Parthenon of Athens

The Parthenon is a former temple that was dedicated to the Greek goddess, Athena, who people of Athens considered their patron. It is regarded as a symbol of Ancient Greece, Athenian democracy and western civilization and one of the world’s greatest cultural monuments.

Athena is a Greek goddess of wisdom, courage, law and justice, strength and battle strategy. She only fought for reasons and would not fight without a purpose. She is portrayed as a shrewd companion of heroes and is a patron goddess of heroic endeavor. 

For a time, it served as the treasury if the Delian League, which later became the Athenian 

Empire. Later in the final decade of the 6^th century the Parthenon was converted into a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

The Parthenon is a classic peripteral octastyle Doric temple with Ionic architectural features. It stands on a platform or stylobate of three steps. It is quite to the other Greek temples, it is a lintel construction and is surrounded by columns carrying an entablature. There are eight columns at either end and seventeen on the sides. There is a double row of columns at either end. The colonnade surrounds an inner masonry structure, the cella, which is divided into two compartments. 

At either end of the building the gable is finished with a triangular pediment originally filled with sculpture. The columns are of Doric order, with simple capitals, fluted shafts and no basses. Above the architrave of the entablature is a frieze of carved pictorial panel, separated by formal architectural triglyphs, typical of the Doric order. Around the cella and across the lintels of the inner element of the architecture is Ionic in style rather than Doric. 

To build the Parthenon. Its massive foundations were made of limestone and the columns were made of Pentelic marble. Pentelic marble is a material that was utilized for the first time. It is flawless white with a uniform, faint yellow tint which makes it shine with a golden hue under sunlight. This marble can be found in Mount Pentelicus or Pentelikon which is located in Attica, Greece.