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April 2000

Athens - The Acropolis

David Aaronson
2005-09-24 21:57:15

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leading to the same amount of traffic but more parking problems.

The Parthenon was built primarily by the architects Iktinos and Kallikrates. Inside was an enormous statue of Athena sculpted by Phidias, who we will deal with in more detail when we get to Olympia. The building itself incorporated several interesting design elements aimed at preventing the normal optical illusions from operating. For instance, the long sides of the building are actually slightly concave so that the columns appear to be in a straight line when viewed from a distance. The columns themselves are slightly fluted so that the lines appear to be straight as well. As a result there are very few actual straight lines incorporated in the design, yet when one looks at it from just about any angle it appears to be perfectly square in all dimensions. Apparently, Iktinos and Kallikrates knew what they were doing.

Here is the east face where you can see all those principles at work (6). Legend has it that at the founding of the city, Athena and Poseidon competed over who would become the patron God(dess). Poseidon struck his trident against a rock atop the Acropolis and water came out in the form of a spring. Athena created an olive tree which would bear fruit forever. Athenians (as you may have guessed) chose Athena and her olives. They really like olives. We've seen the rest of Greece, and there's plenty of olive trees but not much in the way of fresh water, so I think maybe we'd have voted for Poseidon. Then again, Poseidos doesn't have the same ring to it.

Before we depart the Acropolis, we have to stop at the Caryatids. The porch of the Caryatids seen here is on one side of the Erectheon (7). The Erectheon stands on the site of a more ancient temple (pre-Greek) which was dedicated to a God named Erectheus. It's been lost through the years what exactly he was god of, possibly Athens, but in Greek times he was eventually merged with Poseidon. Inside this building one could find the spring Poseidon caused to well up and the olive tree is just outside it. (Although replanted by Queen Sophia in recent times.) If the back right Caryatid looks a little different, that's because the original was lost and had to be resculpted. One of the other five is a reproduction, as the original was also spirited away by Lord Elgin. The other four originals are courtesy of Alkamenes, a student of Phidias.

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