Religious ceremonies were performed at an altar in the open air. The function
of the temple was to house the cult statue of the presiding deity and to act as a
storeroom for the deity’s property. The greater size of the Parthenon (having eight
columns at the front rather than the usual six and seventeen columns at the side, at
least two more than usual) may have been connected with the enormous size of the
cult statue of Athena, some 40 feet high, executed by the greatest sculpture of the
age, Pheidias. The architects of the Parthenon, Ictinus and Callicrates, must have
worked in conjunction with Pheidias, and Plutarch records that the latter, who was a
friend of Pericles, had a general supervisory role over the whole project.
The basic rectilinear pattern was subjected by the architects to numerous
refinements, so as to please the eye and, possibly, to correct optical illusions. The
tapering columns of a Greek temple draw the eye upwards from the base to the roof,
providing a natural link from top to bottom. On the Parthenon, more subtly than on
other temples, the columns are not only tapered but lean in slightly. The platform
from which the temple rises is slightly convex so that the architrave is given a slight
outward or upward curve. Such modifications in perspective soften the stark
angularity of the basic geometric structure. The subtlety of the developed Greek style
may be appreciated in a comparison of the photograph of the Parthenon (fig. 56a)
with that of the earlier temple at Paestum (fig. 56b) formerly known as the temple of
Poseidon but more often referred to by his Roman name Neptune but now thought
to have been dedicated to Hera. The Parthenon is actually the larger structure (with
more columns), yet its proportions are such as to endow it with a grandeur that is
refined with a new grace when compared with the stockier (but nevertheless impos-
ing) structures of the earlier part of the fifth century. The beauty of Greek architecture
may be further appreciated if the temples are compared with the massive and solid
structures of the Egyptians or with the static cubes and lifeless surfaces of much
modern architecture.
There is considerable decoration on Greek architecture, but the decoration is
not allowed to interrupt, as it often does in the Gothic style, the dominant lines of the
structure as a whole. The parts are subordinate and not allowed to detract from the
overall unity. Sculptural decoration of the building is confined, according to the Doric
canon, to three areas, the triangular pediments at either end, the inner frieze and the
metopes(see fig. 60). Other surfaces of the fluted columns, the architraves and the
exterior walls of the inner building known as the cella, are plain. The Parthenon differs
from other Doric temples in the ambitious extent of its decoration, in that all the
metopesand the whole of the inner frieze (covering a very large area) are sculpted.
The marble (obtained locally from Mount Pentelikon) was then painted. The colour
scheme of course no longer survives, but the effect of the colour on the buildings and
the sculptures must have made the originals dramatically different from the most
complete part of the ruined remains.
242 THE GREEKS