Produced by Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net









                    The Parthenon at Athens, Greece
                                  and
                        at Nashville, Tennessee


                               _Excerpts
                                  from
                       The Parthenon of Pericles
                                and Its
                        Reproduction in America
                              Illustrated_

                                   By
                     Benjamin Franklin Wilson, III
                       Director of the Parthenon

    [Illustration: Parthenon Press]

                            PARTHENON PRESS
                               NASHVILLE

                    THE PARTHENON AT ATHENS, GREECE
                                  And
                        AT NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
              (Excerpts from THE PARTHENON OF PERICLES AND
                      ITS REPRODUCTION IN AMERICA)
                           Copyright, MCMXLI
                    By Benjamin Franklin Wilson III


                                   TO
             THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS
                               1920-1941

  R. M. Dudley
  M. T. Bryan
  Lee J. Loventhal
  W. R. Cole
  R. T. Creighton
  Chas. M. McCabe
  Percy Warner
  Rogers Caldwell
  J. P. W. Brown
  Edwin Warner
  C. A. Craig
  Jas. G. Stahlman
  Vernon Tupper
  Bascom F. Jones

  _Whose intelligent and untiring interest made possible the
  reproduction of the Parthenon at Nashville; in memory of those who are
  gone, and in appreciation of those who are living, this booklet is
  gratefully dedicated_




                               Background


The Parthenon of Pericles, while not thought to be one of the wonders of
the world, nevertheless has always been regarded as one of the most
wondrously beautiful and inspiring of the world's buildings. It embraces
the best effort of the mind, the heart, and the hand of man. In it are
bound up the religion, the history, and the art of Greece.

It has been well said that art is organized emotion, while science is
organized knowledge. The field of emotion found its first great
development among the Greeks and in the time of Pericles reached its
zenith. Assuredly the Greeks have never been excelled in the beauty of
their architecture or sculptural art.

The influence of religion was dominant in the life and thought that
produced such outstanding men in this period of world history as Phidias
and Sophocles, Ictinos and Pericles. Every function of the mind, every
activity of the hand, was closely associated with some god or goddess,
and to this inspirational incentive the world is greatly indebted for
the Parthenon. The mythological stories of the Parthenon largely cover
the mythology of Greece. Twenty-eight of the major deities and numerous
minor deities and personifications adorn its pediments.

At the time of its destruction in the seventeenth century, a little more
than two thousand years after its completion, the Parthenon was almost
in as good condition as it was at its beginning. The changes made by the
Christians in the fifth century and by the Turks in the fifteenth
century had impaired it but little, all of which is eloquent testimony
to the thoroughness with which the task was accomplished. The
co-ordination of mind, hand, and heart of the Greeks of that age has
never been excelled by men of any time and found its culmination in the
Parthenon.

    [Illustration: The Ruins of the Parthenon at Athens in 1929]




                        The Parthenon at Athens


The Parthenon was built on the Acropolis, a hill two hundred feet above
the streets of Athens, in the year 438 B.C. Not yet had the blight of
decay laid its hand upon an outstanding civilization and Athens was at
the zenith of her glory and power. The nations she had conquered
contributed to her wealth and her slaves furnished the labor for her
every great undertaking. It is no wonder that at this time she should
turn her heart toward her beloved Athena and honor her with a shrine.
Athena Parthenos was her name, hence the word Parthenon. She was the
wisest and most beautiful of the Grecian deities and the Parthenon was
her temple.

It is thought that the earliest Greeks worshiped their goddess with
crude altars of uncut stone and unhewn wood. Gradually, as the Greeks
became more intelligent, they began building temples, each lovelier than
the one before and all on the same foundation, as attested by
excavations at Athens. It is not known just how many temples there were
in this series, but it is known that the last one was destroyed by the
Persian Xerxes in the year 480 B.C. Then came the Parthenon, begun in
447 and dedicated to the goddess Athena in 438 B.C. Here for a thousand
years the Greeks worshiped their goddess, and it was during this period
that Greece produced the greatest of her philosophers, warriors,
artists, and writers.

The Parthenon was built under the supervision of Phidias, the greatest
artist of form the world has ever known. He was a close friend of
Pericles, archon of Athens, who, appreciating Phidias' great executive
ability as well as his genius, commissioned him to build the temple. He
had built a number of other temples for Pericles, notably the temple of
Zeus at Olympia, but the Parthenon was the most ambitious of all his
undertakings, as indeed it was the most ambitious of all the Greek
temples.

The Greeks were somewhat slow in embracing Christianity but by 426 A.D.
they had become a Christian nation. In the meantime Greece had fallen
under the dominion of the Roman Empire and the Emperor Theodosius II
changed the Parthenon into a Christian church. For a little more than a
thousand years the Greeks worshiped Jehovah in the Parthenon. After the
conquest by the Turks in 1458 the Parthenon was changed into a
Mohammedan mosque.

Except for the minor changes to the interior in the fifth century by the
Christians and those to the exterior in the fifteenth century by the
Turks, the Parthenon was almost in as good condition at the time of its
destruction in 1687 as it was in the beginning. In that year the Turks
were driven out of Athens by the Venetians, representing a Christian
nation. In this war the Turks temporarily stored gunpowder in the
Parthenon for safekeeping, thinking the Greek gods which adorned its
pediments would give them good luck. However, a Venetian shot, not so
respectful of the gods of the Greeks, struck the Parthenon and rendered
it the interesting ruin that, for the most part, remains today.

