contributed for the war against Persia
by
Athens allies. The war had gone so well
that not all the money was needed, so much of it was now diverted to the Parthenon
and Pericles opponents used this. This was a
disgrace
this was Athens misbehaving in the eyes of
the other Greeks
Ignoring the political attacks
Pericles raided the war chest and
started to build
the Parthenon.  At 101 feet wide and 228
feet long
it called for thousands of tons of
expensive marble
the glittering stone as it was called
was selected for quarries that still
remain
at mount Pentelicon eight miles from
Athens
but a special technique was needed to
drag the massive column drums
up the steep slopes at the Acropolis. The
Acropolis is high above the city
getting the drums up here on a cart
would have been pretty difficult so they
probably used a system that they devised
over a century before where they
built a wooden frame around the drum and
then using oxen
they could pull with stones up the hill a bit 
like a roller
At the building site they probably used
cranes with a pulley system to lift vast
blocks of stone
lifting power came from a windlass
attached to the back of the frame
Once they got the blocks and stones up
here they had to maneuver them into
position with
absolute precision. There's a clue here as to
how they did that
these are bosses that were used for lifting
ropes to carry the stones
they would normally being cut off but
war broke out before the workers and
finished
But the underlying genius at the
building lies in the ancient Greeks
understanding of perspective
unsurpassed until the Renaissance. Well
they say that there isn't a straight
line on the Parthenon
it's not exactly true but certainly
lines that you'd think should be
straight aren't
the architrave along the top for example
is two and a half inches higher in the
middle
than at either side
at every stage the builders counted each
optical distortion
to make this temple appear to be
perfect
Down here the base you can actually see
that deviation from the horizontal
there's a very subtle rise along the step line here towards the middle which
drops off for the far side and that
gives us the impression from a distance
of a perfect straight line
They created the columns with the same
minute attention to detail. On the
outside of the building
all these exterior columns slope inwards
a bit
and they did that really to help build
the grandure of the design that
feeling of
elegance and they did that by cutting
the top surface of the bottom drum
so that its sloped inwards perceptibly
here on the corner of course
the bottom drum is turned slightly so the
corner column
rises up on a diagonal with
extraordinary precision
right up towards the centre of the building
the Greek builders addressed every detail. They might have thought these
great stone blocks weren't moving anywhere
but the ancient Greeks did use
clamps to hold them together this is one
of the original
ancient iron clamps and the actual hold it
came from
that's been recently excavated and it
would have sat in here
like this filled with molten lead which
then set
holding those blocks together in fact
the clamps
don't carry a lot of force in every day
use
In the case of an earthquake these
clamps would have helped just to hold the stones
together
maybe that's one of the reasons that the
building still here today
The centrepiece of this enormous building
was to be found inside
here Pheidias designed the most
lavish and impressive statue
it depicted the goddess Athena
to whom the building was dedicated, it
was a masterpiece of
ivory and gold it was so extravagant
it absorbed over half the funds for the
entire Parthenon project
At nearly forty feet high Athena
dominated the interior intimidating
all who came to worship at temple. The
statue of Athena
had on it over a ton of gold it cost
slightly more to put that gold onto the
statue
than it did to build the whole of the Parthenon
A stunning scene
524 feet long
depicted the annual procession in honour of Athena
pale marble we see today would have looked very different two-and-a-half thousand years
ago
when it was painted in vivid colors
but the masterpiece was not an immediate
success in its time
Pericles opponents said he was dressing
the Parthenon up like a pretentious
woman
A slur both on his building and on
his partner Aspaisia
born outside the Athens elite. One Greek writer tells us exactly what
pretentious woman did, she put on
built up shoes to make her look taller
to suggest she was from a more aristocratic
family
she put on dabs of rouge on her cheeks to
make it seem that she was
younger and fitter than she really was
above all, she plastered her face with powder of white lead
fashionably pale to look like an aristocrat
and they thought of the pretentiousness
of Pericles
in using other Greeks gold to make
Athens seem
wealthier and she really was
To further discredit Pericles, Pheidias
his sculptor and master of works was accused of embezzling gold from the statue
he was also accused of blasphemy
for portraying himself and his patron
among the sacred figures
of Athena's shield
a scandal for a few years in its own
times
the Parthenon is now a landmark of
architectural excellence
for all time
The ravages a war and pollution have taken
their toll
but still temple stands
the Parthenon is a huge statement of a
building what you might call an iconic
structure
it's a coming together understanding of
stone and rock and how to use it and
work it and of geometry and shape and form
something that really wasn't achieved
again for thousands of years
These seven wonders of the ancient Greece
the legacy of one of the greatest
civilizations
they showed mankind the imagination and
inventiveness
the courage and conviction to lead
architecture
into the modern world
