Parthenon Essay

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The parthenon is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis in Athens, Greece and it is dedicated the the goddess athena to whom the people of athens considered their patron. The Parthenon started to be built in 447 B.C. when the athenian empire were at their most power. It was completed in 438 B.C. and they didn’t finish decorating the interior until 432 B.C. The Parthenon is forty-five feet tall and two hundred twenty eight by one hundred one feet long. Its sculptures are some of the greatest of greek art. The Parthenon is not the first one built there was a parthenon dedicated to athena that this one replaced, historians called the first one the pre-parthenon and it was destroyed in 480 B.C. during the persian invasion. Even though the parthenon was dedicated to athena it was mainly used as a treasury and much later was converted to a christian church dedicated to the virgin mary. After the Ottoman conquest, on September 27, 1687 it was an ottoman ammunition drop and the ammunition dump was ignited by a Venetian bombardment. In 1805 Thomas Bruce removed some of the sculptures that were still good with permission from the Ottoman Empire. The sculptures that were removed by him were known as the Elgin marbles or Parthenon marbles. In 1816 the sculptures were sold to a British museum where …show more content…

A small shrine was found and was probably dedicated to Athena and was used to get closer to her, but the Parthenon didn't ever host the cult of Athena polias, patron of Athens. A big fire happened soon after the 3rd century A.D. This fire took out the parthenon's roof and much of its interior. Repairs were made in the 4th century A.D. The repairs might have been done while Julian the apostate was ruling. The repairs that were made were a new wooden roof overlaid with clay tiles was put in to cover the entire Parthenon,this roof was more sloped than the original and it left the wings of the building

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