History of the Parthenon

As we gaze upon the ruins of the Parthenon let us trychanges.
to visualize it as it was in the time of Pericles, when itIn 1674 the Marquis de Nointel, French Ambassador to
stood supreme, surrounded by other buildings, each anthe Sublime Porte, obtained permission to visit the
architectural masterpiece, for what we see today isAcropolis. Among the members of his suite was the
but the empty shell of Athena's temple. It is more thandraughtsman Jacques Carrey, who made a series of
a miracle that in a changing world it has withstood thedrawings of the sculptures of the Parthenon. These
ravages of time, fire, earthquakes, war, and religiousdrawings, four hundred in number, are now in the
fanaticism, and that its honey-colored marble, mellowedNational Library in Paris and constitute an invaluable
by almost two thousand five hundred years of Atticrecord of the state of the sculpture at that time.
sun, still forms a tangible link with the past, bearingIn 1676 the Acropolis was visited by two friends, the
witness to the immortality of man's spirit.French Physician Jacques Spon and Sir George
While the Parthenon was scrupulously respected byWheler, who were the last two travelers to see the
the Romans the intolerance of the Early ChristiansParthenon before it was severely damaged by gunfire
completely blinded them to the superlative beauty ofin 1687. The book describing their voyage to Italy,
Greek Art, in which they saw only the evidence ofDalmatia, Greece and Asia Minor appeared in 1678
paganism. During the first centuries of our era it was aand contained the first scientific description of the ruins
common occurrence for Christians to mutilate orof Athens.
completely destroy priceless works of art.On 26th September 1687 a shell from a Venetian
After serving as the sanctuary of Athena for amortar crashed through the roof of the Parthenon,
thousand years, the Parthenon was essentially intactwhich the Ottomans were using as a powder
apart from some repairs to the roof after a fire in themagazine. In the tremendous explosion that followed,
second century AD, when, in accordance with thethe naos, pronaos and fourteen columns of the
edict of the Emperor Theodosius concerning paganperistyle were shattered. Further violence was done to
temples, it was converted to Christian worship in thethe sculpture by Morosini's clumsy and unsuccessful
fifth century. The drastic structural alterations involvedattempt to lower Athena's chariot from the west
in transforming it into the ornate Byzantine church ofpediment, and the Parthenon suffered still more
Divine Wisdom (Aghia Sophia), later dedicated to thedamage when the Turks regained Athens in the
Virgin Mother of God (Theotokos) violated its beauty.following year.
At the east the pronaos was largely destroyed toIn 1787 Count Choiseul-Gouffier, French Ambassador
make way for an apse, the opisthodomos at the westto the Sublime Porte, transported to Paris a portion of
end became the entrance and the Parthenon properthe frieze from the outer wall of the naos and two
the narthex. The blank partition wall between the cellametopes, which he had retrieved from the mass of
and the Parthenon proper was pierced by threefallen masonry. Fourteen years later his example was
doorways, the inner columns were removed andfollowed, though on an infinitely larger scale, by Lord
replaced by a Byzantine colonnade, a vaulted roofElgin, British Ambassador to Constantinople. Eighteen
substituted for the coffered ceiling and the wallsfigures from the pediments, almost half the frieze and
covered with paintings. During the alterationsfifteen metopes from the Parthenon, one of the
considerable damage was done to the sculptures; theCaryatids and a column from the Erechtheion, some
Birth of Athena represented in the east pediment wassmall pieces of sculpture from the Temple of Athena
all but totally destroyed when the pronaos was pulledNike, as well as a statue of Dionysus from the
down.choregic monument of Thrasyllus that stood above
In 1209 the first French ruler of Athens, Otto de lathe Theatre of Dionysus, were among the two
Roche, adapted the Parthenon to Catholic worship andhundred and fifty priceless Greek marbles which Elgin
consecrated as the church of Sainte Marie of Athens.ravished from the Acropolis and other places in
Later, in 1456 Athens fell to the Turks and theGreece and shipped to London between 1803 and
Parthenon was converted into use as a mosque,1812.
though fortunately without any further structural