As a result of the explosion the entire interior was destroyed. The
columns, the architrave, the ceiling, the roof, nothing remained except
the floor and fragments of the walls. Fortunately the explosive agent
was gunpowder, whose power acts upward and outward only; consequently,
the floor was not materially injured and the markings on the floor
disclose the order of architecture, location, and diameter of the
columns.

The exterior did not suffer as much from the force of the explosion as
did the interior. Of the fifty-eight columns on the outside, forty-four
were left standing. Eight on the northeast corner and six on the south
side were entirely blown away. A few of the end columns were damaged
slightly. Almost all of the pedimental sculptures were blown off and
greatly injured. Only two fragmentary groups of the pedimental
sculptures are left on the old ruin.

In 1929 the Greek Government, with the assistance of American capital,
began a restoration of the Parthenon. It is to be hoped that the Greeks
will not allow anything to prevent the completion of this work.

    [Illustration: The Parthenon at Nashville at Night]




                       The Parthenon at Nashville


In 1896 the State of Tennessee attained its full century statehood. To
celebrate that important event in the life of the State the Tennessee
Centennial Exposition was held in Nashville the following year.
Nashville had long been known as the "Athens of the South" because of
its many schools and colleges and accompanying culture, and it is not
surprising that the director general of the exposition, a man noted for
his culture and love of art, conceived the idea of having as the gallery
of fine arts for the exposition a reproduction of the Parthenon at
Athens.

In the successful prosecution of the work there was no time for research
and study. Relying on existing information, a very creditable building
was erected of laths and plaster in the few months available.

The "Gallery of Fine Arts" attracted so much favorable attention during
the exposition that at its close the people of Nashville, having become
greatly attached to it, insisted that it should not be torn down when
the exposition buildings were destroyed. The Board of Park Commissioners
of the City of Nashville obtained approximately one hundred and fifty
acres of land surrounding the building and laid out what is now
beautiful Centennial Park. Built to last a year, the much loved building
stood for nearly twenty-four years until, in spite of every effort made
for its preservation, it became a greater ruin than its prototype in
Athens.

The Board of Park Commissioners had long had as a cherished objective
the reproduction of the Parthenon in permanent materials. This was an
ambitious undertaking for a city much larger than Nashville, and it was
not until 1920 that the old building was torn down and on its site the
present reproduction of the Parthenon at Athens was begun. Competent
architects, artists, and archaeologists were employed, who devoted the
best efforts of their careers to the work. No effort was too great, no
money was spared, to make the Parthenon as near as was humanly possible
a reproduction of the original as it existed as the temple of Athena in
the fifth century, B.C.

The chief difference between the original and the reproduction lies in
the materials of which they were made. The Parthenon at Athens was built
of Pentelic marble quarried near by, while that at Nashville is of
reinforced concrete finished by a patented process which, under the
influence of electric lights, very closely resembles marble. The
Pentelic marble of the original had a small content of iron, which
became oxidized and the color of the ruin at Athens is now a brownish
yellow from the iron oxide stain.

By the use of concrete in the building at Nashville three important
advantages were obtained: durability, economy, and the privilege of
seeing the Parthenon in two colors. Concrete is the most durable of all
building materials and the most economical. By a careful selection of
materials, the color of the Parthenon at Nashville in daylight is
brownish yellow, the same as the ruin at Athens. This effect was
obtained by using, as the aggregate of the concrete, a brownish yellow
gravel from the bottom of the Potomac River in Virginia.

The Parthenon at Nashville is floodlighted for an hour and a half each
night and is indeed a beautiful sight, one of the most beautiful in the
world; the lighting plan having been carefully designed by the
Engineering Staff of the General Electric Company. A writer in one of
the leading newspapers in America said, "If I am ever so fortunate as to
reach the Pearly Gates of the New Jerusalem, I shall expect to find
nothing more radiantly beautiful than the Parthenon at Nashville at
night."

It is regretted that there was no acropolis on which to locate the
reproduction in Nashville. However, this defect in the setting was to
some extent atoned for by building it adjacent to a small lake and
surrounding it with a beautiful park.

The Parthenon at Athens had no basement, but in the reproduction a
basement was added to house a museum of fine arts. Thus the spirit of
the Parthenon, always a temple of some god, is not violated by the
hanging of pictures on its walls.

Begun in 1920, because of the research necessary to make it a
reproduction of the original as it was in the beginning, the Parthenon
at Nashville required eleven years for completion. The exterior was
finished in 1925, and the Parthenon was thrown open to the public on May
20, 1931, six years having been necessary to complete the interior.

    [Illustration: Showing a Section of East Portico with Closed Doors]

    [Illustration: Shadows on the Parthenon at Nashville showing the
    "Greek Urn" in End of Exterior Corridor]




                      Description of the Parthenon


The Parthenon of Pericles has been shown in a new light as a result of
the eleven years of study and research made in connection with the
reproduction at Nashville. Some of the older conceptions were based on
assumptions rather than facts derived from research. For the first time
the modern Greek who visits Nashville sees the Parthenon as his
ancestors saw and admired it at Athens.

