4. pericles, temple of olympian zeus, the acropolis and parthenon

Greek Art 4

Pericles, The Temple of Olympian Zeus, and the Acropolis: The Parthenon

Credit to Gardner’s Art Through The Ages 12th Ed.

Pericles and the Golden Age of Greece

• Pericles leads Athens through its "Golden Era" (ca. 460-429, between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars)– Promoted the arts and literature– Acropolis and other major building projects begin

in Athens at the request of Pericles– Construction of Parthenon (449-432)

Pericles


– Sophocles produces the tragedy "Ajax”-• After Achilles died in the Trojan War, Ajax and Odysseus

fought through Troy to retrieve the body; once they did, they both claimed Achilles’s armor, which had been forged on Mount Olympus by Hephaestus (blacksmithing god)• Odysseus is awarded the armor. Ajax is so insulted, he

decides to kill Kings Agamemnon and Menelaus, but Athena intervenes and clouds his vision. Ajax slaughters a flock of sheep believing they are the Kings. When he comes to his senses and realizes what he’s done to diminish his honor, he kills himself


• Sophocles produces "Antigone" in Athens 430-429– Antigone’s brother was considered a war criminal by the King

of Thebes (Creon), and was not allowed a proper burial – Antigone buried him anyway, and was sentenced to death

(Creon had her buried alive in a cave) – When Creon received word that the gods were displeased with

his actions and would take his son from him (who had been engaged to Antigone), he ordered the proper burial of Antigone’s brother and her removal from the cave

– When they found her though, she had hung herself – Creon’s son then killed himself in his grief, and Creon’s wife,

Eurydice, killed herself upon learning of her son’s suicide

Sophocles

Temple of Zeus at Olympia, site of the Olympic Games

• The first great monument of Classical art and architecture

• Started in 470 BCE, finished in 457 BCE• Architect: Libon of Elis• Statues originally filled both pediments

(sections that rest on top of the columns)• Overall, the temple was very decorated; more

so than others of the time

Reconstruction of the Temple of Olympian Zeus

Pediment

What it looks like now: Temple of Olympian Zeus

That’s totally Ms. LeSage!

Individual Section of Column


New order ofColumns:Corinthian capitalsmade to look likeAcanthus leaves

This style wasInvented by Kallimachos in the 2nd half of the 5th

Century BCE(These were morecommon during the Late ClassicalPeriod)

Corinthian Capitals

Corinthian capital detail:

Illustration of Acanthus leaves:

Temple of Zeus at Olympia, site of the Olympic Games

• Believed to have housed one of the wonders of the ancient world:– Chryselephantine (overlaid with gold and ivory) statue

of Zeus by sculptor Phidias– Zeus was enthroned, holding a scepter in his left hand

and a winged victory (Nike) in his right.– Over 12 meters high (39 feet!), took 12 years to

complete– After the abolition of the Olympic Games, the statue

was carried off to Constantinople where it was destroyed in a fire in 475 AD

Reconstruction of the Chryselephantine Statue of Zeus

Temple of Olympian Zeus East Pediment: The CURSE

• The temples East Pediment had deep local significance:– Chariot race between Pelops (hence the name,

Peloponnesian) and King Oinomaos– Oinomaos had 1 daughter: Hippodameia; it was

foretold that that he would die if she got married– The King challenged any suitor of Hippodameia to a

chariot race from Olympia to Corinth– If the suitor won, he could marry Hippodameia– But if he lost, the suitor would be killed

Chariot race from Olympia to Corinth (131 miles)


• The outcome of each chariot race was pre-determined because King Oinomaos had divine horses from his father, Ares (God of War)

• Pelops was tricky: to make sure he won, he bribed the king’s groom, Myrtilos, to rig the royal chariot to collapse during the race

• Oinomaos was killed• Pelops won his bride• But he drowned Myrtilos instead of paying him his bribe• Before he died, Myrtilos brought a curse on Pelops and his descendants• This curse led to the murder of Pelops’s son, Atreus; the sacrifice of

Atreus’s son Agamemnon’s daughter Iphigeneia; the slaying of Agamemnon by his nephew Aegisthus; and the murder of Aegisthus and Agamemnon’s wife Clytaemnestra by Orestes (son of Agamemnon)


