DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.683#0140
122
edifice denominated the Parthenon, and spared
no expense in bringing to perfection the im-
mortal work, which employed the united ta-
lents of the first sculptors and architects whom
the world has ever seen, of Phidias, Ictinus,
and Callicrates. The new Temple occupied
more than double the space of its ancient pre-
decessor, being two hundred and twenty-seven
feet in length, and one hundred and one in
width: from the ground to the summit of the
Pediment* it was 65'— 6". It stood upon a
pavement elevated by three steps, and was sur-
rounded by forty-six columns of the Doric
order, fluted, 34'—1" high ; eight in the front
of each portico, and seventeen on either flank,
reckoning those of the angles twice. The por-
ticoes were both surmounted by pediments
filled with statues; those in the eastern end, or
entrance, representing, according to Pausanias,
the mythological story of the nativity of Mi-
nerva from the brain of Jupiter; and those in
the hinder or western pediment, being figures
* A Pediment is an ornament, usually of a triangular form,
■which crowns the front of a building, and in porticoes rests im-
mediately upon the cornice.
edifice denominated the Parthenon, and spared
no expense in bringing to perfection the im-
mortal work, which employed the united ta-
lents of the first sculptors and architects whom
the world has ever seen, of Phidias, Ictinus,
and Callicrates. The new Temple occupied
more than double the space of its ancient pre-
decessor, being two hundred and twenty-seven
feet in length, and one hundred and one in
width: from the ground to the summit of the
Pediment* it was 65'— 6". It stood upon a
pavement elevated by three steps, and was sur-
rounded by forty-six columns of the Doric
order, fluted, 34'—1" high ; eight in the front
of each portico, and seventeen on either flank,
reckoning those of the angles twice. The por-
ticoes were both surmounted by pediments
filled with statues; those in the eastern end, or
entrance, representing, according to Pausanias,
the mythological story of the nativity of Mi-
nerva from the brain of Jupiter; and those in
the hinder or western pediment, being figures
* A Pediment is an ornament, usually of a triangular form,
■which crowns the front of a building, and in porticoes rests im-
mediately upon the cornice.