Parthenon Essay

Ancient Greece is renowned for it 's cultural developments that ultimately laid a foundation for modern Western tradition. Their profound innovations in art and architecture has greatly influenced the development of the world and will continue to echo through time. There is no better reflection of their architectural ambition and genius than the Parthenon. "The Parthenon, constructed between 447 and 432 BCE on the Athenian Acropolis, stands as the most lavish, technically refined, and programmatically cohesive temple on the Greek mainland, a fitting commemoration of the Athenians ' spectacular and unexpected victories in the Persian Wars." This colossal structure was not only built in honor of the goddess Athena, believed to have aided Greece

At this point, the temple had gone through various hardships. It was a temple dedicated to Athena until being converted into a province under the Roman Empire; this made Athens lose its formal glory. In the 5th century, the Romans raided the Parthenon temple, and its statue of the Athena image was stolen by the Romans who took it to Constantinople where it was destroyed in 1204 AD during crusades. Even after the Roman looting, the Parthenon was still in a good shape and was converted into a church during the 5th century by the Christians of Byzantine in honor of the Virgin Mary/ Parthenon Maria. Its name was also changed to the church of Theotokos. Converting a temple into a church showed that the Parthenon was still in a good condition, however, its interior was slightly restructured, for instance, some columns and marble statues were removed. In addition, motifs and other statues that depicted more than one God were removed and destroyed by the Christians. E Parthenon was a church for more than 250 until the 14the century, when it was converted into a mosque by the ottomans who were Muslims. The ottomans managed to maintain the Parthenon well until the late 1600s. Later, they were attacked by Venetians, led by Murosini who attacked Athens. The Athenians and the ottomans had fortified Acropolis for over a century. The Parthenon was used warehouse for gunpowder and when it was hit from a mortal that was fired by the Venetians, the highly explosive gunpowder exploded and the larger part of the building was destroyed. Later, Morosini and his army plundered the Parthenon, looting the important objects and destroying others, leaving it as a partial ruin that is seen in the present day. Most of the depictions and sculptures were