Temples and statues of the acropolis. Interesting facts about the Acropolis
Athens Acropolis
(Greek akropolis, from akros - upper and polis - city), elevated and fortified part ancient greek city, fortress, refuge in case of war. Temples were usually built on the Acropolis in honor of the patron deities of a given city. The most famous is the Acropolis in Athens.
His buildings are exquisite in proportion and harmoniously connected with the landscape. This ensemble, created under the general direction of Phidias, consists of the main entrance of the Propylaea (437-432 BC, architect Mnesicles), the temple of Athena Nike (449-420 BC, architect Kallikrates), the main temple of the Acropolis and Athens Parthenon (447-438 BC, architects Iktin and Kallikrates), Erechtheion Temple (421-406 BC).
They were always located at a point on the top and were often used as cover and protection from enemies. He was born from the earth and was half snake and half man. He taught the Athenians arts and crafts, as well as burial customs, and decided that he would be the protector of the city's god.
Poseidon is indeed the god of the sea. It was believed that the wooden statue of Athena that once towered on the Acropolis came straight from the sky. It seems that the Acropolis has been inhabited since the seventh millennium BC. During the Mycenaean civilization, high walls were built around it and there is evidence of a Mycenaean palace. In the sixth century AD, Christ's Acropolis changed significantly.
The ACROPOLIS in Athens, the fortified part of ancient Athens, where the main shrines of the city were located, is famous for its cult buildings of the classical period.
History of creation
The Acropolis of Athens, which is a 156-meter-high rocky hill with a gentle peak (approx. 300 m long and 170 m wide), is the site of the oldest settlement in Attica. During the Mycenaean period (15-13 centuries BC) it was a fortified royal residence. In the 7th-6th centuries. BC e. There was a lot of construction going on on the Acropolis. Under the tyrant Pisistratus (560-527) in place royal palace the temple of the goddess Athena Hekatompedon was built (i.e., a temple one hundred steps long; fragments of pediment sculptures have been preserved, and the foundation has been identified). In 480, during the Greco-Persian Wars, the temples of the Acropolis were destroyed by the Persians. The inhabitants of Athens swore an oath to restore the shrines only after the expulsion of enemies from Hellas.
There is no longer a place to live and where to build palaces and houses, but it has become a sanctuary. Every year there was a great procession heading to the Acropolis, where the statue of Athena was dressed for the occasion and many gifts were sacrificed. During the Persian Wars in the fifth century BC, the Athenians began to build the Parthenon, but the Persians burned the Acropolis and all efforts aimed at the war. All this during the time of Pericles, the so-called age of gold for the city, the period during which the Acropolis took the structural form we see today.
It is said that Pericles used the Athenians' unemployed workers to carry out these works, and that this initiative was to ensure that every Athenian had to live and eat. The Parthenon was built by the architects Iktino and Kallikrates and the statue of Phidias. At the end of the fifth century, the Erechtheion was built, desired as a temple to Apteros. When the Romans conquered Greece in the second century, many temples were looted. Statues and other works of art from Greece were brought to Rome from Olympia and Delphi, for example, but the Acropolis in Athens was largely left untouched.
In 447, on the initiative of Pericles, new construction began on the Acropolis; management of all work was entrusted famous sculptor Phidias, who, apparently, was the author of the artistic program that formed the basis of the entire complex, its architectural and sculptural appearance.
Propylaea and Temple of Nike Apteros
The sacred road, along which the procession of Athenians moved from the agora to the temple of the patron goddess during the main festival of the Great Panathenaia, leads to the Propylaea, which has 5 passages and in ancient times was flanked by two equestrian statues of the Dioscuri. In the left, protruding wing, there was a Pinakothek (a collection of pinak paintings donated to the goddess Athena), in the right there was a storage room for manuscripts and a room for the gatekeeper and guards. To the right of the Propylaea, on a pyrgos (an outcrop of a fortified rock), stands a small, light and graceful temple of the Ionic order, dedicated to Athena Nike, known as the temple of Nike Apteros (Wingless Victory; 443-420, architect Kallicrates).
