THE ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS .-
The upper town met Acropolis dual function, the first of a defensive nature and the s econd
as sacred rock in which were concentrated the main religious buildings. In 450 BC Pericles ordered the reconstruction of Athens, after having been looted during the wars Medical Phidias accordingly instructed the artistic direction of the program to restore the temples of the Acropolis and diverted the funds of the Delian League for the protection of Athens and the islands to carry out these works.
Plutarch tells of a political confrontation between Pericles and Thucydides which calls for the misappropriation of money.
"... For this reason Pericles asked the assembled people if he thought he had spent too much, and her statement that it was too much and said: " Well therefore not spent at the expense of yours, but mine and I will make the inscriptions of dedication in my own name " When Pericles had said that, it was because they admired his Magnimar or because they competed in their drive for the glory of their works in a loud voice shouted, and ordered the funds freely available public for their expenditures and spared no expense. And finally he ventured Thucydides to submit to the test of ostracism, which won the banishment of his rival and the dissolution of the faction that had formed against him ... "(The frieze of the Parthenon," Ian Jenkins. Edt. Electa, pág14).
While Pericles was saved from prosecution, not as lucky its artistic director. After the death of the statesman, Pheidias was prosecuted and jailed for embezzlement and violation in carving the face of his shield in the shield of Athena.
The Acropolis of Athens located in a limestone plateau 156 meters above sea level is 270 meters long and 85 wide, it was erected on the most famous monuments of Greece classic and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.
The buildings were kept in fairly good condition until the seventeenth century, were bombarded by the Venetians in their struggle against the Ottomans.
The Propylaea included a building wide central hall with five doors and two wings, one of which housed an art gallery and the second was never finished because the construction work was interrupted by the Peloponnesian War. Doric styles are combined in the columns of the facade and Ionic on the inside.
The history of the Propylaea, like all buildings of the Acropolis has been hectic, it was the episcopal palace, palace armory Italian and Turkish. The structure was demolished in the seventeenth century to exploit the magazine.
Mnesicles The Propylaea .- 5 .- monumental marble door gave access to the Acropolis. It combined Doric and Ionic styles. In one of its wings was the first art gallery located in the world which outlined the work of Polygnotus Greek painter, known by the descriptions given by historians of the period.
Next to the staircase access Propylaea is the famous Temple of Athena Nike or Athena victorious. This temple was erected to commemorate the naval battle of Salamis, in which the Greeks defeated the Persians during World War II medical.
The Temple of Athena Nike was built in marble, in the year 427 BC by the architect Kalicrates in Ionic and housed inside a winged image the goddess, which cut off his wings so that he could never abandon the city.
Each facade has 4 elegant Ionic columns, which are raised on a stepped platform, plus two other columns are the effect of the tiny portal cella. A fully sculpted frieze tells the struggle of the Greeks against the Persians and it highlights a magnificent relief of the goddess Athena tying his sandal. The temple has no pronaos. Its small size 5 meters by 5 meters makes it stand out among all the great temples of the Acropolis.
Temple of Athena Nike. (approx. 427 BC) Kalícrates. (5 x 5 m and 8 m. tall.) Jewel of the Ionian architecture, its facade is made up of four graceful columns and has a continuous sculpted frieze around the building gives alluding to medical wars.
tying Athena sandal .- Her transparent dress is the technique of wet garments invented by Phidias, which causes a cascade of pleats highlight the female form of the goddess. It has been attributed to the sculptor Callimachus, creator of the Corinthian capital. Originally it was in the temple of Athena Nike on the Acropolis.
Once doors flanked Propylaea was in central statue of 9 meters high Promak Athena, patron goddess of the city in bronze by Phidias, which has not been preserved, on both sides of this sculpture was erected the Parthenon and the Erechtheion.
Acropolis of Athens. Aerial . First observed the Propylaea, monumental gates through which they accessed. In one of its sides is the small and beautiful temple of Athena Nike. Behind is the Parthenon, the most perfect of Greek temples and the Erechtheion with its famous caryatids. Also see part of the defensive walls Pelárgikon calls. In the center of the Acropolis was a bronze statue of the goddess Athena by Phidias, now defunct.
