Who was the Parthenon built for?
The Parthenon is a temple of the Doric order and was dedicated to Athena Parthenos.
Who built it and why?
The ancient fortifications, buildings and statues on the Acropolis were destroyed during the Persian occupation of 480 BC. After that period the acropolis ceases to be a fortress.
After the Victory of Marathon in 490 BC, Pericles wanted to celebrate the victory over the Persians and the political, economic and cultural primacy of Athens. For this reason the reconstruction of the Acropolis began and the city began to build on the Acropolis a temple for Athena: the Parthenon itself.
The Parthenon is the most important building of the programme of Perikles for the re-establisment of the Acropolis sanctuary.
The architects of the temple were Iktinos and Kallikrates. The renowned sculptor Pheidas collaborated with other sculptors to design and execute the big sculptural work of the decoration of the temple. He created also the 13 metres tall statue of Athena made by gold and ivory which stood inside the temple. The Parthenon was built in 447-438 B.C. and its sculptural compositions were completed in 432 B.C.
The Parthenon is the temple that Perikles wanted to erect on the Acropolis as a symbol of the victory of the greek union. It was the symbol of the passage from the old religious traditions of the individual communities to what we could call the religious ideology of united Greece.
The construction of a monument of unprecedented splendor was a way to affirm the ideological and political supremacy of Athens.
The Parthenon is a lasting symbol of ancient Greece and Athenian democracy, and certainly represents one of the largest cultural monuments in the world.
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