The Athenian Adventures of the Timeless Temple

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n There is a legend that tells how Cecrops was thenfirst King of Attica, who re-named the ancient city of Aete after himself,nCecropia. The sea-god Poseidon struck a rock in the city with his trident and anwell was formed, following which Poseidon asked Cecrops to name the city in hisnhonour, but Athene came and planted an olive tree in the city in Cecrop’snpresence, and asked for the city from him. Cecrops chose the goddess and namednthe city ‘Athens’ for her.

Reconstruction of the Acropolis

nAthens has two part, a lower and a higherncity, the higher part called the Acropolis (akron – άκρος – higher,nupper, and polis – πόλις – city); the acropolis is a steepnrock, 150 feet high, 1150 feet long and 500 feet wide, approached from the westnby the Propylæa (Προπύλαια), a colonnade of Pentelic marble. An early temple tonAthene was built on the acropolis but following the defeat of the Persians bynthe Greeks, the ruins of the temple that had been burned by Xerxes’ Persiansninvaders in 480 BCE was rebuilt under the reforms of Themistocles, and particularlynthe improvements made under Pericles, in what is known as the Golden Age ofnAthens.

Reconstruction of the Acropolis

nThe new temple to Athene Polias (the Goddess of the State) was builtnunder the supervision of Phidias, a sculptor of legendary skill, and by commonnusage it became known as the Parthenon, after the great chryselephantine statuenof Athene Panthenos. Every year, a festival was held in honour of Athene,ncalled the Panathenaea (with a Great Panathenaea held every fourth year), withngames, literary and musical competitions, feasting, religious ceremonies andnsacrifices; the prizes for the games were vases of olive oil, in memory of thentree given to the Athenians by Athene.

Panathenaea

nA central event was the Panathenaicnprocession, in which the citizens of Athens participated; crowned with flowers,nthey met on the Eleusian plains and processed through the city streets, withnthe older men carrying olive boughs, the younger men clad in fine armour, youthnsinging hymns, young maidens carrying baskets of sacred offerings on theirnheads, foreigners bearing gifts of honey and water, with deputations from othernGreek states bringing offerings of sheep and cattle.

nEight musicians, fournplaying flutes and four playing the cithera, together with rhapsodists singingnHomeric songs and dancers performing the deeds of Athene, also took part, andnthe central object of all this was a ship, seemingly rowed and impelled by thenwind but actually accompanying propelled mechanically, the sail of which was ansacred peplos embroidered in gold by the aristocratic maidens of Athens andnshowing the triumph of Athene over the Giants. As Athene was celebrated as theninventor of weaving, the overall object of the Panathenaea was to carry annewly-made peplos of the finest quality up the Propylæa to the Erechtheum andnplace it on the olive-wood statue of Athene Polias.

nThe Panathenaic processionnis represented on the interior frieze of the Parthenon, most authorities agree,nwhereas on the exterior pediments (the gable ends) were, on the east end, andepiction of the birth of Athene from the head of Zeus and, on the west end,nher competition with Poseidon to become patron of the city. The external friezenhad 92 alternating triglyphs (triple-stones) and metopes, rectangular panelsnwith carvings of the battle of the centaurs and the lapiths.

The Acropolis from a distance

nIn 435 CE, thenParthenon was converted into a Christian church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary,nwhen Constantine the Great ordered that all pagan temples in his Empire wereneither to close or change over to places of Christian worship. And so Athenenwas baptised and became Saint Sophia. As the Roman Empire fell apart and theneastern parts became the Byzantine Empire, we have little information about thenParthenon; we know that Basil II celebrated his victory over the Bulgarians inn1019 by presenting a number of precious gifts to the Virgin, including a muchnadmired silver dove, symbol of the Paraclete, that was placed above the highnaltar. Over time, the Parthenon became the cathedral of the Orthodox Greeknfaith in Athens, but in 1205 the Burgundians and Lombards under Bonifacencompelled the Archbishop to surrender his cathedral to them and it became anRoman Catholic church dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

The Parthenon

nThere were internalnarchitectural alterations made to the Parthenon, to make it conform tonChristian orthodoxy, as a door was cut into the western cella wall and theneastern end was closed up to accommodate an altar. An semi-circular apse wasnadded and some spaces between the columns were built up to form walls, but onnthe whole the exterior remained unaltered. The Frankish lords ruled Athens fornjust over a century and were replaced in 1311 by Catalans from Sicily, who werenin turn replaced by the Florentines in 1387, when Nerio I took the Acropolisnafter a lengthy siege. Nerio I reinstated the Greek clergy and exercised carenin preserving the ancient monuments and so things went quite well until 1394,nwhen the Venetians took charge of Athens, and then, in 1458, the Acropolis wasnsurrendered to the Muslim Turks. The Parthenon was converted into a mosque,nwith little change to the fabric of the building apart from the removal ofnChristian imagery, a coat of heavy whitewash over the internal walls and thenaddition of a minaret. In 1646, a thunderbolt destroyed the powder magazinenhoused in the Propylaea, destroying that beautiful building and presaging farnworse damage to come. General Francesco Morosini (later Doge of Venice) wasndriving the Turks from the Pelopennesus and turned his attention to Athens.

Bombarding the Acropolis

nOnnSeptember 21^st 1687, the Venetian fleet sailed into the harbour andnbatteries were placed on the hills adjacent to the Acropolis. A Turkishndeserter informed the Venetians that his countrymen had moved their powdernreserves into the Parthenon, expecting that the Christians would not fire uponna church (in fact, it was only one day’s supply of powder), but nonetheless, onnthe evening of Friday September 26^th, a German lieutenant aimed anshell at the roof of the Parthenon, which shattered it and ignited thengunpowder store.

Bombarding the Acropolis

nThe Parthenon was blown to pieces, with the greatest damagendone to the centre of the building, but columns were toppled and wallsndestroyed. Two days later, the Turks surrendered and the Acropolis passed oncenmore into the hands of the Venetians, for a mere six months, as Morosininabandoned it after looting some of the remaining statuary. The Turks reoccupiednthe Acropolis, rebuilding their mosque on a more modest scale (it remainednuntil 1843) and using the wrecked stonework to build wretched hovels,nfortunately covering fragments for later archaeological excavators.