The Parthenon’s Images

Of course, Pheidias and his pupils also are responsible for the Parthenon’s glamourous sculptures. Outside, the temple building is decorated by representations of the Panathenaia, a festival in honor of Athena; of her birth and her argument with Poseidon over Attica. There are friezes, reliefs and metopes. They symbolize the god’s fame, but also the people’s heroism.

The unusual form of the gables was used to represent lying figures. In the west gable, the figure of an Attic heroe was found. The eastern gable was almost completely destroyed but probably counted with a sculpture of Dionysos and also Athena’s birth, presented by the Olympic Gods. On the best conserved frieze of the building, figures of riders and wains predominate: here we see a festive procession in which a small group of people offers her holy robe to the godess’ statue. Riders and wains could represent those Athenians who fought for their city by Marathon. This seems the most probable way to explain the unusual representation of mortal being on a temple dedicated to the Gods. Once this work was extensively painted in brilliant colours, but they have long faded.

Metopes

By the way, metopes mean an rectangular architectural element, that is, a space on a frieze that might be open but also closed by other elements. Usually, single spaces, in the form of extensively painted plates, represented single scenes that belonged to one superordinated context.

On the temple’s southern side, the fight of Lapiths against Centaurs is depicted. Characteristic for these metopes is their unusually strong emotional expression. Rather rare in classic sculptury, it is here reflected in the representation of a young man, his face wreathing in pain.

The Parthenon’s Interior

Parthenon