Some of the emperors also added something. During the Middle Ages, various temples on the Acropolis were converted into Christian churches. And it is characteristic that the Parthenon, which was the temple of the virgin goddess Athena, now became the Church of the Virgin Mary. When they arrived, towards the end of the sixteenth century, the Turks converted the Parthenon into a mosque. the temple exploded, and this is why today it has no roof. After all this has passed, the more dangerous enemy of the Acropolis, in modern Athens, is pollution. The problem has been known for many decades, but no solution has yet been found.
Erechtheion
After the participants of the procession passed the Propylaea and entered the sacred territory, a panorama of the central part of the complex opened before them. In the foreground, just to the left of the road, stood a colossal bronze statue of Athena Promachos (Warrior), cast by Phidias. Behind it in the distance was the Erechtheion (architect unknown), the temple of Athena and Poseidon at the site of the dispute between these gods for the possession of Attica. The temple has an asymmetrical plan unique in Greek architecture; its three porticos are located at different levels: on the western side the portico leading to the temple of Athena Polyada (City), on the northern side the entrance to the sanctuary of Poseidon-Erechtheus, on the southern wall of the temple is the famous portico of the caryatids; the entire building was surrounded by a frieze with overhead white figures (not preserved). In the Erechtheion, the oldest sanctuary of Athens, there was the sacred xoan of Athena (wooden statue), which according to legend fell from the sky, the altars of Hephaestus and
General information: The New Acropolis Museum is located on the southern slope of the Acropolis on Dionysiou Areopagitou Street. It was opened to the public in Here you will see several works from the temple and other coveted buildings, like statues of the caryatids and parts of the Parthenon frieze. Photographs are only allowed without flash, and you cannot be parallel to work on the show.
Even in organized tours visiting the Acropolis is one of the main attractions. Greek sculptor born in Athens shortly before or shortly after 500 BC He was a student of Egia and worked in various greek cities, but above all in Athens, where he gave artistic expression to the great projects of the era of Pericles, the Athenian political man.
the hero Buta, the grave of the legendary Athenian king Kekrops, adjoined to the west by the sanctuary of the Attic dew goddess Pandrosa. In the courtyard
Erechtheion grew a sacred olive tree, donated to the city by Athena, and a salt spring flowed, which Poseidon carved with his trident.
Parthenon
There is little news in his life and there is dissonance about his death: the second is some in prison in Athens, accused first of stealing part of the gold for the construction of Athens Parthnos, and then for the sake of depicting Pericles on the shield of the goddess; according to others in Olympia, where he would have fled after fleeing Athens. Other works are known only by sources.
Fidia was ancient Greek sculptor, artist and architect. However, very few remains of his original works remain. His knowledge of his work is based mainly on descriptions of ancient writers and copies of some of his sculptures, as well as iconographic references to his works from coins and precious stones. It is only known that Phidias succeeded in the perfection and plasticity of forms, with the perfect expression of the ideal of eternal beauty.
The lightness of its forms, the special sophistication of decorative decoration and the complexity of the composition of the small Erechtheion contrasts with the strict and majestic, emphatically monumental Parthenon (Temple of the Virgin Athena; 69.5 m in length and 30.9 m in width, the height of the columns is 10.5 m; 447 consecrated in 438; architect Ictinus with the participation of Callicrates), representing a Doric peripter. The building is perceived from the Propylaea in three quarters; viewers saw not one of its facades, but the entire volume of the structure, got an idea of its appearance as a whole, and before seeing the main, eastern facade, they had to walk around the temple from the outside.
His first known work is the massive bronze statue of Athena Promas, erected on the Acropolis of Athens in 460 BC. Subsequently, Pericles decided to oversee the work of the new Temple dedicated to Athena. In 438 BC. the cult cult cult of Atyn Parthenos was dedicated. Most of the statues depicted are made using wet dressing created by Phidias herself.
