ACROPOLIS!ACROPOLIS!Know YourKnow Your

ACROPOLIS FACTS:Established for the patron Goddess Athena as early as the Archaic period(650-480 BC)

THREE MAJOR SITES:

PARTHENON

ERECHTHEION

TEMPLE of ATHENA NIKE

If the Acropolis looks impressive NOW, imagine what it was like in 430 BC!

The PROPYLAIAThe Propylaia is the entranceway into the Acropolis

Designed by Mnesikles and began construction in 437 BCE

The PROPYLAIAThe Propylaia is the entranceway into the Acropolis

Designed by Mnesikles and began construction in 437 BCE

PROPYLAIA

TEMPLE of ATHENA NIKE

PARTHENON

The PARTHENONConstructed by the order of Pericles to house & honor Athena

The PARTHENONThe centerpiece of the sculptural program of the Parthenon was the monumental statue of Athena in the main cella of the temple. The statue was made of gold and ivory, and was approximately 38 feet tall. Although no longer around, Ancient copies and literary descriptions have allowed scholars to produce fairly accurate reconstructions. The one here is from the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

Basic layout of all of the FRIEZES on the Parthenon…FRIEZES are decorative stone engravings that usually illustrate an

event of story… also known as RELIEFS.

Here’s a model of what the ACROPOLIS looked like in it’s heydey.

The marble decoration of the Parthenon is now in the British Museum in London ("Elgin Marbles"). This is a fragment, showing reclining gods

who are waiting for the beginning of a great procession.

The TEMPLE of ATHENA NIKENike means "Victory" in Greek, and Athena was worshiped in this form, as goddess of victory, on the Acropolis. Her temple was the earliest Ionic temple on the Acropolis. Here the citizens worshipped the goddess in hope of a prosperous outcome in the long war fought on land and sea against the Spartans and their allies. The Temple of Athena Nike was an expression of Athens' ambition to be the leading Greek city state in the Peloponnese.

Artist’sRendering of

what the Temple of

Athena Nike probably

looked like in it’s prime.

The ERECHTHEIONBuilt between 421-406 BC, the Erechtheion is situated on the most sacred site of the Acropolis. It is said to be where Poseidon left his trident marks in a rock, and Athena's olive tree sprouted, in their battle for possession of the city. Named after Erechtheus, one of the mythical kings of Athens, the temple was a sanctuary to both Athena and Poseidon. The south is the Porch of the Caryatids, the maiden statues which the originals are now in the Acropolis Museum. (One of the 6 is still part of the Lord Elgin marbles collection in the British Museum.)

CARYATIDS (Greek columns shaped like women… In Egypt, they had similar columns of MEN called ATLANTIDS.

These ladies are seen on the Porch of the Maidens at the Erechtheion.)

The Three Basic Greek Orders(Keep in mind that CORINTHIAN wasn’t around at the beginning of the Classical Period.)