The Parthenon is sixty-five feet high with its superstructure resting on
the base or stylobate of the temple, consisting of three steps. The
largest dimensions are furnished by the lowest of these steps, which is
two hundred and thirty-eight feet long by one hundred and eleven feet
wide. The top step, on which the peristyle rests, is two hundred and
twenty-eight feet long by one hundred and one feet wide.

One of the most interesting peculiarities, or it might be said
subtleties, employed by the Greeks in building the Parthenon is that no
two major lines are exactly parallel nor are they exactly equal in
length.

The most striking feature of the Parthenon when viewed from any exterior
approach is the encircling row of great Doric columns forming the
peristyle. There are forty-six of these columns, seventeen on each side,
six on each end (not counting the corner columns twice), and six each on
the east and west porticos. The columns of the peristyle are thirty-four
feet high with an approximate diameter at the base of six feet. They
have an average spacing from face to face of eight feet. The columns of
the porticos are somewhat smaller, having a base diameter of five and
one-half feet.

    [Illustration: Top of Treasury or West Room Showing Ionic Columns
    and Decorations]

The main body of the building is called the cella. The exterior walls of
the cella on the long sides with the columns form majestic corridors.
The shadows falling at certain times of the day on the walls and floors
of the corridors are very beautiful.

Another interesting feature connected with the corridors is what has
come to be known as the "Greek Urn." This is the figure cut in the sky
by the columns and architrave at the ends of the long exterior
corridors. The Greek Urn has been made famous in literature by the poet
Keats in his "Ode to a Grecian Urn."

The only openings to the Parthenon are the two pairs of great bronze
doors leading off the east and west porticos. These doors are the
largest in America and probably are the largest bronze doors in the
world. They can only be challenged as to size by the Congressional
Library doors at Washington or by those of one of the old cathedrals in
Florence, Italy, and they are slightly larger than either. The doors are
twenty-four feet high, seven feet each wide, a foot thick, and weight
seven and one-half tons each.

There is no doubt that the front entrance to the Parthenon was through
the eastern doors. If there were no documentary evidence to prove this,
and there is an abundance, the fact that all of the twenty-two gods of
the east pediment are major deities of the Greeks while only four of
those on the west pediment are major (the remainder being
personifications and minor deities) would be sufficient proof that the
eastern end was the front of the building.

Entering the Parthenon through the eastern doors, the visitor most
likely would first note the division of the main body of the building,
or cella, by a transverse wall into two rooms--the east room and the
west room.

The east room is known as the Naos or temple proper. It is ninety-eight
feet long, sixty-three feet wide, and has a ceiling height of
forty-three feet. The most striking feature of the Naos is the double
row of Doric columns, twenty-three below and twenty-three above, with an
architrave between. These form a colonnade surrounding the main floor on
three sides. The lower units of the colonnade are three and
three-quarter feet in diameter at the base and twenty-one feet high.
Those of the upper tier are two and one-quarter feet in diameter and
sixteen feet high. The columns on the long side of the colonnade form
with the interior cella walls beautiful and impressive corridors.
Another interesting feature is that the floor of the corridors is raised
an inch and a half above the main floor of the Naos.

In the west end of the Naos, twenty feet from the end columns and facing
the eastern doors, stood the Chryselephantine Statue of Athena, the
beautiful shrine of the temple, if historians of that day are to be
believed. The statue was forty feet high and reached within three feet
of the ceiling. It was made, as its name indicates, of gold and ivory.
The fleshy parts were carved ivory and the remainder were plates of gold
suspended on a framework of cedarwood. It was the masterpiece of Phidias
and was worth a king's ransom.

When Theodosius II changed the Parthenon into a Christian church in the
fifth century he moved the statue of Athena to Byzantium, capital of the
Roman Empire, as it would have been incongruous to leave it in the
Parthenon after the change in religions. After the removal of the
Chryselephantine Statue its fate is shrouded in mystery. No part of it
and no authentic sketch, drawing, or model of it has ever been found.

    [Illustration: Interior of Naos or East Room of Parthenon at
    Nashville Showing the Ceiling and Plaster Casts of Elgin Marbles]

The Greeks entered the eastern doors at the hour of temple worship,
always in the early morning, bearing gifts of gold and silver and other
valuable articles. There they were met by the priests, who received the
gifts. While the worshipers paid their devotions to the goddess at her
shrine, the priests took the gifts through the great doors, thence along
the exterior corridors, through the western doors, and into the west
room where the gifts were deposited. This room is called the Maiden's
Chamber or Treasury.

The west room is forty-four feet long and sixty-three feet wide. As in
the east room, its most striking feature is the columns. There are four
of these arranged in a rectangle sixteen by twenty-three feet in the
center of the room. The columns are Ionic in design and, unlike those of
the east room, are monoliths. They are forty-one feet high, six feet in
diameter at the base, and three and one-half feet in diameter at the
top. The decorations of the room are Ionic also, in contrast with those
of the east room.

The decorations of the Parthenon are all authenticated. Fragments of
them are preserved in the British Museum and in the Louvre, and some of
the colors still show, though dimly, on the protected parts of the ruin
at Athens. The decorations at the top of both the interior and exterior
architrave, above and between the capitals of the Doric columns are
technically known as guttae. The color decorations are principally in
shades of blue and red with some yellows. In the interior the colors are
found in the fret along the top of the architrave in the east room and
in the moldings around the ceilings of both rooms. The colors of the
exterior occur in the frets around the top of the cella walls, in the
ceiling of the corridors and porticos, and in the decorations of the
cornice.

