Construction of the Parthenon in Periclean Athens
- Date
- 447–432 BCE
- Category
- Culture, arts & philosophy
- Region
- Greece (Athens, Attica)
- Era
- Classical Antiquity
- Significance
Work on the Parthenon, the marble temple of Athena Parthenos on the Athenian Acropolis, began in 447 BCE under the political leadership of Pericles, part of an ambitious building programme that proclaimed Athens' wealth and pre-eminence at the height of its empire.
Designed by the architects Iktinos and Kallikrates and overseen by the sculptor Phidias, the temple was largely completed by 438 BCE, with its sculptural decoration finished around 432 BCE. Built of Pentelic marble, it embodied the refinement of the Doric order, with subtle optical corrections and an elaborate programme of pedimental sculptures, metopes and a continuous frieze. Within stood Phidias' colossal gold-and-ivory statue of Athena. Funded in part from the treasury of the Delian League, the project was politically controversial yet became the supreme architectural and artistic achievement of classical Greece. The Parthenon distilled the ideals of the Age of Pericles, a flourishing that also produced Greek tragedy, history-writing and philosophy, and it has remained ever since an emblem of classical civilisation, of Athenian democracy and of Western art and architecture.
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Empires active in 447–432 BCE
- Achaemenid Empire550 BCE – 330 BCE
- Roman Republic509 BCE – 27 BCE
- Carthaginian Empire650 BCE – 146 BCE
- Kingdom of Kush1070 BCE – 350 CE
- Scythians800 BCE – 300 BCE
- Zhou Dynasty1046 BCE – 256 BCE
Related culture, arts & philosophy events
- Panini composes the Ashtadhyayi, the first systematic grammarc. 400 BCE
- Life and teaching of Confucius in China551–479 BCE
- Herodotus completes the Histories, founding the writing of historyc. 430–425 BCE
- Trial and execution of Socrates399 BCE
- Nok Terracotta Sculpture Tradition Flourishesc. 500 BCE
- Plato founds the Academy at Athensc. 387 BCE
Further reading
The wider story
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