Almost all of the recovered works are kept in the British Museum and are known as the Elgin Marble Collection. In 438 BC. after the fire of his house, he moved to "Olympia", where he was entrusted with the task of creating a new and colossal statue of the Cryo-elephant Zeus Olympio, located in the temple of the city of Olympia, and was considered among the seven wonders of the world; the statue, unfortunately, is lost and, thanks to the description of Pausania, in her Perigesis of Greece, one can give it an idea.
In the temple itself, in the naos, there was a chrysoelephantine statue of Athena Parthenos (Virgin) by Phidias; the sacred money of the goddess and the treasury of the Athenian Maritime League were kept in the opisthodome. In the pediments there were sculptural groups depicting the most significant events in the cult of Athena - her birth and the dispute with the sea god Poseidon for the possession of Attica. The metope reliefs along the perimeter of the building depicted scenes of mythological battles. Architectural details, sculpture and reliefs were brightly painted. The plan and order of the Parthenon also differ from the traditional ones in a number of features: in front of the naos there was a hall of the maiden's chamber (the Parthenon, which gave the name to the entire temple), along the wall of the naos there was an Ionic frieze depicting the Panathenaic procession.
Phidias was also the creator of many other sculptures, such as a bronze group representing some Greek heroes with the general Milziades as the center. Other statues dedicated to Athena are attributed to him, one of which, known as a copy, was named Athena Lemni.
Returning to Athens from Olympia, in 433 BC. he became a victim of the Athenian political struggle: to discredit his defender Pericles. He was accused of embezzling part of the gold to participate in the Athena Parthenos. Fidia managed to prove her innocence only by disassembling and weighing the golden parts of the statue. He was first convicted and then sent to Olympia, where he would be captured by death.
In front of the Parthenon, on the right side of the Propylaea, there were also the sanctuaries of Artemis Brauronia and Athena Ergana (Craftswoman), a repository of weapons and sacred armor of Chalkotek (450). The open area of the Acropolis was occupied by numerous altars and gifts to the gods, statues and steles.
Phidias style is characterized by a realistic representation of human anatomy, idealized with the grandeur and serenity of the figures. Realizes the synthesis between archaic force and classical harmony. The characters are well differentiated and elevated, giving the impression of being a collection of many people rather than an undifferentiated cluster.
It is also important to note the great attention to detail. Phidias, son of Charmides, was an ancient Greek sculptor, painter and architect, widely considered the greatest of all classical sculptors. It is known that no original works can be confidently attributed to him with certainty; many Roman copies of varying degrees of supposed fidelity exist. Pericles used money from the Maritime League of Delos to pay Phidias for his work.
The temple and theater of Dionysus (6th century BC, rebuilt in 326), the Odeon of Pericles (an indoor round building for musical competitions) (2nd half of the 5th century BC) adjoined the northwestern slope of the Acropolis. , theater of Herodes Atticus (2nd century AD), sanctuary of Asclepius, Stoa (Porticus) of Eumenes.
Acropolis Ensemble
The Acropolis towers over all of Athens, its silhouette shaping the skyline of the city. In ancient times, the Parthenon rising above the hill could be seen from any part of Attica and even from the islands of Salamis and Aegina; The sailors approaching the shore could already see from afar the shine of the spear and helmet of Athena the Warrior. In ancient times, the sanctuary was known not only as a famous cult center, but also as a monument of great art, confirming the glory of Athens as the “school of Hellas” and the most beautiful city. The thoughtful composition of the entire ensemble, perfectly found general proportions, a flexible combination of various orders, the finest modeling of architectural details and their unusually accurate drawing, the close relationship of architecture and sculptural decoration make the buildings of the Acropolis the highest achievement of ancient Greek architecture and one of the most outstanding monuments of world art.
