Humanities Ancient Civilizations

The Parthenon :
And the History Surrounding it

By Ophir, Ezra, and Evan

In 432 B.C.E. one of the world's greatest structures was completed. It was called the Parthenon. The
Parthenon, in its original construction, was a display of the finest Greek architecture. It was built in
honor of the patron goddess of Athens, Athena. The toils of years of work, the Parthenon was
impressive in its own right. A huge marble structure, set upon the acropolis of Athens, overlooking
the entire city-state. It shows how much the Greek mythology controlled their lives. Every day,
hundreds of people would go to the temple to seek guidance and request help. Set close to the
agora,( marketplace), it was in the center of everything. Every place has something that leads and
brings the people together. In Athens, it was the Parthenon. But what made it so special? It is
precisely these aspects of the history of the Parthenon that this paper intends to explore.
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Greece, like many other ancient civilizations had religion as its principal theme. Like many other
ancient civilizations, religion affected everything they did. And like many other ancient civilizations,
they thought that their Gods controlled everything and that they would favor them if they sacrificed
animals to them, gave them presents, built for them temples, statues, and named cities in their
honor. However, the Greeks were different in one way. And there is no greater example of this than
the Parthenon. In Greece, anyone could go to the temples to give sacrifices and presents, not only
the wealthy. Everyday, people of all social standard could come to seek advice from Athena. But
there was no better time to do this than on Panathenaea. The Panathenaea was an annual
all-Athenian festival, which celebrated Athenas birthday, an honored Athena as the patron goddess
of Athens. A long procession would be assembled at dawn, at the northern sector, continued to the
temple of Athena Nike, and finally led to the Parthenon, where the Athenians would pay homage to
Athena. Greece was based centrally off their religion, and there is a no greater example of this than
the Parthenon.
One way to describe the Parthenon is as one of the worlds greatest structures built in all of history.
It is located in Athens, a city named after Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. According to
Ancient Greek Encyclopedia; the Parthenon was built beginning in 447 B.C.E. and was completed in
438 B.C.E., although decorations continued until 432 B.C.E. The Parthenon was designed mainly by
Phidias, with help from two other men named Ictinus and Callicrates. Nobody knows how many
people worked on building the Parthenon, but we do know that it had 70,000 pieces that had to be
quarried, then brought to Athens, then set in place, then carved roughly, then finished. One reason
it is famous is for its pillars. It had fifty pillars, seventeen on the long side and six on the short.
Inside the Parthenon, there is a statue of Athena and there are many pictures of Greek people and
famous events in Greek history. Therefore it is one of the coolest structures ever.
All of the different Greek cities had their own unifying edifice, and there is no greater example than
the Parthenon. The Parthenon not only unified the Athenians, it unified all of Greece. But what
made the Parthenon so special? It was the physical personification of the Greeks beliefs, myths, and

ideology. It contained a statue of Athena, one of the Greeks goddesses which made the parthenon a
very important place for the people of Greece. Athena was chosen because it was built in Athens, it
could be argued that she was chosen because she was the goddess of spiritual development and
Noetic understanding, which are the building blocks of Ancient Greek civilization. This shows that
the Greeks were a very intelligent civilization. This shows that the Parthenon was a very important
building to the Greeks.
In ancient Greece, there was a lot of beautiful
Paragraph V. Conclusion
Restate your ideas about the significance of the Parthenon in ancient Greece. Try to rearticulate the
three prongs of your information essay that you expressed in your introductory paragraph.
How has the Parthenon influenced architecture in the U.S.? Why is this structure still important to
us today?