Acropolis
From Encyclopædia
{uh-krahp'-uh-lis} The term acropolis (Greek, "uppermost
city") refers to the highest and most defensible part of an ancient Greek
city. In classical Greece every important settlement had an acropolis, on which were placed
temples, treasuries, and other important civic buildings (see
GREEK ARCHITECTURE). In times of attack the acropolis became the last bastion of defense.The best-known acropolis is that of Athens, upon which the ancient Greeks built one of the finest groups of
temples in the ancient
world. The Athenian Acropolis rises from the plain of Attica to 152 m (500 ft) above sea level. First settled in Neolithic times, by the Bronze Age (c.3000 BC) the
plateau was occupied by houses and a royal palace. The buildings that survive date from an extensive building program initiated by the 5th-century BC statesman
Pericles. The major monuments, in the order in which they were built, are the
temple of Athena Parthenos (the Parthenon), 447-432 BC; the Propylaea (gateway), 437-432 BC; the
temple of Athena
Nike, 427-424 BC; and the
temple of
Erechtheus (the Erechtheum), 421-405 BC. Sizable portions of these structures are still standing, but little remains of the other buildings and enclosures that filled the Athenian Acropolis.ParthenonThe largest building atop the Athenian Acropolis is the Parthenon, a
temple dedicated to Athena Parthenos (Athena the Warrior Maiden). It is a Doric building, made entirely of white pentelic marble and surrounded by free-standing
columns. It was designed by Ictinus and Callicrates, with sculpture by
Phidias. The sculpture was composed of a giant ivory and gold figure of Athena, a continuous
frieze band inside the
colonnade depicting the Panathenaic procession, and metope panels depicting, among other scenes, the Battle of the Lapiths and the Centaurs. The
temple was unusual in that it had two rooms within its cella, the enclosed space inside the
colonnade. The smaller room, dedicated to the maiden goddess (parthenon), eventually
Lent its name to the whole building; the larger chamber housed the huge image of Athena by
Phidias (which much later was removed by the Crusaders to Constantinople and there destroyed).In later
The Times Parthenon served in succession as a Byzantine church, a
Roman Catholic Church, a Turkish harem, and a Turkish powder magazine. On Sept. 16, 1687, a direct hit by Venetian artillery caused the powder in the Parthenon to explode, scattering debris across the Acropolis. The remaining sculpture rapidly began to disappear. A few pieces were taken to France by the duc de Choiseul, but most of it was sent to Britain in 1802-03 by Thomas Bruce, Lord ELGIN. In 1922-23 the Greek archaeologist Nicolas Balanos collected the remaining fragments of the
temple and restored a
number of
columns and parts of the
entablature that they carried.PropylaeaThe Propylaea, located at the west end of the hill, is the gateway into the Acropolis. Although never completed, the present structure was worked on in 437-432 BC by the architect Mnesicles. His gate was intended to replace an earlier one built under the administration of
PEISISTRATUs in c.530 BC. The inner and outer
colonnades are Doric, recalling those of the Parthenon although they are much more severe. Inside are more slender Ionic
columns. Flanking the
Central gate-hall are two chambers. One was used as a pinakotheke ("
painting gallery"); the other, although never completed, was probably intended as a glyptotheke ("sculpture gallery").
temple of Athena NikeThe diminutive
temple of Athena
Nike (Athena of Victory), which measures only 5.64 by 8.34 m (18.5 by 27 ft), stands southwest of the Propylaea, on a rebuilt Mycenaean
fortification. The only wholly Ionic building on the Acropolis, it was designed by the architect Callicrates in a delicate style, with four
columns on the front and on the rear porches. The
Nike temple remained intact until 1686, when the
Turks dismantled the building to use the blocks in
fortifications. It was reassembled hastily in 1836 and then more carefully reerected by Balanos and A. K.
Orlandos in 1935-40.ErechtheumThe
temple of
Erechtheus, or Erechtheum, was the last, the most complex, and the most richly embellished of the?Periclean buildings. The unorthodox two-level plan adopted by the architect (perhaps MNESICLES) served to accommodate several sites long held sacred by the Athenians. The upper portion of the
temple, facing east, contained a sanctuary dedicated to Athena Polias (Athena Protectress of the
city); on a lower level at the west end were three smaller chambers dedicated to local gods and to Poseidon. The large porch opening to the north, enclosed by elegantly proportioned Ionic
columns, protected a stone believed to have been struck by Poseidon's trident.The Erechtheum is best known for its caryatid porch on the south side, facing the Parthenon. Its roof is supported by six caryatids,
columns in the form of female figures. The present caryatids are copies, the originals having been moved to the Acropolis Museum in order to preserve them.
bibliography: Boardman, John, and Finn, David, The Parthenon and Its Sculptures (1985); Bruno, V. J., ed., The Parthenon (1974); Carpenter, Rhys, The Architects of the Parthenon (1970); Hopper, R. J., The Acropolis (1971); Travlos, John, Pictorial
dictionary of Ancient Athens (1971; repr. 1980).
