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Architecture: A Day in the Life of an Ancient Greek

The Parthenon was built between 447-438 BC.

It represents the power of the city of Athens, the power and influence of Perikles, the Athenian politician who commissioned the construction of the Parthenon, and serves as a temple to honor Athena, the patron goddess of the city of Athens. The structure is called an octostyle peripteral because it has 8 Doric columns in the front and back and is surrounded by a colonnade or peristyle. The colonnade of the Parthenon is a series of 17 Doric columns that extend on each side of the structure. It is constructed in a 2:1 ratio. Which served as an ideal and presented a notion of harmony and balance.The central chamber, called the cella, faced east, and housed the large wooden cult statue of the goddess Athena, which was covered in gold and ivory.

Iktinos and Kallikrates were the architects of the Parthenon. Pheidias was the sculptor responsible for the decorative elements of the Parthenon, including the cult statue of Athena. The metopes represented various instances of the struggle between order and justice and criminal chaos. The pediment sculptures on the East side of the Parthenon depict the birth of Athena from Zeus' head. The sculptures on the West side depict the contest between Poseidon and Athena for the right to be the patron deity of Athens. The Parthenon was built to a human scale. The flutes on the columns are the width of a human back. The columns are located a man's shoulder's width apart.

West Side: The mythical battle against the Amazons.
East Side: The battle between the gods and the giants.
North Side: The battle between the Greeks and the Trojans.
South Side: The battle between the Lapiths and the Centaurs.

The Greek Temple:

The Ancient Greeks thought their gods were of the same nature of man, except that they were much stronger and smarter. The temple was the house of the god they worshipped, so it had to much finer than the home of man. The people did not meet inside the temple to worship, as if it were a church. The people would present sacrifices to their gods to appease them. For this reason great altars were placed outside the East porch of every temple.

The Orders - The most basic differences among the orders has to do with the proportions of the columns and their capitals.

The Doric Order - the capital of the Doric column is the most basic of the orders. It is a circular pad with a square block on top of that. The columns were thick and short, about 4-5 meters high (about 15 feet tall).

The Ionic Order - the Ionic columns were much more slender than the Doric column. They were 8-9 meters high (about 28 feet high). The flutes, or shafts, on the column were made, or thought, to resemble the folds of a fabric garment. The volutes, or curls, on the capital were to represent the curly waves of flowing hair.

The Corinthian Order - the Corinthian column was the most ornate of all the orders. The shaft of the column is slender like the Ionic order. The capital of the column has a bell-shaped core decorated with acanthus leaves, foliage, or flower carvings. Above the leaves are pairs of branching scrolls, which meet at the corners in spiral volutes.

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