• All of this is represented like actors on a stage on the East Pediment– None of them know the horror that is about to unfold during

and after the chariot race– Only one person in the sculpture reacts: a seer who knows the

future• He is a rare depiction of old age, with sagging musculature, balding

hair, wrinkled forehead• This is rare because statues usually represent Greek gods or nobles,

and often in Archaic style before this point• Shows shock, true emotion, not the Archaic smile! (This was a change

in statuary that marked the beginning of the Classical era in Ancient Greek Art)

Temple of Olympian Zeus East Pediment: The Seer, h. 4’6”

Change from Archaic to Classical

• As with the seer, artistic changes to statuary started to morph as the Golden Age of Greece began– Start to see a shift in how people stand in

sculptures:• More realistic• Contrapposto (counterbalance) of weight

– We usually put more weight on one leg when standing still instead of equally sharing the weight between both feet

Myron the Sculptor

• Diskobolos (Discus Thrower)– Only know through marble copies made during

Roman times (less expensive marble, of course)– The original bronze was removed from Greece and

used to make copies to distribute throughout Rome (there was a great demand in Ancient Rome for Greek statuary to display in public places and private villas)

Diskobolos, by Myron, Roman Marble Copy of Bronze Original from ca. 450 BCE, h. 5’1”

Myron froze the action at the apex of the throw:

Creating an impression of a tightly stretched bow a moment before the string is released

The athlete’s face, however, is expressionless and doesn’t show the same tension as the body(unlike the Archaic smile)

Doesn’t perform for the spectator but instead focuses on the perfect discus throw

The Acropolis

• The re-construction of the Acropolis after the Persian sack in 480 BCE was one of the most ambitious building projects ever undertaken

• Even though Athens suffered significant damage at the hands of the army of Xerxes, Athens emerged from the war with enormous power and prestige

The Acropolis

• The money to do this came from annual contributions the city-states were required to pay to a treasury (originally in Delos, but moved to Athens)

• It was Pericles’s decision to use the money to gild Athens, and the rest of Greece was not very happy about it!

• The glory of the Acropolis once it was restored was not a product of Athenian democracy, but instead the by-product of tyranny and abuse of power

4 Primary Buildings of the Acropolis

• More human creative genius was concentrated on Pericles’s Acropolis than on any other place or time in the history of Western civilization

• The greatest Athenian architects and sculptors of the Classical period focused their attention on the construction and decoration of these buildings:– Parthenon– Propylaia– Erechtheion– Temple of Athena Nike

Model of the Acropolis

What the Acropolis Looks Like Today

Parthenon

Erechtheion

Propylaia

Temple of Athena Nike

Parthenon (Temple of Athena Parthenos) 447-438 BCE

Parthenon


• Architects: Iktinos and Kallikrates• Chryselephantine statue of Athena by Phidias• Some claim that Phidias was actually in charge

of the entire Periclean Acropolis project• Parthenon= ideal solution/perfect proportions

in Doric temple design


• Algebraic expression of the controlled ratios used to construct the Parthenon is x = 2y + 1– X = Long sides– Y = Short sides– The temple’s short ends have 8 columns, and the

long sides have 17 columns: 17 = (2x8)+1– Stylobate (steps leading up to the temple) ratio of

length to width is 9 = (2x4)+1


• x = 2y + 1• This ratio was also used to create the dimensions of the

cella’s proportion of length to width– Cella = the inner chamber of the temple

• The interaxial (distance between the centers of 2 adjacent column drums) in proportion to the columns’ diameter


• This use of mathematical precision obscures some deviations from typical Greek architecture:– The columns lean inward slightly, meaning that every

single block and drum had to be carved according to a special set of rules dictated by its unique place in the structure

– The stylobate is slightly higher in the center– The corner columns are slightly thicker than the others

• Roman architect Vitruvius (late 1st Century BCE) suggested this was done purposefully to account for known optical illusions:– Center of stylobate seems to sag in the center when level– Corner columns are surrounded by light and appear thinner than the

other columns


• Mixes Doric and Ionic styles (even though it’s known as the most famous Doric temple)– 4 Ionic temples found in the treasury behind where the

statue of Athena would have been– Ionic friezes inside the temple

• Frieze: long stretch of artwork (paintings or bas-relief sculpture)

• Reflects the Athenian belief that Ionians of the Cycladic Islands and Asia Minor were descendants of Athenian settlers– Or this may be Iktinos’s way of suggesting that Athens was

the leader of ALL Greeks

Phidias’s Statue of Athena (Reconstruction/Model)

*“Athena Parthenos” (The Virgin)

*Art historians know about this from descriptions by Greek and Latin authors and from Roman copies of the statue

*Chryselephantine: Overlaid with gold and ivory*Ivory= Athena’s exposed skin

*38 ft. tall*Parthenon was designed AROUND this!

