Temple of Athena - honoring the goddesses

Introduction

The Parthenon is chief temple of the Greek goddess Athena on the hill of the Acropolis at Athens , Greece . To present a comprehensive discussion of cultural and historical value of this magnificent and dignified structure it is necessary to commence this discussion with the definition of acropolis . Acropolis in translation from Greek means city at the top , it was central , defensively oriented district in ancient Greek cities , located on the highest ground and containing the chief municipal and religious buildings . Because the founding of a city was a religious act

, the establishment of a local home for the gods was a basic factor in Greek city planning . From both a religious and a military point of view , a hilltop site was highly desirable : militarily because an acropolis had to be a citadel religiously , because a hill was imbued with natural mysteries - caves , springs , copses , and glens - that denoted the presence of the gods . Athens HYPERLINK "javascript :openRelativeAssembly '16385 'A '320 '240 " HYPERLINK "javascript :openRelativeAssembly '18398 'A '352 '240 " HYPERLINK "http /search .eb .com /eb ?idxStructId 40773 typeId 13 " has the best-known acropolis , built during the second half of the 5th century BC . The Athenian acropolis , located on a craggy , walled hill , was built as a home of Athena HYPERLINK "http /search .eb .com /eb ?idxStructId 40681 typeId 13 , the patron goddess of the city . The Parthenon , being the example of balance symmetry , and which formed the canon of art in ancient Greece , is widely regarded as the most refined building featuring the Doric in Greek architecture adorned with the profuse and coherent decorative sculptures , friezes and pediments constituting the excellent stylistic finality

History of constructing Parthenon

The structures that survived consist of the Propylaea , HYPERLINK "http /search .eb .com /eb ?idxStructId 479295 typeId 13 " the gateway to the sacred precinct the Parthenon HYPERLINK "http /search .eb .com /eb ?idxStructId 444840 typeId 13 HYPERLINK "http /search .eb .com /eb /article-9058586 , the chief shrine to Athena and also the treasury of the Delian League the Erechtheum HYPERLINK "http /search .eb .com /eb ?idxStructId 191182 typeId 13 HYPERLINK "http /search .eb .com /eb /article-9032873 , a shrine to the agricultural deities , especially Erichthonius and the Temple of Athena Nike , an architectural symbol of the harmony with which the Dorian and Ionian peoples lived under the government of Athens

The Parthenon was constructed as a temple to Athena , the goddess of wisdom and as such it set out consciously to embody the intellectual pursuits of mathematical harmony and precision implicit in the Greek world view . It was built in the mid-5th century and is generally considered to be the culmination of the development of the Doric the simplest of the three classical Greek architectural s . The name Parthenon refers to the cult of Athena Parthenos ( Athena the Virgin that was associated with the temple . Directed by the Athenian statesman Pericles , the Parthenon was built by the architects Ictinus and Callicrates under HYPERLINK "http /search .eb .com...