The Greeks lighted the old temple almost wholly through the great doors
in each end of the building; at Nashville the lighting comes from above,
and this is one of the most prominent of the modern innovations
incorporated in the reproduction of the Parthenon. The Greek ceiling was
exactly like that at Nashville with this exception: In the Greek temple,
between the great cedar beams that span the ceiling and support the roof
was an open grillwork of cedarwood, while at Nashville the open spaces
have been filled with frosted panes of glass, etched to resemble the
rays of the sun. The Greeks might have had glass, as the manufacture of
plate glass by the Phoenicians antedated the period of Pericles by some
five hundred years. As we have seen, however, they had no incentive to
use it, for they obtained their light from below. The incentive at
Nashville is to conceal the two hundred and seventy-two high-powered
electric lights which give to the interior its beautiful simulation of
sunlight, accentuating its beauty and, to a great extent, eliminating
the shadows.

The roof at Nashville is like the one at Athens except as to the
material used in its construction. The antefixes along the eaves served
the purpose of covering the joints between the marble slabs and are of
carved ornamental design. At each corner of the roof is a lion's head,
thought to be intended originally as a waterspout. Also at each corner
of the roof is a stone block upon which is surmounted a Gryphon monster,
standing guard over the temple day and night. The highest points on the
Parthenon are the carved ornaments, known as the Acroteria, at each end
of the building above the pediments.

It is difficult for anyone to describe the Parthenon and do it justice.
Suffice it to say that "it is a thing of beauty and a joy forever."

    [Illustration: The Naos or East Room Showing Symmetry of Columns,
    the Depressed Floor and Some of the Elgin Marbles]




                   The Architecture of the Parthenon


The architecture of Greece was essentially Doric. The Ionic was an
exotic in Athens and the Corinthian was more Roman than Grecian and
found no place in the Parthenon. There is a total of one hundred and
eight columns in the building, and of these all on the exterior and all
in the east room, one hundred and four in number, are Doric, while the
four in the west room are Ionic.

Taste varies in the beauty of architecture as well as in art generally.
Some admire the Gothic cathedrals of Europe, others admire the Taj Mahal
in India, and still others prefer the temples of Japan; but to those who
admire the architecture of the Greeks and the Romans, the Parthenon is
the most beautiful building in the world. Regardless, however, of what
may be thought of the beauty of its architecture, it is the most
perfect.

The age of Pericles has been known through the centuries as the "Golden
Age of Greece," but the judgment of time has forced us to the conclusion
that it was also the golden age of the world as far as the beauty of
architecture and sculptural art is concerned.

There is no more intriguing part of the whole narrative of the Parthenon
than this story of the subtlety of the Greeks in overcoming optical
illusions and neutralizing differences in distance.

Perhaps the most important, certainly the most prominent, of the
refinements of the Parthenon is the curvature of the horizontal lines.
It is not true, as some textbooks have it, that there is no straight
line in the Parthenon. There are a number of them, but all of these
straight lines are vertical. What should be said is that there are no
straight horizontal lines in the Parthenon.

Another refinement used by the Greeks in adding to the beauty of the
Parthenon relates to the columns. The visitor is certain to be impressed
by the softness of the Doric columns. This is especially true of those
of the Naos where their proximity to each other emphasizes their beauty
as they are caught banked against each other. When thus seen all other
columns fail by comparison and seem as stiff as pokers. This quality of
softness is given them by the fact that all columns, both in the Naos
and on the exterior of the building, are different in diameter from
those beside them and all are also spaced differently.

Still another refinement pertaining to the columns is technically known
as entasis, which is that quality which gives to them their beautiful
symmetry.

In discussing the columns in relation to their softness it was suggested
that they be seen banked against each other. In the discovery of their
symmetrical beauty, however, they should be seen singly. The column
apparently rises from the floor at its largest diameter and gradually
diminishes in a beautifully fluted shaft, having the very breath of
symmetry in every line to the top. That is the way it appears; but, as a
matter of fact, if the column had been constructed as it actually looks,
then, instead of seeming beautifully symmetrical, because of an optical
illusion, it would have appeared concave at a point just below the
center of the column. Knowing this from experience, the Greeks filled in
just enough to correct the results of the optical illusion and the
column in reality is bulged near the center.

It has been noted that the first sight of the Parthenon usually inspires
the visitor with a sense of its strength and stability. This effect is
produced by another of the subtleties of the Greeks in approaching
perfection in the Parthenon. Only one with technical knowledge would
ever suspect that its columns and walls are other than perpendicular;
yet, with the exception of the transverse wall which divides the cella
into its two rooms, all of them are inclined toward the center. If all
were projected on their axes, they would meet in a cluster five
thousand, eight hundred and fifty-six feet above the base of the temple.

One of the major problems that confronted the builders of the Parthenon
at Nashville related to the arrangement of the columns of the Naos.
Prior to the research work in connection with the Nashville
reproduction, the preponderance of authority favored the theory that the
Doric columns of the Naos were monoliths. This matter was settled
definitely by the work done by Mr. William Bell Dinsmoor, of New York,
who represented the builders in the archaeological end of the work.

