (tourist attraction), greek history documentary, parthenon (tourist attraction), ancient greece documentary, history of parthenon athens greece, history of parthenon greece, acropolis athens

Id: pFRwn-bkipQ

Length: 23min 22sec (1402 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 27 2020