Athens and the Panatheneia

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Athens and the Panatheneia
The Parthenon, the Temple of Athena, in Athens.
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Geography
Athens
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Athens and Athena
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Athena (Minerva)

• Greek name Athena
• Roman name Minerva
• Epithets (other names) Pallas, owl-eyed
• Parentage Zeus-Metis
• Origin Aegean city goddess
• Concerns defensive warfare, wisdom, arts and
  crafts
• Attributes goatskin, Gorgon's head, owl, olive,
  helmet

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Greek Religion and the Nature of the Divine ATHENA
GODHEROHUMAN ANTHROPOMORPHISM POLYTHEISM MONO
THEISM CIVIC DEITY ATHENS-ATHENA
Relief of the "Mourning Athena". The goddess is
clad in an Attic peplos with a belt and slightly
bends her head towards the stele depicted in
front of her. Dated to ca. 460 B.C. Inv. no. 695.
Acropolis Museum. Athens.
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The Panathenaia and the Parthenon
Worship of Athena City Festival
(Panathenaia) Glory of the Polis
(Athens) Athens as the School of Greece
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The Athenian Acropolis
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Acropolis Timeline

• 480-479 B.C. Persians destroyed most of the
  buildings of the Acropolis in Athens.
• 447-438 B.C. Construction of Parthenon under
  Pericles. Ictinus and Callicrates as architects
  and Pheidias as sculptor.
• 391 A.D. The Emperor Theodosius closes all pagan
  temples. Parthenon becomes a Christian Church
  dedicated to the Virgin Mary
• 1204 The Franks into a Catholic Church
• 1458 The Turks into a Mosque
• 1674 French artist Jacques Carrey sketches the
  Parthenon
• 1687 Acropolis bombarded during Venetian siege.
  Parthenon receives a direct hit on Sept. 26
• 1806 Thomas Bruce (Lord Elgin) removes sculptures
  from Parthenon
• 1816 Elgin Marbles displayed at British Museum
• 1821-1829 Greek War of Independence

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Pericles
For this reason are the works of Pericles all the
more to be wondered at they were created in a
short time for all time. Each one of them, in its
beauty, was even then and at once antique but in
the freshness of its vigor it is, even to the
present day, recent and newly wrought. Such is
the bloom of perpetual newness, as it were, upon
these works of his, which makes them ever to look
untouched by time, as though the unfaltering
breath of an ageless spirit had been infused into
them. Plutarch. Life of Pericles
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Pheidias and Athena Parthenos
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Parthenon (Nashville)
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1. Foundation 2. Krepidoma 3. Stylobat 4. Cella
wall 5. Internal Pillars 6. Roof Tiles 7.
External Pillars (Peristyle) 8. Epistyle 9.
Triglyph 10. Metope 11. Pediment
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Panathenaia
Festival for Athena Competitions for Rhapsodes
and Athletes Panathenaic Procession
A Good Website on Panathenaic Festival
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Panathenaic Stadium
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History of the Stadium

• originally a small natural valley, between the
  two hills of Agra and Ardettos, over Ilissos
  river
• transformed into a stadium by Lykourgos in
  330-329 BC
• north semicircular wall added in Roman times
• Restored/rebuilt in late 19th century
• Used for two modern Olympics (1896 and 2004)

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19th Century Reconstruction
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Athens Olympics 1896
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Athens Olymics 2004
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Panathenaic Contests

• musical and rhapsodic contests
• athletic contests for boys and youths
• athletic contests for men
• equestrian contests
• tribal contests
• torch race and pannychos (nocturnal ritual)
  procession and sacrifice
• apobatês and boat races
• awarding of prizes feasting and celebration

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Panathenaic Procession
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Panathenaic Procession

• four little girls carrying a peplos for the
  life-size statue of Athena Polias
• priestesses of Athena and Athenian women carrying
  gifts
• sacrificial animals (cows and sheep)
• metics (resident aliens), wearing purple robes
  and carrying on trays cakes and honeycombs for
  offerings
• musicians playing the aulos and the kithara.
• a colossal peplos (for Athena Parthenos) hung on
  the mast of a ship on wheels
• old men carrying olive branches9
• four-horse chariots with a charioteer and fully
  armed man (apobatês)
• craftswomen (ergastinai - weavers of peplos)
• infantry and cavalry
• victors in the games
• ordinary Athenians arranged by deme

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Preparing Athenas peplos.
Hydria Bearers
Seated Gods Poseidon, Apollo, and Artemis.
Athenian riders preparing to mount
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Panathenaic Procession on the Parthenon Freize
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The Elgin Marbles
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The British Museumand the Elgin Marbles
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The Elgin Marbles
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Keats On Seeing the Elgin Marbles

• On Seeing the Elgin Marbles for the First Time by
  John Keats (1817)
• My spirit is too weak mortality
• Weighs heavily on me like unwilling sleep,
• And each imagined pinnacle and steep
• Of godlike hardship tells me I must die
• Like a sick eagle looking at the sky.
• Yet 'tis a gentle luxury to weep,
• That I have not the cloudy winds to keep
• Fresh for the opening of the morning's eye.
• Such dim-conceived glories of the brain
• Bring round the heart an indescribable feud
• So do these wonders a most dizzy pain,
• That mingles Grecian grandeur with the rude
• Wasting of old Time -with a billowy main,
• A sun, a shadow of a magnitude.

Dionysos (?) from the East Pediment
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The New Acropolis Museum
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Panathenaic Procession on the Parthenon Freize
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Diphrophoros (couch carrier)
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Parthenons East Pediment
"Three Fates" from the East Pediment of the
Parthenon.
Dionysos (?) from the East Pediment
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West Pediment Athena and Poseidon
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West Pediment
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