Hegei of Athens, Ageladas of Argos and the Thasian artist Polygnotus were considered his teachers. In Ageladas' favor it can be said that the influence of many Dorian schools is certainly visible in some of his works. Phidias shows the Parthenon frieze to his friends Lawrence Alma-Tadema - Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
Among the spectators, critics identified Pericles, the bearded man standing in front of Phidias. Next to him is his mistress, Aspasia. In the foreground stands a boy, Alcibiades, with his lover, Socrates. From his life we know little of his work. His first commission was a group of national heroes with Miltiades as the central figure. The famous statesman Pericles also commissioned several sculptures for him for Athens. According to Plutarch, he was attacked by the political opponents of Pericles, and died in prison in Athens, but according to the functional Philochorus, as stated in the Scholiast of Aristophanes, he fled to Elis, where he made great Zeus statue for Elean, but was executed by them.
Acropolis in subsequent eras
In the 5th century The Parthenon became the Church of Our Lady, the statue of Athena Parthenos was transported to Constantinople. After the conquest of Greece by the Turks (in the 15th century), the temple was turned into a mosque, to which minarets were added, then into an arsenal; The Erechtheion became the harem of the Turkish pasha, the temple of Nike Apteros was dismantled, and the bastion wall was built from its blocks. In 1687, after a cannonball hit a Venetian ship, an explosion destroyed almost the entire central part of the Temple of Athena the Virgin; during an unsuccessful attempt by the Venetians to remove the Parthenon sculptures, several statues were broken. At the beginning of the 19th century. The Englishman Lord Elgin tore out a number of metopes, tens of meters of frieze and almost all the surviving sculptures of the Parthenon pediments, a caryatid from the portico of the Erechtheion.
For several reasons, the first of these tales is preferable: he would not have been Sono Stati; it is possible for him to have died in prison immediately after creating the Athena Parthenos on the Acropolis, as he did Zeus of Olympia after his participation in the Parthenon. Phidias used the money provided by Athenian allies for defense against Persia instead of beautifying Athens. It was very fortunate that after Xerxes Persia did not make any deliberate attacks on Greece. In all these works, says Plutarch, Phidias was the adviser and overseer of Pericles.
Phidias presented his own portrait and that of Pericles on the shield of his statue of the Athena Parthenos. And it was through Phidias that the political enemies of Pericles attacked him. It is therefore quite clear that Phidias was closely associated with Pericles and the dominant spirit in Athenian art at that time. But it is not easy to go beyond this general statement into detail.
After the declaration of independence of Greece, during restoration work (mainly in the late 19th century), the ancient appearance of the Acropolis was restored as far as possible: all late buildings on its territory were eliminated, the temple of Nike Apteros was rebuilt, etc. Reliefs and sculptures of the temples of the Acropolis are located in the British Museum (London), the Louvre (Paris) and the Acropolis Museum. Remaining under open air the sculptures have now been replaced by copies.
It is important to note that, while contemplating the glory of Pheidias on the Parthenon sculptures, we continue to have little evidence. In the Hippie mayon, Plato attributes them to him, although he is said to have rarely, if ever, executed works in marble. In ancient times he was noted for his statues in bronze, and his chryselephantine works. And there is a marked contrast between these statues and certain works of Phidias. It is therefore likely that most, if not all, of the Parthenon's sculptural decoration was the work of Phidias' students, such as Alcamenes and Agoracritus, rather than his own.
Literature:
Kolobova K. M. Ancient city Athens and its monuments. L., 1961.
Sokolov G.I. Acropolis in Athens. M., 1968.
Pausanias. Description of Hellas. St. Petersburg, 1996.
The word “acropolis” translated from Greek means “upper city,” and in Rus' such fortified upper cities called Kremlins. Once Athenian Acropolis really was a fortress, and it seemed that nature itself made sure that the hill platform, rising several tens of meters with its steep slopes, was impregnable to enemies. The Athenian plain is open on the sea side, and surrounded by mountain peaks on the rest.
The earliest of Phidias's great works were dedications to the memory of the marathon, from the spoils of victory. At Delphi he created a great group in bronze, including figures of Apollo and Athena, several Attic heroes and the general Miltiades. On the Acropolis in Athens he erected a colossal bronze statue of Athena, Athena Promasho, which was visible far out to sea. At Pellina in Achaea and at Plataea he made two more statues of Athena, as well as an ivory and gold statue of Aphrodite for the people of Elis.