As has been said, nothing remained of the interior of the original
Parthenon after the explosion of 1687 except the floor and fragments of
the walls. One of these fragments happened to be in the end of the
building in the southeast corner of the Naos. Sticking in it, Mr.
Dinsmoor discovered a small piece of the architrave and a discoloration
of the wall revealing where the remainder had been. This discovery fixed
the fact of an architrave and, following very closely, the further fact
that there were columns superimposed on each other with an architrave
between.

The architecture of the Parthenon will always carry with it elements of
the mystical and the mysterious to modern minds, accustomed as they are
to the solution of engineering problems by rule. The more the Parthenon
is considered, the more interesting it seems.

    [Illustration: Floor of Treasury or West Room Showing Arrangement of
    Ionic Columns and Figures from Elgin Marbles of Iris and Heracles]




                    The Sculptures of the Parthenon


The sculptures of the Parthenon occur in four groups: the Ionic or inner
frieze, the Doric or outer frieze, the east pediment, and the west
pediment.

As the subtlety of the builders of the Parthenon emphasized their
intellect, so the sculptures emphasized their religion. The Greeks were
not idolaters in the sense that they bowed down to gold and ivory. They
loved to chisel in marble the beautiful forms that represented to them
their gods who dwelt on Mount Olympus. A characteristic of the Greeks of
this period was that, in their art, they always presented their
goddesses fully clothed and, almost always, their gods in the nude.

While the origin of the Parthenon has the most of its roots firmly fixed
in Egypt, many of the sculptures were derived from the Assyrians.
Particularly is this true of the smaller figures, winged mythical
creatures, as well as lions and horses, typical of the Assyrian
bas-reliefs. The heavier figures, notably those of the pediments, are
essentially Greek.

In the life and times of Phidias, a love for the beautiful was so
general that it was comparable to the air which they breathed. It was
not difficult, therefore, for him to find men, almost as accomplished as
himself, upon whose shoulders he could lay the greater part of the work.

It is a matter of keen regret that so few of the sculptures of the
Parthenon have been preserved. For this reason, the most difficult
problem in the task of the reproduction of the Parthenon at Nashville
was the reproduction of the sculptures.

When the Parthenon was destroyed in 1687 the sculptures were blown off
the temple and, to a great extent, broken up by the explosion. As
already noted, only two of the pedimental groups remain on the ruin, one
on each pediment. Plaster casts of these are now in the British Museum.
A much larger proportion of the figures of the friezes remain on the
ruin but they are so badly damaged that identification is practically
impossible; this is especially true of the Doric frieze.

    [Illustration: Interior Corridor, South Side, Showing Elgin Marbles]

In 1801, after the fragments of the sculptures had lain in the debris
around the temple for approximately one hundred and fifteen years, Lord
Elgin, Minister to Turkey from England, persuaded the Turks, who had
again conquered the Greeks, to let him go to Athens and dig up all the
sculptures that he could find around the ruins. He sold these fragments
to the British government, and they are now the most highly prized
possessions of the British Museum, known as the Elgin Marbles.

It is popular in some quarters to criticize Lord Elgin for his action in
taking the fragments from the Parthenon to England. Some have gone so
far as to say that he actually robbed the temple of its sculptures.
Unquestionably, the correct view of the matter is that Lord Elgin did
the world a great service in salvaging the fragments from the earth in
which they had deteriorated for many years and, but for him, might have
suffered greater injury.

In the west room of the Parthenon at Nashville and along the corridors
of the east room may be seen casts which form the only complete set of
the pedimental sculptures outside of the British Museum. Many isolated
groups of these may be found in America and in Europe, but all of them
may be seen only at Nashville. Here they are mounted on wooden bases
forming a most interesting exhibit and were obtained through the
courtesy of the British Museum.

In the east room of the Parthenon at the west end of the south corridor
is the head of one of Selene's steeds, considered by many as the finest
example of a horse's head in the world. Just beyond, through the door at
the end of the corridor, is seen in the west room the figure of
Heracles. It is interesting to note that in the report of the artists
who passed on the value of the Elgin marbles a statement was
incorporated to the effect that the back muscles of the Heracles
represented the finest example of physiological art known to the world
of that day. Another most interesting group of sculptures, the three
Fates, is seen near by in the west end of the east room. This group,
thought to be the work of Phidias, is generally regarded as one of the
most beautiful examples of sculptural art existing today.

The casts of the Elgin marbles in the Parthenon at Nashville, which were
made by the British Government, were not obtained primarily as an
exhibit but as a study for the reproduction of those sculptures now on
the building. However, it was not thought inappropriate to mount the
fragments and use them as an exhibit so as to permit visitors to compare
the completed figures with them. The comparison can only cover
approximately half the figures on the pediments as the remainder have
been lost beyond recovery. Quite naturally, the question arises in the
mind of the reader as to how it was possible for the artists to
reproduce all of them.

In 1674, just thirteen years before the explosion which destroyed the
Parthenon, young Jacques Carrey, a French artist attached to the French
embassay to Turkey, on a voyage from Paris to Constantinople with the
ambassador stopped off at Athens and sketched the temple sculptures.
These sketches are preserved in the National Library at Paris and were
made available for the artists. From a study of the Elgin marbles and
the Carrey drawings, supplemented by further study of Greek contemporary
art and Greek history, the artists at Nashville succeeded in making a
wonderful reproduction of the Parthenon's sculptures.

