Pericles's Building Programme

• used money from Delian League to build big lavish buildings
• created the Parthenon
• Erechtheion - most scared place

  - Temple of Athena and Poseidon and the most sacred place in Athens

  - Main part is dedicated to Athena Polias (Athena – Defender of the City), whose olive-wood sacred statue was inside – the most revered in Attica – according to myth, the Athenians said the statue fell from the sky

  - Spaces for worship of other gods – including Poseidon

  - Main characteristics is the south wing with the women shaped columns, the caryatids and it is unclear who they represent
• built Propylaea - monumental gateway to Acropolis
• built Temple of Athena Nike - goddess of victory


  Small temple dedicated to Athena as the bringer of victory

  Friezes on the outside depict gods and goddesses and battle scenes including the cavalry scene from the Battle of Marathon and a Greek victory over the Persians at the battle of Plataea
• Built Odeon concert hall


  Next to theatre of Dionysus

  An almost square concert hall

  First built for musical contests during the Panathenaea

  The design was based off Xerxes’ tent

  Biggest roofed building of Greek antiquity

  Site of proagon (pre-contest) before City Dionysia festival
• Temple of Hephaestus above the Agora


  One of the best preserved temples

  Appropriate for its location – the kerameikos district – the potters quarters - Hephaestus god of Blacksmiths (craftsmen)
• Temple of Poseidon at Sounion Point


  Original temple of Poseidon was probably destroyed in 480BC by Xerxes

  New temple was built on ruins of old

  Resembles the Temple of Hephaestus beneath the Acropolis
• Building programme


  An ambitious construction project undertaken by the city of Athens under the leadership of Pericles
• The Acropolis had been the religious heart of the city of Athens
• After the Persians destroyed the temple, the Athenians made an oath to not rebuild the temple and buried the statues that had been knocked down but let the remains of the temple stay
• With the Persian threat reduced in 449, Pericles promoted an extraordinarily ambitious building programme for the city
• Pheidias


  The sculptor who supervised the building programme
• Pheidias made statues of Athena and Zeus

  Carved from wood and then plated in gold and ivory
• Propylaea


  • The monumental gateway, completed in 5 years, complicated to build on steep rock, had 5 parts including a central hall and 4 wings, made of marble with a dark blue ceiling studded with golden stars
• Athena Promachos


  Athena who fought in the front line, a military defender of the state
• Parthenon

  • The grandest building on the Acropolis, dedicated to Athena Parthenos (Athena the maiden), also served as the treasury of Athens, built in marble with some details painted in green, blue and gold, pediments depicted key moments in the mythology of Athens
• An old Athenian legend told of how Athena competed with Poseidon to be the city's patron goddess, with Athena offering the olive tree and winning
• Parthenon frieze


  • Narrative sculpture that led around the outer walls of the main temple, depicting the Panathenaic procession
• Athena's statue inside the Parthenon


  • Nearly 12 meters tall, created by Pheidias
• Erechtheion


  • Temple on the north side of the Acropolis, dedicated to Athena Polias (Athena defender of the city), also incorporated space to worship other deities such as Poseidon, had statues of 6 women known as the Caryatids serving in place of columns
• The building programme was controversial, with the key argument being that the allies could justly feel outraged that the money they were paying into the Delian league for their own protection was being used to adorn the city of Athens
• Pericles argued that the Athenians needed to ensure the allies were protected against the Persian threat, and that the building programme provided a huge boost to the Athenian economy due to the employment it generated
• Pericles came under suspicion of being motivated by selfish interests, with a claim that his close friend Pheidias was prosecuted for stealing gold meant for the statue of Athena and depicting himself and Pericles on the shield of this statue
• Pheidias was put into prison and died there according to Plutarch, but another historian contradicts this by claiming he returned to Olympia to finish his statue of Zeus
• Aims

  Pericles wants to restore the Athenian temples

  Wanted to display the Athenian imperial might through architecture

  To provide employment; the unskilled masses, with no military training, would benefit form the national income, but should not be paid for sitting around idle.