Of Zeus we have unfortunately lost all traces, having preserved small copies on the coins of Elis, which give us a general idea of the pose and character of the head. The god sat on a throne, each part of which was used as a basis for sculptural decoration. His body was made of ivory and clothing of gold. His head was somewhat archaic: the Otricoli mask, which was previously considered a copy of the head olympic statue, undoubtedly more than a century later.
Thus, the Acropolis was accessible only from the western side, but, having all the geographical advantages, it did not even need protection. In addition, the hill was so densely covered with olive trees that they themselves could serve as an excellent means of defense.
On the ruins of the Acropolis you can read the history of Greece from the era of the legendary King Cecrops to Turkish rule. The beginning of the Greek capital is lost in times so ancient that they seem fabulous. In the middle of the 19th century BC, as the ancient Greek historian Herodotus writes, King Kekrop, born of the earth and having the body of a snake, arrived in Attica. He built a fortress with a royal palace on the Acropolis, and the city founded by the king began to be called Cecropia, and its inhabitants - Cecropidae. At first the Acropolis was owned by Zeus the Thunderer, but when he appeared on the land of Attica new town, the god Poseidon and the goddess Athena argued for its ownership. Under King Kekropos this famous dispute for the possession of Attica took place.
Our actual knowledge of the works of Phidias is very small. There are many magnificent figures in the Roman and other museums which clearly belong to the same school as the Parthenos; but they are copies of the Roman century and are not trustworthy in style. Adolf Furtwangler proposed to find in the statue, the head of which is in Bologna, and the body in Dresden, a copy of Phidias's Athena of Leman; but his arguments are nothing short of conclusive. Much more satisfactory as evidence are some torsos of Athena that were found in Athens in the 5th century.
The Olympian gods, led by Zeus, acted as judges in this dispute, when Athena and Poseidon brought their gifts to the city. With a blow of his trident, Poseidon cut the rock, and a salty spring gushed out of the stone. Athena thrust her spear deep into the ground, and an olive tree grew in this place. All the gods supported Poseidon, and the goddesses and King Cecrops considered the olive a more useful gift for Attica. Angry at the loss, the god Poseidon sent huge waves onto the plain surrounding the city, from which it was possible to hide only in the fortress of the Acropolis. The thunderer Zeus stood up for the residents, and the townspeople themselves appeased Poseidon, promising to erect a temple in his honor on Cape Souniyon, which they subsequently did.
Despite its natural security, the Acropolis was fortified in ancient times with a wall called Pelasgian. According to some scientists, this happened around 1100 BC, when the Pelasgians, famous for their art of building walls, arrived here from Boeotia (according to other sources - from Sicily). The Persian king Xerxes, having captured Athens in 480 BC, ordered the destruction of these walls, but their remains have survived to this day.
The tyrant ruler Peisistratus was the first to transform the Acropolis from a fortress into a sanctuary. Under him, on the site of the royal palace, the Hekatompedon (one hundred steps, one hundred feet high), dedicated to the goddess Athena, was erected. The Greeks revered their patroness so highly that they set free all the slaves who participated in the construction of this temple. In 479 BC, the Hekatompedon was destroyed by the Persians during the brief occupation of Athens, but the remains of the foundations of this temple are still visible next to the Erechtheion.
After the expulsion of the Peisistratos, there were no longer any residential buildings on the Acropolis, only temples, altars and statues. Priests and priestesses lived at the temples with their assistants and servants.
The Persian capture of the Acropolis, which was considered impregnable, greatly worried the Greeks, and after their expulsion they began extensive work to strengthen it. The Athenians had to not only restore the fortifications, but also rebuild almost all the temples. The platform on the top of the hill was expanded, and during the restoration of the Pelasgian wall its former line was significantly extended, especially to the north and north-west, so that part of the valley stretching between the hills was added to the ancient fortress. The space between the old and new walls was filled with ruins of temples, remains of buildings and broken sculptures. At the same time, the ancient authors noted that fragments of old temples and fragments of statues dedicated to the gods were buried “with the greatest care, respect and honor,” so that never again would an enemy hand violate the ancient shrines.
Probably around 460 BC the allied treasury was transferred from Delos to Athens, and before that the city did not have its own treasure. Initially, the wealth from the allied coffers was most likely stored in the sanctuary of Athena, built at the northern end of the Acropolis. At first, the sacred objects of the dispute between Poseidon and Athena - the olive and the trident - were kept in the temple, thus uniting the cults of both deities and marking the reconciliation between them that followed the dispute. But the temple was badly damaged by the Persians and could no longer be a reliable place to store the treasury. Athens by this time had already achieved such power that it was possible to take care not only of military savings: art monuments also required their share of attention. Therefore, the Greeks began to use the allied treasury not only to build a fleet, but also to decorate the Acropolis. The people chose Pericles as the chairman of the construction commission, who, together with the brilliant artist and sculptor Phidias, drew up a plan for the grandiose reconstruction of the Acropolis.
Now, in the era of its prosperity, standing at the pinnacle of power and glory, Athens, more than ever, had to express to its goddess a sense of gratitude for the gifts with which she showered them. Therefore, Pericles’ idea was truly majestic to turn the Acropolis into the sacred fence of Athena, and the former fortress into a single architectural ensemble. The people willingly agreed to the considerable expense of the new construction and for many years supported the implementation of this plan. Plutarch in his work “Pericles” wrote that majestic buildings, inimitable in beauty and grace, began to rise on the Acropolis. All artisans tried to bring their craft to the highest degree of perfection in front of each other.
Actually high place The Parthenon rises on the Acropolis, which seems to be a continuation of the rock, the completion of everything around it. It is known that it was difficult and expensive to build, but there are no traces of human effort in it: the temple appeared as if by itself, there was no forced invasion of the landscape, on the contrary, there was complete unity of the “intentions” of nature and the architect.
The Parthenon was built on the site of an ancient sanctuary destroyed by the Persians. Each pediment of the Parthenon contained a group of sculptures united by a specific plot. For example, the eastern frieze depicts the birth of the goddess Athena, the western frieze depicts her dispute with Poseidon, and the sculptural decoration of the Parthenon was completed by a frieze that depicted a solemn procession during the festival of the Great Panathenaia (that is, “all-Athensian”).
Panathenaea was at first a rural harvest festival: according to legend, Theseus introduced it for all the inhabitants of Attica, united into one state. The first day of the holiday was dedicated to musical competitions, which were held in the Odeon, a theater specially built by Pericles. This was followed by gymnastic games, choirs, running with torches and a trireme competition. The winners received an olive wreath or a beautiful clay vessel filled with olive oil.
Inside the Parthenon, in the eastern section of the temple, stood the goddess Athena, surrounded by a two-tier colonnade shaped like the letter “P”. Pausanias in his “Description of Hellas” reports that the statue of Athena depicts her at full length in a chiton, right down to her feet; on her chest is the head of Medusa made of ivory, in her hand she holds an image of Nike approximately four cubits long, and in the other hand a spear. At her feet lies a shield, and near her spear is a snake... In the middle of her helmet is an image of a sphinx... on both sides of the helmet are images of griffins. The pedestal of the statue depicts the birth of Pandora, the first woman.
All parts of the statue were covered with reliefs: on the goddess’s sandals the battle between the Lapiths and the centaurs is shown, on the front side of the shield there is a battle with the Amazons, on the inside there is a battle between the Olympian gods and the Titans. A small pool was built in front of the statue of Athena to prevent the evaporation of water from drying out the ivory.
After the completion of the Parthenon, the Greeks began building the Propylaea, which in width occupies the entire western slope of the hill. Even today, the Acropolis can only be reached along a winding, wide path carved into the rocks. The stepped road leads first to the solemn monumental portal - the famous Propylaea with columns in the Doric style. They were built entirely from white Pentelic and purple Eleusinian marble by the architect Mnesicles in 437–432 BC.
The Propylaea was one of the most famous and beloved monuments of ancient Athens. Orators of the 6th century BC pointed out to the people the Propylaea as the symbol and glory of Athenian greatness, and some ancient authors placed their architecture even higher than that of the Parthenon. The construction of these majestic gates required enormous funds, but due to a series of defeats in the Peloponnesian War and the beginning of the decline of the Athenian state, the Propylaea remained unfinished.
But before entering these majestic marble gates, everyone involuntarily turns to the right. There, on the high pedestal of the bastion that once guarded the Acropolis, stands a small elegant temple of the goddess of victory Nike Apteros, decorated with low bas-reliefs on the themes of the Greco-Persian wars. On a massive ledge of the Acropolis rock, the light, airy temple is placed so that with its whiteness it stands out not against the background of other architectural structures, but against the background of the blue sky. This fragile building, similar to an elegant marble toy, erected by the architect Callicrates in the second half of the 5th century BC, seems to smile itself and makes numerous visitors to the Acropolis smile.
A gilded wooden statue of the goddess was installed inside the temple, and the Greeks liked it so much that they innocently begged the sculptor not to make wings for it, because victory is fickle and flies from one enemy to another. The Athenians depicted Nike as wingless so that she could not leave their beautiful city, which had so recently conquered great victory over the Persians.
After the Propylaea, the Athenians went to the main square of the Acropolis, where there was a bronze statue of Athena Promachos (Warrior) 8.5 meters high. The statue of the goddess was built using a tenth of the booty captured by the Greeks at the Battle of Marathon. The inscription on the stone pedestal said the same thing: “The Athenians dedicated from the victory over the Persians.” The sculptor Phidias performed it in full armor: in a helmet, with a spear, a shield and with an aegis on the chest. The pedestal was high, and the gilded tip of the goddess’s spear, sparkling in the sun, was visible far from the sea and served as a kind of beacon for sailors.
The most sacred, most mysterious and enigmatic temple of the Acropolis is considered the Erechtheion, associated with the hidden events of the mythological history of Athens and Attica. Its construction was carried out with long interruptions, in free time from wars: the Erechtheion was founded in 421 BC and completed after the victories of Alcibiades in 409–408 BC.
An ancient Greek myth tells that Erechtheus (or Erichthonius) was the son of the goddess Gaia and the god Hephaestus and had a half-snake-half-human body. As a baby, the goddess Athena took him in and gave him to the daughters of Cecrops in a closed casket, strictly forbidding him to open it. But two of the sisters - Gersa and Aglavra - were very curious and looked into the chest. Seeing there a baby guarded by two snakes, they were very frightened and, overwhelmed by the madness sent to them, they threw themselves from the cliff of the Acropolis and crashed. The third sister, Pandora, was obedient to the will of Athena and subsequently received her sanctuary on the Acropolis.
The Erechtheion stands in the part of the Acropolis where the royal palace was located in pre-Homeric times. History has not preserved the names of the creators of this temple, since it was erected after Pericles and Phidias. Those who constructed this remarkable building faced extremely difficult construction problems. First of all, the Erechtheion had to connect together several sanctuaries that had long existed in their ritually sacred places, moreover, located at different levels. The builders had to practically leave this untouchable topography of the site and build the temple from parts constructed at different heights. The result was a very complex building with four porticoes, which has no analogues in Greek architecture. For example, the eastern part of its south side The Erechtheion connects to the northeast corner of the Hekatompedon's foundation; it also invisibly retains a connection with the stones of the royal palace of Mycenaean times.
The frieze that encircled the Erechtheion was a continuous band of dark blue Eleusinian marble, decorated with a sculpted relief of yellowish Parian marble. Between the central door of the northern portico and the door of the portico of the caryatids there was an oblong room. On the inside of its western wall there was a well-cleft through which one could see the “Sea of Erechtheus” - a source of salt water. Near the western wall of the temple is the sanctuary of Pandora, in which the sacred olive tree, donated by Athena, grows. The tree always remained the same size as it first appeared after the blow of the goddess’s spear. Tradition tells that the next morning, after the sacred olive was burned by the Persians in 479 BC, it gave a powerful shoot and grew 45 centimeters overnight.
