By Mary Beard
The ruined silhouette of the Parthenon on its hill above Athens is among the world's most renowned photos. Its 'looted' Elgin Marbles are a world reason celebre. yet what really are they? within the first of an occasional 'series' on wonders of the realm - corresponding to the Colosseum, Stonehenge, the Pyramids, the Alhambra, Mary Beard, biographer, reviewer and major Cambridge classicist, tells the background and explains the importance of the Parthenon, the temple of the virgin goddess Athena, the divine patroness of historical Athens. "The Wonders of the area" is a chain of books that makes a speciality of a number of the world's most famed websites or monuments. Their names might be time-honored to nearly each person: they've got completed iconic stature and are loaded with a good volume of mythological luggage. those monuments were the topic of many books over the centuries, yet our objective, in the course of the ability and stature of the writers, is to get anything even more enlightening, stimulating, even debatable, than ordinary histories or courses.
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Additional resources for Parthenon (Wonders of the World)
Example text
The classical temple had its main entrance at the east, under the sculpture in the pediment that depicted the birth of the goddess herself. It was at this end that the Christians wanted their altar. So they blocked up the east doorway with an apse, expertly recycled (or opportunistically thrown together, depending on your point of view) from fragments of nearby classical monuments – some of which were conveniently circular in shape. From now on, the building was to be entered in standard Christian fashion from the west.
This was an increasingly difficult act to sustain, but from time to time the old magic still worked – as it did, to start with at least, for Michael Choniates. We still have the text of the inaugural sermon he preached to his flock in his new cathedral. It was a brilliant piece of would-be classical rhetoric. Learned allusions to ancient literature jostled with pointed references to Pericles and the victorious warriors of the battle of Marathon, as Michael piled on [ 49 ] 01 Parthenon* 10/16/08 7:04 PM Page 50 the compliments about Athens’ historic greatness.
There is a clutch of brief references and passing allusions in other classical writers: Plutarch’s biography of Demetrios Poliorketes, for example, describes how this fourth-century BC warlord took up residence there (with permission) – ‘and Athena was said to entertain him and act as his host, even though he was a dreadfully disorderly guest and did not treat his lodging with the politesse due to a virgin’. Predictably perhaps, the vast statue of the goddess claims most of what attention there is.