DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0362
328 THE AGE OF PHEIDIAS AND OF POLYCLEITOS.
energetically by the side of its younger comrades, and, as a reward for faith-
fulness, received a lifelong pension from the state.6-f6
By 437 B.C. the statue of Athena Parthenos stood nearly complete, and
was consecrated in that year in connection with the great festival in honor of
Athena; but it is probable that the temple pediments were not completed until
about three years later. As a great religious centre of ancient Hellas, this
temple received gifts from all. Even long after Athens' political glory had
faded, monarchs such as Alexander, and Attalos of Pergamon, continued to
send thither their gifts. In and about it were placed statues, even on the
steps leading up to the colonnade. So numerous were the treasures, that one
ancient writer found material to fill four, and another fifteen, books, simply in
describing these votive gifts.
The history of the building, and the storms which it has braved, might fill
a volume of breathless interest. Sulla, the Roman conqueror, was satisfied
with despoiling the Acropolis of only fifty pounds of gold, and six hundred of
silver; and, more than five hundred years after its completion, men wondered
at the freshness of the temple and its statue. It was with the fall of the
ancient world before Christianity, approximately in the fifth century A.D., that
this temple of the pagan virgin-goddess of wisdom first suffered much change,
being turned into a church of the saint of wisdom, Sophia, and, still later,
made sacred to the virgin mother of God.647 The east entrance was closed up
by an apsis built against it. The cclla was covered with an arching roof, which
left the colonnade open, and the frieze exposed ; and two niches were broken
through the west pediment. The walls of the interior were covered with the
stiff forms of Byzantine art, traces of which are still to be recognized. Rude
inscriptions, scratched by the Christians, may still be seen, touching ejaculatory
prayers, like those in Roman catacombs, but strangely out of place on these
glorious columns. In 1458 the building passed into the hands of the Turks,
who soon turned it into a mosque, making little change, except the addition of
a minaret. In the seventeenth century the Turks, besieged by the Venetians,
retired to the Acropolis ; and a deserter bringing the news that the enemy were
using the Parthenon as a powder-magazine, the Venetian commander, Morosini,
gave orders to make a target of the building. On the evening of Friday, Sept.
26, 1687, a fatal bomb fell into the midst of the temple; and, in the catastrophe
which followed, all that was left of the glorious Parthenon was a part of the
cc//a-wa\\ and pediments, with remnants of sculpture, and a few columns.
With the capitulation of the Turks, two days later, the work of spoliation com-
menced. Orders were given to tear the steeds from Athena's chariot in the
west pediment; but in being lowered they fell, and were shattered into a thou-
sand pieces. A fatal passion for possession seems to have seized those who
visited Greece in the eighteenth century; and the work of destruction was
accelerated by the Athenians themselves, who burned many fragments to obtain
energetically by the side of its younger comrades, and, as a reward for faith-
fulness, received a lifelong pension from the state.6-f6
By 437 B.C. the statue of Athena Parthenos stood nearly complete, and
was consecrated in that year in connection with the great festival in honor of
Athena; but it is probable that the temple pediments were not completed until
about three years later. As a great religious centre of ancient Hellas, this
temple received gifts from all. Even long after Athens' political glory had
faded, monarchs such as Alexander, and Attalos of Pergamon, continued to
send thither their gifts. In and about it were placed statues, even on the
steps leading up to the colonnade. So numerous were the treasures, that one
ancient writer found material to fill four, and another fifteen, books, simply in
describing these votive gifts.
The history of the building, and the storms which it has braved, might fill
a volume of breathless interest. Sulla, the Roman conqueror, was satisfied
with despoiling the Acropolis of only fifty pounds of gold, and six hundred of
silver; and, more than five hundred years after its completion, men wondered
at the freshness of the temple and its statue. It was with the fall of the
ancient world before Christianity, approximately in the fifth century A.D., that
this temple of the pagan virgin-goddess of wisdom first suffered much change,
being turned into a church of the saint of wisdom, Sophia, and, still later,
made sacred to the virgin mother of God.647 The east entrance was closed up
by an apsis built against it. The cclla was covered with an arching roof, which
left the colonnade open, and the frieze exposed ; and two niches were broken
through the west pediment. The walls of the interior were covered with the
stiff forms of Byzantine art, traces of which are still to be recognized. Rude
inscriptions, scratched by the Christians, may still be seen, touching ejaculatory
prayers, like those in Roman catacombs, but strangely out of place on these
glorious columns. In 1458 the building passed into the hands of the Turks,
who soon turned it into a mosque, making little change, except the addition of
a minaret. In the seventeenth century the Turks, besieged by the Venetians,
retired to the Acropolis ; and a deserter bringing the news that the enemy were
using the Parthenon as a powder-magazine, the Venetian commander, Morosini,
gave orders to make a target of the building. On the evening of Friday, Sept.
26, 1687, a fatal bomb fell into the midst of the temple; and, in the catastrophe
which followed, all that was left of the glorious Parthenon was a part of the
cc//a-wa\\ and pediments, with remnants of sculpture, and a few columns.
With the capitulation of the Turks, two days later, the work of spoliation com-
menced. Orders were given to tear the steeds from Athena's chariot in the
west pediment; but in being lowered they fell, and were shattered into a thou-
sand pieces. A fatal passion for possession seems to have seized those who
visited Greece in the eighteenth century; and the work of destruction was
accelerated by the Athenians themselves, who burned many fragments to obtain