    [Illustration: Figures from the Ionic Frieze]




                      The Ionic and Doric Friezes


The inner or Ionic frieze, sometimes erroneously called _the_ frieze,
was one of the most beautiful of the groups of sculptures on the
original Parthenon. It was almost unknown to distinctly Doric temples
and owes its place on the Parthenon to some one or more Ionic temples
from which the idea was without doubt copied.

In the Ionic frieze is found most of the atmosphere of ancient Assyria
that is associated with the Parthenon. This frieze was low in relief,
forty inches in height; and of necessity the figures of the men and
women and animals which went to make up the frieze were small, typical
of the Assyrian bas-relief.

The Ionic frieze was located along the outer walls of the Parthenon,
extending forty inches down from the top of the wall, and rested on a
blue fret running all around the building, a distance of five hundred
and twenty-four feet. It was a marvelous piece of sculptural art.
Although there were approximately six hundred figures in the frieze,
men, women, and animals, no two of them were alike--no two men, no two
women, and no two animals; yet all were graceful, dignified, and
beautiful.

The Ionic frieze of the Parthenon depicted the Panathenaic Procession
which occurred every four years in Athens. It was an established part of
the Panathenaic Festival and coincident also with the athletic contests
held in honor of Athena. On this occasion the Greeks assembled in the
downtown streets of Athens; men and women of high and low degree with
their slaves, various kinds of animals, chariots with their horsemen,
men at arms, wild horses led by Barbarians, dignitaries of state, and
maidens. These formed a procession which wound its way up through the
streets of Athens leading to the Acropolis, on to that sacred hill, and
into the Parthenon, where they invested the figure of Athena with a
peplos, or robe, which had been woven by the women of Athens during the
previous four-year period. It was at once a gala and a solemn occasion
for the Greeks.

Unfortunately, for lack of funds the Ionic frieze has been left off the
Parthenon at Nashville, which lacks that much of being completed. It is
available, however, as the greater part of it is in the British Museum,
some in the Louvre, and the remainder, twenty-four feet in all, is still
on the ruin at Athens. There is no doubt that the Ionic frieze will
eventually find its place on the temple at Nashville.

The Doric, or outer frieze, is located on the outside of the Parthenon
above the architrave that rests on the great Doric columns of the
peristyle. It extends along both sides of the building and underneath
the pedimental sculptures at each end. It consists of a repeating
conventional design called a triglyph which divides the frieze into
ninety-two panels, each panel containing a group of sculptures. The
panels with their sculptures are known as the metopes and are
approximately four feet square.

There were no repetitions in the sculptures of the Doric frieze. They
told legendary and mythological stories that were dear to the heart of
the Greeks. That part of the frieze on the eastern end of the building
pictured scenes from the struggle between the gods and the giants. The
war between the Greeks and the Amazons was shown by the figures of the
frieze on the western end. On the north side of the building the figures
depicted incidents of the Trojan War, while those along the south side
told the story of the Lapiths, a tribe of the Greeks, and the Centaurs.
The story is that of a princess of this tribe who was to be married. She
sent invitations to the Centaurs, mythological creatures part man and
part horse, to come to the wedding feast. They came, drank wine, became
drunken, and insulted the bride, which brought on a war in which the
Centaurs were defeated.

The figures of the Doric frieze are archaic and stiff by comparison with
those of the pedimental sculptures or of the Ionic frieze and are
therefore thought not to be the work of Phidias and his associates but
rather a transfer from one of the earlier temples to the Parthenon. They
play their part well in the harmonious whole and reflect the ability and
genius of Phidias, who adapted them.

    [Illustration: The West Pediment Showing Section of Doric Frieze
    Underneath the Acroteria Above]




                           The West Pediment


The figures of the west pediment were more easily reproduced than those
of the east pediment, as they were more completely authenticated by the
Elgin marbles and the Carrey drawings.

It should be understood that the explosion that destroyed the Parthenon
did its greatest damage to the figures themselves rather than to the
base on which they rested, and as a consequence less difficulty was
encountered by the artists in placing the sculptures in their proper
settings on the west than on the east pediment. In considering the
sculptures of the two pediments it must also be borne in mind that the
force of the explosion was greatest in the eastern portion of the
building, as evidenced by the condition of the ruin, and for that reason
also the greatest damage was to the east pediment.

The sculptures of the west pediment tell the story of the struggle
between Poseidon, the powerful god of the sea, and his niece Athena, the
goddess of wisdom, for the possession of Attica, or ancient Greece.

In the center of the pediment, to the right, is the heroic figure of
Poseidon with his three-pronged weapon or trident in his hand, his
friends and supporters to the right. Opposing him, and to the left, is
the equally heroic figure of Athena with her great spear in her hand,
her supporters to the left. Both of these gods coveted the fair land of
Attica and desired the worship of its people. They were unable to agree
and appealed to the gods for a decision. The gods held their convocation
on the Acropolis, the site of the Parthenon, and this assembly is shown
by the figures of the west pediment.

As a result of the convocation the gods decreed that the contestant who
should most bless Greece would be given the control of Athens and have
the worship of the Greeks. It was to be a battle of blessing, rather
than blood.