The Erechtheion was built in the years 421 to 406 BC, the Greek temple complex so strongly contrasted with the sobriety of the Parthenon.
The temple is dedicated to various gods and heroes, and was home to various cults or rites. This multiplicity of functions answered the many spaces in the building.
Its plant is disconcerting on two levels and possibly is associated with the myth about the competition held between the gods Athena and Poseidon to be recognized as the protectors of the city. Poseidon flow a fountain of salt water with his trident, Athena turn germinated an olive tree, which is why the city was dedicated. The Greeks considered the Acropolis and the site of the annual competition celebrating the cult of the olive.
has four completely different fronts: to the east is a cover with six Ionic columns, which leads into a rectangular sanctuary or cella, which was the cult statue of Athena. At the bottom of the cella or naos other cella was divided into two spaces dedicated to Hephaestus and twins Butes respectively. Here on the west side was another rectangular sanctuary dedicated to Erechtheus, Greek hero, founder of the city of Athens. The facade south leading into the sanctuary of the god Poseidon and finally in the north facade front porch appears moving towards the cliff, known as the porch of the Caryatids, where the columns are replaced by six statues of women, in the pure ionic .
The Erechtheion is a composition of "baroque" in which he combines the elegance of the Ionic columns, the columns or Cariátides female figures and an intricate and asymmetric plant with several shrines.
The Erechtheion .- (421 to 406 BC) Ionian style. Hero is named after Erechtheus, founder and king of the city Athens and Poseidon who have preferred to sacrifice for the goddess Athena as protectress of the city. Butes his twin brother was the priest of the goddess, which is why both were given death worship in the temple. The myth tells that Erechtheus was very close three daughters, who had sworn that dead one, the other two would continue to stay together forever. Once the contest between Poseidon and Athena to achieve the city, the angry sea god sent his son Eumolpus to conquer the city. The oracle was consulted and he predicted that the city would be spared only if they sacrificed a daughter of Erechtheus. This was done and the other two doing their oath committed suicide. Erechtheus beat Eumolpus in the battle but he was assassinated by angry Poseidon with his trident.
The Erechtheion. Porch of the Caryatids .- inaccessible from the inside, is named after the six statues of girls or Kores, which serve as columns. Currently the original columns were removed and their copies are exhibited. Five of the Caryatids are in the Acropolis Museum and the sixth in the British Museum.
Caryatid .- The caryatids are sculptures shaped women, whose role was to provide support 
or column. Currently none of the caryatids originals are in the Erechtheum have all been moved to museums and copies have their place. The name comes from the city of Caria, destroyed during the Wars of Medicine, the women were turned into slaves, and sentenced to a punishment heavier tasks. In these sculptures, the Greeks remain the punishment for all eternity.
Around 450 BC Pericles, the most famous Greek statesman initiated program of reconstruction and beautification of the city in such a way that reflected the hegemonic position of Athens among the other Greek states. The Parthenon was the crowning achievement of that building program, designed to house chryselephantine the colossal sculpture of the goddess Athena Parthenos (Athena Virgin), a cult statue of 12 meters by Phidias in gold and ivory, now defunct, known through Roman copies and historical reviews. The temple commemorating the Greek victory over the Persians and proclaims the greatness of the polis.
architects all meticulously calculated to produce in the viewer an image of perfection. It was built in marble embossed with a polychrome living in the highlands.
is in the Parthenon where the numbers and proportions of symmetry, harmony and rhythm reaches its peak. All dimensions-length, width, height, proportions of the ships, diameter and height of the columns, etc. - point to a proportional system that links the microcosm of the temple with the macrocosm of the universe.