*Fully armed with shield, spear, helmet, and Nike*This Nike and multiple of allusions refer to the victory of 479 BCE over the Persians

*Soles of Athena’s sandals depict winning a battle with centaurs

*Athena’s shield (exterior) depicts the winning battle of the Greeks over the Amazons (Theseus drove them out of Athens)

*Interior of shield depicts a winning battle over giants (metaphor for triumph of order over chaos,civilization over barbarism, and Athens over Persia)

Parthenon’s Pediments

• East Pediment:– Birth of Athena on Mount Olympus

• Zeus was screaming with pain from a headache, so Hermes asked Hephaestus to split Zeus’s head open with a wedge, and out leapt Athena, fully grown and armored

• This is why she was known as the goddess of intelligence and wisdom

• West Pediment:– Contest between Athena and Poseidon to be the patron of Athens– Poseidon staked his claim to Athens by striking the Acropolis rock

with his trident, creating a salt-water spring. The imprint of his trident remained for ancient Athenians to see

– Nearby, Athena had miraculously caused an olive tree to grow. This tree still stood as a constant reminder of her victory over Poseidon

Parthenon’s Ionic Friezes (on the inside of the Parthenon)

• Depict the Panathenaic Festival Procession – Marched through the Agora and up to the Acropolis to honor Athena’s

birthday (roughly July) carrying offerings • Peplos (special robe woven and decorated, dyed in saffron)

– Procession would stop in the Erectheion to place the peplos on a human-scale sculpture of Athena

– Being selected to help make the peplos was a civic honor

• Cakes, honeycombs

– All people (excepts slaves) could participate in this, but most had to stop the procession at the Propylaia

– Meat used from sacrificed cows and sheep was used in a ritual meal at the end of the festival

– Religious celebration– In 566 BCE (under Pisistratus), was celebrated every 4 years as the “Great

Panathenaea”

Parthenon’s Ionic Friezes: Panathenaic Procession (on the inside of the Parthenon)

– Athletic competition (day before procession)• Solo and team competitions• Gymnastics, footraces, wrestling, boxing, discus, javelin,

chariot races• Beauty competition among athletes• Military dancing competition

– Music competition (day before procession)• Recitation of epic poetry• Instrumental and vocal• Prizes could be amphoras filled with olive oil

Parthenon’s Ionic Friezes: Panathenaic Procession (on the inside of the Parthenon)


• Lord Elgin’s Marbles– Between 1801 and 1803, Greece was under Turkish rule– Lord Elgin was the British ambassador to the Ottoman court in

Istanbul (Constantinople)– As such, he was permitted to dismantle many of the Parthenon

sculptures and ship the best-preserved ones to England– He eventually sold them to the British government (at great

financial loss to himself)– Accused of stealing Greece’s cultural heritage– The Greek government has often tried to have the sculptures

returned to Athens– However, Lord Elgin is also credited with saving these sculptures

from almost certain ruin if they had been left in the Parthenon


• In the Middle Ages, the Parthenon was converted into a Byzantine and later a Roman Catholic church, and after the Ottoman conquest of Greece, into a mosque

• Each time, the building was modified structurally to fit the needs of each religion– Churches added an apse at the east end as an altar– Mosque added a minaret (tower used to call Muslims to prayer)

• Early on, Christians removed the statue of Athena• 1687: Venetians attacked the Acropolis (at that time in Turkish control)

– One of Venice’s rockets hit the Turkish ammunition stashed in the Parthenon; the explosion blew out the center of it

– Venetians tried to remove some of the statues from the high pediments and dropped and smashed some of them on the ground

4. pericles, temple of olympian zeus, the acropolis and parthenon

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