Poseidon, in granting his blessing, struck the solid rock of the
Acropolis with his trident, and as he was the god of the sea it obeyed
him and came up in a rushing, gushing spring of salt water, symbolic of
his promise that if the Greeks would make him their god he would make of
them a mighty maritime nation--their glory should be on the sea. When it
became Athena's turn to grant her blessing, she struck her great spear
in the earth and withdrew it and from the place sprang an olive tree,
the parent of all those which have so greatly blessed Greece from that
day to this. The gods, acting wisely, decreed that Athena's gift was of
far greater advantage to the Greeks than any promise of the glory of war
as made by Poseidon, and made her the patron goddess of Athens.

    [Illustration: The East Pediment with Section of the Doric Frieze
    Underneath Showing Gryphon Monsters and Acroteria on Roof]




                           The East Pediment


It would be very difficult for a visitor to Nashville to decide which
group of sculptures on the Parthenon is the loveliest. Each general
group fits so harmoniously into its own particular place that a choice
of one could not avoid being unfair to the others. Viewing the west
pediment first, one essaying judgment might exclaim, "What could be more
beautiful!" Yet on leaving it and looking at the east pediment he might
easily be found saying, "Here is the answer." The presence on the east
pediment of the three Fates, the Heracles, and the steeds of Selene
probably gives the east pediment the advantage over the other groups,
especially in the eyes of the artists.

The story of the east pediment is very beautiful and tells of the birth
of Athena and of her reign. In the beginning Zeus, the father of the
gods, the king of the gods, had a very severe headache and could find no
relief. He had long wanted a child born of the intellect. It is said
that he was so disappointed at having a son, Hephaestus, born maimed
that he threw him out of Heaven and it took a whole day for him to fall
to the earth. Hephaestus was the god of fire, the god of metals, the
blacksmith of the gods, and he forged the thunderbolts that Zeus used in
his battles of Heaven. Hephaestus sent word to his father that if he
would restore him to his rightful position among the gods, he would cure
him of his headache. Thereupon Zeus assembled the gods on Mount Olympus
and from somewhere, in a thundercloud, came Hephaestus. He struck his
father in the back of the head with an axe and from the wound, giving
Zeus his wish, sprang Athena, fully grown, clothed, and armed. She was
announced and crowned goddess of wisdom by Nike, goddess of victory. It
is said that at this event the earth groaned, Mount Olympus trembled,
and the gods stood in amazement at the miracle that had been performed.
These four figures form the highest pinnacle of the east pediment of the
Parthenon.

At the extreme south end of the pediment, representing the beginning of
the reign of Athena, in the morning is seen Helios, the god of the sun,
the god of the morning, coming up out of the sea driving his four steeds
representing the four seasons. As the horses come bounding out of the
sea, Helios can scarcely restrain them, so eager are they to mount the
skies.

Heracles, the next figure on the pediment, is shown with his club on his
shoulder, nonchalantly looking at the horses, paying no attention to
what is taking place on Mount Olympus. He is looking at the sun as it
rises. Heracles was known as the favorite of the gods. In his early
manhood they had permitted him to choose between virtue on the one hand,
and vice on the other, both very attractively arrayed. He chose virtue
rather than vice, and thus became their favorite. He did many heroic
deeds in Grecian history, and was the national hero of Greece. Heracles
was himself made a god; Zeus was his father, his mother was a mortal.

Next, on the pediment, may be seen the figures of Demeter, the sister of
Zeus, and her daughter Persephone. Demeter was the goddess of the
seasons. Ceres was her Roman name, and her daughter, Persephone, was the
goddess of the underworld. She became the goddess of the underworld in
this wise: One day when Persephone was in the fields plucking violets
with her maidens, suddenly the earth opened and through it, in a
chariot, came Pluto, the god of Hades. He saw her, fell in love with
her, seized her, took her back to Hades, and made her his queen. Her
mother grieved sorely and would not be comforted. She had powerful
influence with the gods. She sent plagues on the earth and worried the
gods, until Zeus was forced to compel Pluto to bring Persephone back to
her mother. Thereafter, it is said, under a compromise agreement,
Persephone spent six months of each year with her mother among the gods,
and six months with her husband, Pluto, in Hades.

The next figure on the pediment is that of Iris, the female messenger of
the gods, the rainbow goddess. She is represented on the pediment as
being poised, ready to go at a moment's notice, to tell the story of the
birth of Athena to the world. This is the first figure seen among the
fragments as the visitor enters the Parthenon door, and is often
confused with the Winged Victory of Samothrace. The confusion arises
from the fact that in the fragment of the Parthenon figure of Iris,
located in the west room, she is holding her scarf at arm's length in
her hands and the fragment is broken through the scarf and through the
arms, causing it to look as if it might be a wing, when, as a matter of
fact, it is the fragment of a scarf and not a wing; and the figure is
not the Winged Victory, but is Iris, the female messenger of the gods,
the rainbow goddess.

Next is seen on the pediment the figure of Poseidon, the god of the sea;
Neptune was his Roman name. Poseidon was the brother of Zeus, one of the
chief deities of the Greeks, and is represented on the east pediment as
sitting calmly by, looking on at what is taking place.

The next figure beyond Poseidon is that of Aphrodite, or Venus, the
goddess of beauty, the goddess of love. She seems shocked at what she
sees, and shrinks a little; but is comforting Hebe, the goddess of
youth, who is reclining at her feet, by placing her hand on her head.

