The Acropolis

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09 May 2007

The Acropolis

The Acropolis is the main part of the city of Athens located in 150m above sea level . Since ancient times , art flourished in his part of the city . Temple building had both a symbolic and economic objective . It glorified the gods and the city , which thereby succeeded in overawing the proprietary aristocratic cults that existed in the earlier foundations . In economic terms temple construction meant returning to circulation the money that otherwise would have accumulated in the

br coffers of the divinities concerned

Acropolis represents a flat-topped rock settled since Neolithic era (6 millennium BC . Further , Mycenaean population settled in this region . In two centuries , Acropolis was occupied by Kylon . For tribes henceforward all looked alike to Athens , set on that plain 's broad level between the mountains and the sea (Coulton 34 . The splendid rock , the famous acropolis , afforded them a strong , capacious citadel and under the rock 's north slope sprang up the nucleus of what later was to be incomparably the largest of Greek towns . Political power was vested in the hands of a landowning aristocracy , the 'High-born ' or 'Eupatrids From their ranks were yearly chosen the three Archons or executive officials , for civil administration , for religion , and for war Plutarch , in his life of Pericles wrote of the great Classical buildings on the Acropolis that they arose no less towering in their grandeur than inimitable in their grace of form , for the workmen eagerly strove to surpass one another in the beauty of their craftsmanship (Berve 56 . This shows that Acropolis had a great meaning and significance for Greece . Acropolis art included literature and sculpture , buildings and painting

The most famous architectural constructions , temples , were located in Acropolis ' slopes . The most important temples were the Parthenon , the Erechtheion , and the Temple of Athena Nike . Temple sacred to "Athena Polias ' was built around 6th century BC . There were two temples of Athene , an old and a new . Athena 's new temple on the acropolis , and the great Portico which was raised at the entrance to the hill out of it too , came the gold and ivory statue of the goddess which stood within the shrine . Such a use of the allies ' money may seem inexcusable to us but the ethics of imperialism are never very easy to define . Pericles believed that Athens had a mission to spread artistic culture by such means , and for this reason empire builders too have believed in their own mission and not always in a mission upon so lofty a plane (Berve 67 . The temple of Athene had important meaning for Greeks because the climax of the Festival was a procession of ascent to the temple of Athena on the citadel . This temple dated from times long before the tyrant Gelon , there is excellent evidence that he embellished it , adding perhaps the pillars which ran round the shrine 's exterior , and the sculptured groups of marble figures which adorned its...