In the Erechtheion there were chapels that had special purpose, and side corridors that were used for religious ceremonies. In a niche in one of the corridors there was a secluded place for the sacred serpent - Athena’s favorite, which the priests fed with honey gingerbread.
Unlike the Parthenon, which was the reception hall of the goddess, the Erechtheion is the holy of holies of Athena, her home. Here Athena lived in a small temple located near the tomb of the first Greek king Cecrops. This one ancient statue was surrounded by secrets and legends, and it was believed that it was not made by the hands of a sculptor, but “her image fell straight from the sky.” The olive statue of Athena was washed in the sea and dressed in clothes woven with special care. Plutarch reports that when the priests removed all the attire from the goddess and wrapped her in a special veil, the Athenians tried to spend that day in inaction, since the beneficent power of Athena seemed to be disconnected from them at that moment.
The olive statue of Athena was called “Palaeon”; in front of it there was always a fire burning in a golden lamp made by the famous jeweler Callimachus. The lamp was filled with oil once a year, and its wick was made of asbestos. The smoke from the lamp was directed to the ceiling through a bronze pipe made in the shape of a palm tree trunk. In front of this statue, the most mysterious sacred rites of the priests and arrefors were held, carefully hidden from the uninitiated.
Two girls, appointed annually, lived in a small house near the Erechtheion. These were the arrefors (bearers of the secret), who one day after sowing were faced with a test that required considerable courage. The priestess of the goddess Athena gave them something closed that no one should see. The Arrefor girls descended with this burden underground and through a secret passage penetrated into the depths of the Acropolis rock - into the hiding place of the naughty Aglavra. There you had to leave what you brought and take another, also closed and not seen by anyone, and then rise to the surface again.
But in 426, Emperor Theodosius II ordered the destruction of all pagan temples, and the Parthenon turned into Christian Church Hagia Sophia. During the renovation of the building, the sculptural group of its eastern pediment was severely damaged. All metopes (except for the southern ones) are destroyed, and a window is cut in the eastern pediment. A bell tower is erected over the southwestern part of the Parthenon, an apse is added to the eastern part, and almost all the decoration of the eastern facade is destroyed. The statue of Phidias was transported to Constantinople, where it was destroyed in a fire.
In 1460, after the conquest of Athens by the Turks, the Parthenon became a mosque. But the most terrible blow was dealt to him in 1687 during the war between the Turks and Venice. The Parthenon was turned into a gunpowder magazine, and during the shelling it was hit by a bomb. The middle part of the structure collapsed from a strong explosion, and many sculptures were damaged. After the victory over the Turks, F. Morosini decided to bring horses from the chariot of Athena (western pediment) to Venice as trophies. However, they were lowered to the ground so carelessly and ineptly that the magnificent sculptures fell and were broken.
But even now, you can stay among the divine ruins of the Acropolis for hours and days, wander among them early in the morning, and in the bright light of the midday sun, and in the deceptive moonlight - you still will not exhaust the comprehensive beauty of everything that surrounds you. Here you stand face to face with Athens of the 5th–4th centuries BC, and the Acropolis appears to you almost the same as the great men saw it Ancient Greece. The nature surrounding it has not changed over the centuries, only the villages lined with olive trees and vineyards have disappeared. The Acropolis has stood for centuries under the scorching rays of the sun, and its marble seems to be acquiring a more and more golden color every day.
Only when you see Attica spread out at your feet from the Acropolis, you can understand that only here the Hellenic genius could flourish, only among this nature and environment will the completed form of the ideal clearly appear before you. Because the most beautiful ancient Greek buildings, even in remains and ruins, represent the full power of the Hellenic spirit and the greatest human creativity.
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