Then comes the central group, Hephaestus, Zeus, Nike, and Athena, or
Minerva as the Romans called her, illustrating the story of the birth of
Athena.

Next is seen Ares, or Mars, the god of war. He is represented on the
pediment as looking rather sternly past Athena as though he does not
welcome this additional warlike member to the family of the gods.

The next figure is that of Artemis, the twin sister of Apollo. Artemis
is the goddess of the fields, the goddess of hunting; Diana is her Roman
name. She is represented on the pediment as shading her eyes with her
hand from the resplendent glory of the newborn goddess.

Just beyond Artemis is seen Hera, queen of Heaven, also known as Juno,
the jealous wife of Zeus. In addition to her jealousy, it is said that
she was vain and the peacock, seen near by, was sacred to her. Hera was
also the goddess of maternity, and very fittingly was present at the
birth of Athena.

The next figure is that of Hermes, the male messenger of the gods,
corresponding to Iris, the female messenger. Iris usually executed the
commands and carried the messages for Hera, while Hermes performed a
like office for Zeus. He is always represented with a magic wand, or
caduceus, in his hand, which was given to him by Apollo. One day, when
Hermes was a mere child, almost a baby, he was playing in the fields and
captured a tortoise. He placed strings across the shell of the tortoise
and made a musical instrument (we call it the lyre), and presented it to
his brother Apollo. Apollo, who was the god of music, was so delighted
with the precociousness of his baby brother that he gave him the magic
wand, which had the power of putting gods and mortals to sleep at his
will. Hermes is also shown with wings on his ankles and wings on his
cap. He was god of business, and also the god of transportation. His
figure adorns many of the railway stations of the world. His Roman name
is Mercury.

Beyond Hermes, on the pediment, is seen Apollo, the god of music, with
his harp. He was also the god of manly youth and the god of healing.
Esculapius, his son, was the first doctor of Greece, the father of all
the physicians. Apollo was regarded as the most beautiful of the gods.
Reclining on him is seen Ganymede, the cupbearer of the gods.

These were the chief deities of the Greeks. There were others which they
worshiped also. They were as sacred to the ancient Greek as Jehovah is
to us, and it is pertinent to say that they worshiped the beautiful--and
the beautiful is the spiritual.

We are not so much interested in the gods of the Greeks in this
twentieth century, however, as we are in human life; and the next group
of figures to Apollo and Ganymede, the three Fates, brings the Whole
matter closer to us, because it represents the Greek idea of life. The
first figure in the group is Clotho, who is represented as spinning the
thread of life; and as she spins, the second figure, Lachesis, winds it
on a spool, and the third figure, Atropos, clips it at will, typifying
the beginning, the span, and the end of life--the destiny of us all.

Last, in the extreme north angle of the pediment, in the evening, is
seen the gentle Selene, the goddess of the moon, the goddess of the
evening, guiding her tired steeds, so different from those seen coming
out of the sea in the morning, down into the cool, quiet waters of the
deep, typifying not alone the close of the day but the close of the
reign of Athena and the end of time.

The gods of the Greeks are no more. They have no single worshiper left
on all the face of the earth today to pay them homage, yet their deeds
are told in song and story, and their memory is green in the hearts of
those who love the beautiful.




                               Conclusion


And now, we come to the close of the story of the Parthenon.

The period of Pericles marked one of the high points in the history of
the world. A comparison of its characteristics serves to emphasize its
superiority over other epochs in many ways. The Parthenon at Athens was
not merely a wonderful building, but was an expression of Greek mind and
heart. It did not spring up in a day as did Athena from the head of Zeus
but found its roots in the prehistoric altars of their goddess. It was
not built to please individuals but to honor their gods. It is no
wonder, then, that when the Parthenon came into full flower in the "Age
of Pericles" it should have reached that state which the judgment of
succeeding generations has pronounced perfection.

The Parthenon at Nashville stands alone as a portrayal of the Parthenon
of Pericles. It would be too much of a challenge to the antiquity of the
Parthenon to say that every statement made about it in these pages bears
the stamp of absolute authenticity. It can be said, however, that
because of the many facts obtained from the research and the records of
earlier days and because of the eleven years of research and study in
our own times, the Parthenon at Nashville will stand as the last word.

It is difficult to estimate the influence of the Parthenon at Nashville
on the world of today. To those who love the beautiful, either by
instinct or cultivation, the Parthenon is a thing to be revered; to
others it is just another building. To understand and appreciate the
Parthenon it must be studied. We may glance at some buildings and pass
on, but not so with the Parthenon. It is compelling. A revelation of its
balanced lines and its harmony of proportions, its simplicity both
delicate and strong, its subtleties, some bordering on the mystical,
marks the Parthenon as a thing by itself.

    [Illustration: The Naos or East Room as Seen Through the Eastern
    Doors]

The Parthenon is used only for educational and cultural purposes. Over
four hundred college, high school, and primary school groups visit the
Parthenon each year.

This, then, may be said of the Parthenon: As in the earlier days, even
so now, young and old, rich and poor, alike are made happy by its sheer
beauty and inspired by its history to reach for a higher and better
life.




                          Transcriber's Notes


--Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook
  is public-domain in the country of publication.

--Corrected a few palpable typos.

--In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by
  _underscores_.