The Restoration Of The Greek Parthenon

2008-09-30 Word Count: 422 Category: Arts & Entertainment

Many students are fascinated with Greek mythology. The stories, characters and landmarks offer an insight into what the ancients were thinking. Another great reason many love Greek mythology is that many of the architectural masterpieces and landmarks that were written about millennia ago are still standing- a case in point the magnificent Parthenon.

The Great Greek Parthenon
The Parthenon is a one of a kind structure and one of the world’s original architectural masterpieces. It is amazing that this structure still exists being built over two thousand years ago. Today, this masterpiece is currently going through a comprehensive restoration that will not only repair this great edifice, but bring it back to its former glory. The goal of the restoration taking place is to not only to repair the Parthenon, but to rebuild it to as close as possible to its original form. This not only takes a lot of skilled labor, but plenty of research and some of the best artisans and architectural geniuses the world has to offer.

The Parthenon’s Beginnings
The Parthenon is one of the oldest structures left standing from ancient Greece and the ancient world. As impressive as it is today, you can just imagine the awe it inspired over 2,000 years ago when it was built. The Parthenon was constructed as a temple to the goddess of wisdom- Athena during the years 447 B.C and 432 B.C by two incredible architectural geniuses Callicrates and Ictinus. In only a few years, they built this masterpiece which incredibly still stands after thousands of years.

The Parthenon & its History
While the Parthenon was originally created as a temple for Athena, the goddess of wisdom as the years passed, the Parthenon’s role changed as well. At about 400 A.D. the Parthenon became a Christian church. Since the area was heavily Christian, the Parthenon stayed unchanged in this role for the next 1,000 years, however at about 1400, with the Ottoman Empire taking hold of the area and culture, the Parthenon became a mosque. Years later, the Parthenon would again be utilized for a different purpose, this time as a weapons depo during the war between Turkey and Venice. Thankfully, the Parthenon still stands today and while weathered by time and some damage over the millennia, during the last three decades, it has undergone a comprehensive restoration to bring this masterpiece back to its former glory.

To read more about the Parthenon, the Smithsonian Magazine has a fascinating article on the subject.

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