The Parthenon. Ictinus and Kalicrates Architects. Sculptor Phidias. Classical period. Doric order. Temple to the goddess Athena Parthenos (Athena the Virgin). Built in marble between 447 and 432 BC The pediments, the metopes and the frieze inside the cella made by Phidias were decorated with polychrome reliefs. As for the drums, one was decorated with the supposed competition between Athena and Poseidon for the patronage of the city, the other with the myth of the birth of the goddess, born from Zeus's head. The 92 metopes containing scenes from the Lapita war with the Centaurs, the struggle of giants, war of the Amazons and the Trojan War, these wars, except the last one to mean the struggle of civilization against barbarism and an allegorical way represent the triumph of the Greeks against the Persians. The frieze of the cella, a true work of art was decorated by the Panathenaic procession, religious festivals dedicated to the goddess Athena.
The Parthenon is a Doric temple whose fluted columns forming a portico períptero that surrounds the building. This gate consists of 8 x 17 Doric columns in the stylobate descasar directly, without any bases. These columns are a bit bulky in the center (rapture) in order to correct the optical defect that occurs when you look at the temple from afar. Also has 6 interior columns in each of the facades, which give access to the cells or chambers. Just above the heads of the pillars rests the entablature, divided in three parts: a bottom-up a plain architrave, a composed of metopes and frieze and a cornice triglyphs outgoing. It had two rooms, small room called the Virgin adorned with 4 Ionic columns and 24 columns main cella, which was the legendary statue of Athena Parthenos, Athena the virgin, thanks to which we owe the name of the temple . Finally, it was covered by a tiled roof gable.
with relief decoration of both eardrums triangular pediments and the metopes and frieze 92 internal 160 meters turn gave were made in the workshop of Phidias and later polychrome. Also the aforementioned statue of the goddess Athena was made by the great sculptor.
The Parthenon. Plano. has a rectangular of 69.5 x 31 meters. Stresses its portico períptero of 8 x 17 Doric columns. On the short sides there are other finer 6 Doric columns and trim. On the west facade gave way to the Hall of the Virgin, adorned with 4 Ionic columns. On the east facade gave way to the main cella divided into three aisles formed by Doric colonnades in the cella was a statue of the goddess Athena chryselephantine 12 m high by Phidias, which is known through Roman copies and testimonies of the time.
The 92 metopes were decorated as follows: the two shorter sides each with 14 metopes were carved with scenes relating to Amazonomachy (war of the Amazons against the Greek hero Theseus, Achilles and Hercules) and Gigantomaquia (war Olympian gods against the giants). In the longer sides metopes with 33 each, are sculptured scenes Centauromachy (centaurs war against the Lapita) and the Trojan War. These struggles are symbolic, and that represent the triumph of the Greeks against their opponents, allegorically refer to the triumph of the same in the Medical Wars against the Persians. Finally
along the wall of the cella is the famous frieze of the Panathenaic procession, a ritual feast held every 4 years, in which the city gave to the goddess Athena a magnificent robe or tunic. The procession passed through the city and up to the Acropolis through the doors or to the temple Propylaea whose adjacencies were sacrificed 4 cows and 4 sheep. In the 160 running meters of frieze depict gods, knights, citizens, musicians, maidens, carrying offerings, to sacrifice animals, cars, etc.
friezes of the Parthenon. Panathenaic Procession Phidias .- .- British Museum. Known as Elguín marbles, the British Earl stripped the Parthenon of its relief to take them to England. Currently there is a claim of Greece so that the marbles be returned to him. The original frieze is 160 meters x 1 meter, consisting of 378 figures and 245 animals coming to the festival in honor of the goddess Athena. The frieze that way continuous around the cella, was a novelty in the Ionian made Doric temple. Is carved in bas-relief unlike the gable, in which the figures are in the round and in the metopes, which are in high relief.
Finally, note that the Parthenon kept in good condition nearly two thousand years, despite being intended for different uses: church, mosque and later Turkish magazine. In 1687 the Venetian army under the command of Francesco Morosini laid siege to the Acropolis, the Turks, under the belief that the Europeans would not dare fire at the temple, stored gunpowder. However a Venetian bomb destroyed the magazine wreaking havoc on the structure. Later, in the early nineteenth century English Lord Elgin robbed the temple of the reliefs that were and moved to England where they are still in the British Museum.
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