today we're looking at the parthenon
hello welcome to the daily bell ringer world history please don't forget to subscribe and take
a look at the questions down in the description also don't forget to check out dailybellringer.com
where you'll find more resources that go with many of the bellringer videos the ancient
greek civilization thrived from roughly 2000 bc through 300 bc and was primarily focused on the
balkan peninsula and surrounding islands in the mediterranean sea in what is today southern europe
ancient greece did not have one single government rather it was a collection of city-states that
shared the same language and worship to the same gods although most of the buildings and structures
built by the ancient society have been destroyed or simply fallen apart due to the passage of time
some foundations and parts of these buildings remain and by far the most recognized and famous
structures of the ancient greek civilization was the parthenon today i am here in front of a
replica or copy of the original parthenon located in centennial park in nashville tennessee but the
original parthenon sat atop the acropolis in the ancient city-state of athens the parthenon was a
temple built in honor of the greek goddess of wisdom art literature and war athena the
city-state of athens takes its name from athena the parthenon was built from 447 bc to 438 bc
with the construction taking place during the rule of pericles the parthenon was designed by
the ancient greek sculptor phidias and architects ectinos and calicrates together they were tasked
with building a temple in the typical greek doric style which meant several large columns supporting
a triangular roof this style would be mimicked by the ancient romans and is still a heavy influence
on many government buildings today the construction of the parthenon required
thousands of laborers and craftspeople to accomplish the feat it is believed that
the future philosopher's socrates was among thousands of workers working on the project
20 000 tons of marble were mined from quarries outside of athens then carried by horse and oxen
pulled wagons to the construction site in an age without electricity or large powered machinery
greek engineers divide systems of pulleys and cranes to hoist massive marble pieces
into place in all it's estimated that over 000 stones were used in the construction of the temple
the parthenon included 46 outer columns and 19 inner columns with each column being 34 feet tall
and 6 feet in diameter above the columns going around the exterior of the building were 92
metapeas which were square sculptures depicting scenes of athens history most were scenes of
mythical battles between gods giants centaurs or action from the trojan war then above the metapeas
in the triangular section supporting the roof were more sculptures in what is known as the pediment
at the main entrance to the parthenon the pediment sculpture depicted the birth of athena on the
other end of the building the pediment depicted a battle between athena and poseidon the greek god
of the sea to take control of the region where the city state of athens sat when completed the entire
parthenon was 228 feet long 101 feet wide and 64 feet tall inside the parthenon was a nearly 40
foot tall statue of athena the statue was carved from wood and covered in nearly 2 000 pounds of
gold in athena's right hand was a six foot tall statue of nike the greek goddess of victory
the original massive statue has been lost to history but several smaller reproductions were
made that still exist to this day running along the walls of the interior was a freeze which again
were more sculptures depicting stories from athens mythical past for almost 1 000 years the parthenon
stood as a greek temple worshiping greek gods but in the 6th century aed the byzantine empire
conquered the region they converted the parthenon into a christian church then in 1458 a.d the
ottoman empire took control and converted the parthenon into a muslim mosque 200 years later
in 687 an alliance of european christian nations surrounded athens and laid siege to the ottomans
still there the parthenon was bombarded by cannon fire and suffered significant damage
for the next few centuries artifacts and sculptures from the parthenon were taken
many being put on display in various museums throughout europe in the 1820s more fighting
occurred around the parthenon as the greek people fought for independence from the ottoman empire
years of fighting looting and the effect of time left the original parthenon in ruins in the 1970s
reconstruction and preservation efforts began to be put in place to preserve what was left of the
famous structure although much of it is gone today the parthenon remains an important symbol of the
great civilization that constructed it and the ingenuity and technology developed by the people
of the ancient world so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching