The Parthenon Enigma

by Joan Breton Connelly

  104. Ibid.; Korres, From Pentelicon to the Parthenon, 107–8.

  105. In 483, Themistokles had argued that the revenue from the Laureion silver mines should be used for the building of a fleet. For the building of the Athenian navy, and Themistokles’s victory at Salamis, see Hale, Lords of the Sea, and B. S. Strauss, The Battle of Salamis: The Naval Encounter That Saved Greece—and Western Civilization (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004).

  106. Thucydides, Peloponnesian War 1.93.1–3.

  107. See M. Korres, “On the North Acropolis Wall,” and “Topographic Issues of the Acropolis: The Pre-Parthenon, Parthenon I, Parthenon II,” in Archaeology of the City of Athens, http://www.eie.gr/archaeologia/En/chapter_more_3.aspx, for full discussion of history of scholarship on the display of these blocks in the Acropolis north fortification wall. Korres explains that the display was first studied in 1807 by W. M. Leake, who identified it as what Hesychios had in mind when he wrote (s.v. ἑκατόμπεδος) “… νεὼς ἐν τ ’Ακροπόλει τ Παρθένᾳ κατασκευαθεις ὑπὸ ’Αθηναίων, μείζων του̂ ἐμπρησθέντος ὑπὸ τω̂ν Περσω̂ν ποσὶ πεντήκοντα.” Thereafter, several scholars attributed both the column drums and the triglyph-metope entablature (set in the wall just to the south of the repositioned column drums) as coming from the Older Parthenon. This was corrected by W. Dörpfeld, “Der alte Athena-Tempel auf der Akropolis zu Athen,” AM 10 (1885): 275–77, who understood that the triglyph-metope and architrave blocks came not from the Older Parthenon, but from the Old Athena Temple.

  108. Ferrari, “Ancient Temple on the Acropolis at Athens,” 14–16, 25–28, argues that Dörpfeld was correct in his hypothesis that the Old Athena Temple remained standing, albeit without a peristyle, until the end of antiquity. See W. Dörpfeld, “Der alte Athenatempel auf der Akropolis II,” AM 12 (1887): 25–61; W. Dörpfeld, “Der alte Athenatempel auf der Akropolis III,” AM 12 (1887): 190–211; W. Dörpfeld, “Der alte Athenatempel auf der Akropolis IV,” AM 15 (1890): 420–39; W. Dörpfeld, “Der alte Athenatempel auf der Akropolis V,” AM 22 (1897): 159–78; W. Dörpfeld, “Das Hekatompedonin Athens,” JdI 34 (1919): 39. Contra Ferrari, see Kissas, Archaische Architektur der Athener Akropolis and J. Pakkanen, “The Erechtheion Construction Work Inventory (IG I3 474) and the Dörpfeld Temple,” AJA 110 (2006): 275–81. Korres, “History of the Acropolis Monuments,” 42, 46–47, allows for the survival of the cella of the Old Athena Temple. See Paton et al., Erechtheum, 473–74, and Hurwit, Athenian Acropolis, 142–44, 159, for the opisthodomos of the temple as being repaired and serving as a treasury long after the Persian destruction. T. Linders, “The Location of the Opisthodomos: Evidence from the Temple of Athena Parthenos Inventories,” AJA 111 (2007): 777–82, argues that the opisthodomos of the Old Athena Temple was destroyed by fire in 406/405 B.C. and thereafter was no longer used as a treasury. This function was then transferred to the Erechtheion.

  3 PERIKLEAN POMP

  1. Plutarch, Life of Perikles 4–6.

  2. Aristophanes, Archarnians 528–29, speaks of Perikles “on his Olympian height,” letting loose thunderbolts.

  3. Ancient sources on Perikles are collected in S. V. Tracy, Pericles: A Sourcebook and Reader (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009); for shorter overviews, see V. Azoulay, Périclès: La démocratie athénienne à l’épreuve du grand homme (Paris: Armand Colin, 2010), 12–19; Will, Perikles, 12–22. The bibliography on Perikles is immense. See, among others: C. Schubert, Perikles: Tyrann oder Demokrat? (Stuttgart: Reclam, 2012); G. A. Lehmann, Perikles: Staatsmann und Stratege im klassischen Athen: Eine Biographie (Munich: C. H. Beck, 2008); C. Mossé, Périclès: L’inventeur de la démocratie (Paris: Payot, 2005); Podlecki, Perikles and His Circle; Will, Perikles; C. Schubert, Perikles (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1994); Kagan, Pericles of Athens.

  4. This came after Miltiades’s failed clandestine expedition against Paros in 488 B.C. For the rivalry of Perikles and Kimon, see Podlecki, Perikles and His Circle, 5–45; Carpenter, Architects of the Parthenon, 69–81.

  5. Plutarch, Life of Kimon 13.7–8. See Martin-McAuliffe and Papadopoulos, “Framing Victory”; Camp, Archaeology of Athens, 63–72; C. Delvoye, “Art et politique à Athènes à l’époque de Cimon,” in Le monde grec: Pensée, littérature, histoire, documents: Hommages à Claire Préaux, ed. J. Bingen, G. Cambier, and G. Nachtergael (Brussels: Université de Bruxelles, 1975), 801–7; Carpenter, Architects of the Parthenon, 69–81; Boersma, Athenian Building Policy, 42–64.

  6. Plutarch, Life of Perikles 10.2. Translation: Kagan, Pericles of Athens, 83.

  7. Aristotle, Athenian Constitution 22.5.

  8. Plutarch, Life of Perikles 37.2–5; Aristotle, Athenian Constitution 26.3. For various interpretations of the law, see J. Blok, “Perikles’ Citizenship Law: A New Perspective,” Historia 58 (2009): 141–70; I. A. Vartsos, “Fifth Century Athens: Citizens and Citizenship,” Parnassos 50 (2008): 65–74; Podlecki, Perikles and His Circle, 159–61; C. Leduc, “Citoyenneté et parenté dans la cité des Athéniens: De Solon à Périclès,” Métis 9–10 (1994–1995): 51–68; A. French, “Pericles’ Citizenship Law,” Ancient History Bulletin 8 (1994): 71–75; A. Boegehold, “Perikles’ Citizenship Law of 451/0 B.C.”; K. R. Walters, “Perikles’ Citizenship Law,” ClAnt 2 (1983): 314–36; C. Patterson, Pericles’ Citizenship Law of 451–50 B.C. (Salem, N.H.: Ayer, 1981); Davies, “Athenian Citizenship”; S. C. Humphreys, “The Nothoi of Kynosarges,” JHS 94 (1974): 88–95; A. W. Gomme, “Two Problems of Athenian Citizenship Law,” CP 29 (1934): 123–40.

  9. Connelly, Portrait of a Priestess, 198–202.

  10. Plato, Phaidros 269e; Thucydides, Peloponnesian War 2.35.

  11. Plato, Protagoras 319e–320a; Plato, Gorgias 515d–516d; Suda, s.v. Περικλη̂ς.

  12. Translation: Tracy, Pericles, 28. See Mario Telò, Eupolidis Demi, Biblioteca nazionale, Serie dei classici greci e latini, n.s., 14 (Florence: Felice Le Monnier 2007), frag. 1.

  13. Ferrari, “Ancient Temple on the Acropolis at Athens,” 24.

  14. Lykourgos, Against Leokrates 81. Translation: Burtt, Minor Attic Orators, II, 73.

  15. For inscribed stele dating to third quarter of fourth century B.C. found at Acharnai: D. L. Kellogg, “Οὐκ ἐλάττω παραδώσω τὴν πατρίδα: The Ephebic Oath and the Oath of Plataia in Fourth-Century Athens,” Mouseion 8 (2008): 355–76; P. Siewert, Der Eid von Plataia (Munich: Beck, 1972); G. Daux, “Deux stèles d’Acharne,” in Χαριστήριον εἰς Αναστάσιον Κ. Ορλἀνδον (Athens: Archaeological Society, 1965), 1:78–90; A. Blamire, Plutarch: Life of Kimon (London: Institute of Classical Studies, 1989), 151–52; J. V. A. Fine, The Ancient Greeks: A Critical History (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1983), 323–28; R. Meiggs, The Athenian Empire (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), 504–7. But see also P. M. Krentz, “The Oath of Marathon, Not Plataia?,” Hesperia 76 (2007): 731–42.

  16. M. Korres, “The Golden Age of Pericles and the Parthenon,” in Koutsadelis, Dialogues on the Acropolis, 55.

  17. Scholars date the negotiation of the Peace of Kallias from as early as 465 B.C. to circa 449. See E. Badian, From Plataea to Potidaea (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993), 1–72, esp. 19–20, and E. Badian, “The Peace of Callias,” JHS 107 (1987): 13–14, where it is argued there was a peace negotiated by Kallias after the Battle of Eurymedon that was not kept and that was renewed after Kimon’s death. See also L. J. Samons II, “Kimon, Kallias, and Peace with Persia,” Historia 47 (1998): 129–40; G. L. Cawkwell, “The Peace Between Athens and Persia,” Phoenix 51 (1997): 115–30; H. B. Mattingly, The Athenian Empire Restored: Epigraphic and Historical Studies (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996), 107–16, which reprints a corrected version of H. B. Mattingly, “The Peace of Kallias,” Historia 14 (1965): 273–81; D. M. Lewis, “The Thirty Years’ Peace,” in The Cambridge Ancient History, 2nd ed., ed. D. M. Lewis, J. Boa
rdman, J. K. Davies, and M. Ostwald (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 5:121–27; R. A. Moysey, “Thucydides, Kimon, and the Peace of Kallias,” Ancient History Bulletin 5 (1991): 30–35; J. Walsh, “The Authenticity and the Dates of the Peace of Callias and the Congress Decree,” Chiron 11 (1981): 31–63; A. R. Hands, “In Favour of a Peace of Kallias,” Mnemosyne 28 (1975): 193–95; S. K. Eddy, “On the Peace of Callias,” CP 65 (1970): 8–14.

  18. Plutarch, Life of Perikles 14.1.

  19. Ibid.

  20. According to Plutarch, it was Kimon who first allowed members of the confederation to pay money instead of contributing ships: “Before they knew it, they were tributary subjects rather than allies.” Life of Kimon 11.1–3. Thucydides, Peloponnesian War 1.99, gives the same story but does not mention Kimon. See Carpenter, Architects of the Parthenon, 75–76.

  21. I thank Peter Van Alfen of the American Numismatic Association for these calculations, which he bases on wage equivalencies rather than silver commodity prices. If we calculated on the basis of present-day silver commodity prices (ca. $20/ounce), we’d only get about $10 million for the 600 talents. But silver commodity prices are historically low today. Evidence from the fourth century B.C. shows that the daily wage for a skilled worker at Athens was 1 drachm. This can be estimated, somewhat conservatively, at $100 today. So, 1 drachm = $100; 6000 drachms/talent = $600,000 × 600 = $360,000,000.

  22. Thucydides, Peloponnesian War 2.13.5; Diodoros Siculus, Library 12.40.3.

  23. For the term “empire” (ἀρχή), see Thucydides, Peloponnesian War 1.67.4, 1.75, 1.76.2, and 1.77.2–3.

  24. Lists of the allies and how much they contributed were carved on stone “tribute lists” (symmachikos phoros) during the years 454–409 B.C.; B. D. Meritt, H. T. Wade-Gery, and M. F. McGregor, The Athenian Tribute Lists, 4 vols. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1939–1953). Every year at the great festival of Dionysos Eleutherios (when the dramatic competitions brought tens of thousands of viewers to the theater on the south slope of the Acropolis), ambassadors from the allied states would present their annual tributes for all to see, depositing their offerings in the orchestra of the theater itself. Thus, Athens was glorified in a highly visible spectacle and, importantly, in the presence of foreign Greeks from all across the empire. See S. Goldhill, “The Great Dionysia and Civic Ideology,” JHS 107 (1987): 58–76; reprinted in Nothing to Do with Dionysos? Athenian Drama in Its Social Context, ed. J. J. Winkler and F. I. Zeitlin (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1990), 97–129.

  25. Harris, Treasures of the Parthenon and Erechtheion, 81–200.

  26. Korres, From Pentelicon to the Parthenon, 100 with fig. 25 (for the Λ1 quarry); Korres, “Architecture of the Parthenon,” 59–65; Burford, “Builders of the Parthenon.”

  27. Korres, From Pentelicon to the Parthenon; Korres, Stones of the Parthenon.

  28. Korres, “Parthenon,” 12; Burford, “Builders of the Parthenon,” 32–34.

  29. Plutarch, Life of Perikles 12; translation of 12.7: Waterfield, Plutarch: Greek Lives, 156.

  30. Again, I thank Peter Van Alfen for calculating this rough estimate of present-day value.

  31. Parthenon construction accounts: IG I3 436–51; cult statue: IG I3 453–60; dedication: Philochoros, FGrH 328 F 121. See W. B. Dinsmoor, “Attic Building Accounts I: The Parthenon,” AJA 17 (1913): 53–80.

  32. Korres, Stones of the Parthenon, 58, notes that due to the suspension of temple construction following the Persian invasion, there was little work for stonemasons; instead, these craftsmen would have been employed in brick making, shipbuilding, and military campaigns.

  33. See J. J. Coulton, “Lifting in Early Greek Architecture,” JHS 94 (1974): 1–19, esp. 12 and 17, where he dates the first use of the pulley hoist to the late sixth century B.C. Herodotos, Histories 7.36, gives us our earliest reference to the winch in Greek literature, reporting that winches were used to tighten the cables that held together the Persians’ pontoon bridge, built across the Hellespont in 480 B.C. Of course, winches are known in Egypt from at least the Middle Kingdom: S. Clarke, Ancient Egyptian Construction and Architecture (New York: Dover, 1990), and in Assyria from the seventh century: J. Laessøe, “Reflexions on Modern and Ancient Oriental Water Works,” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 7 (1953): 15–17. By the first century B.C., the block and tackle device was widely used for handling cargo. See Vitruvius, Ten Books of Architecture 10.2.2.

  34. For Iktinos as architect, see Plutarch, Life of Perikles 13.4; Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.41.9; Strabo, Geography 9.1.12, 16; and Vitruvius, Ten Books of Architecture 7 praef. 12. For Kallikrates, see Plutarch, Life of Perikles 13.4; M. Korres, s.v. “Iktinos” and “Kallikrates,” in Künstlerlexikon der Antike, ed. R. Vollkommer (Munich: Saur, 2001), 1:338–45, 387–93; Barletta, “Architecture and Architects of the Classical Parthenon,” 88–95; J. R. McCredie, “The Architects of the Parthenon,” in Studies in Classical Art and Archaeology: A Tribute to Peter Heinrich von Blanckenhagen, ed. G. Kopcke and M. B. Moore (Locust Valley, N.Y.: J. J. Augustin, 1979), 69–73; Carpenter, Architects of the Parthenon, 83–158.

  35. Vitruvius, Ten Books of Architecture 7 praef. 12. See M. Korres, s.v. “Karpion,” in Vollkommer, Künstlerlexikon der Antike, 1:404–5; Barletta, “Architecture and Architects of the Classical Parthenon,” 88–95.

  36. Plutarch, Life of Perikles 13.9 uses the verb epestatei—indicating that Pheidias was a kind of surveyor general.

  37. Pausanius, Description of Greece 10.10.1–2, sees the statues of Leos, Antiochos, Aegeus, Akamas, Theseus, and Phileas and then remarks that the images of Antigonos, Demetrios, and Ptolemy were later additions to the monument. The other three heroes, Ajax, Oeneus, and Hippothoon, are, however, unmentioned. Perhaps by then their images were removed to make way for those of the Hellenistic kings.

  38. Ibid., 1.28.2; Martin-McAuliffe and Papadopoulos, “Framing Victory,” 345–46; Hurwit, Athenian Acropolis, 152.

  39. Athenaeus, Deipnosophists 13.589, says that, when speaking on her behalf in court, Perikles shed more tears than he did when his own property and life were in danger.

  40. Plutarch, Life of Perikles 31.4.

  41. Miles, “Lapis Primus and the Older Parthenon,” 663–66; B. H. Hill, “The Older Parthenon,” AJA 16 (1912): 535–58; Carpenter advocates for a Kimonian Parthenon in Architects of the Parthenon, 44–68.

  42. S. A. Pope, “Financing and Design: The Development of the Parthenon Program and the Parthenon Building Accounts,” in Miscellanea Mediterranea, ed. R. R. Holloway, Archaeologia Transatlantica 18 (Providence: Center for Old World Archaeology and Art, Brown University, 2000), 65–66.

  43. Korres, “Athenian Classical Architecture,” 9–13.

  44. Korres, “Der Plan des Parthenon” and “The Architecture of the Parthenon.”

  45. Korres, “The Architecture of the Parthenon,” 84–93; Korres, “Der Plan des Parthenon.”

  46. Prostyle porches are also regarded as Cycladic features; see Barletta, “Architecture and Architects of the Classical Parthenon,” 78–79.

  47. Ibid., 81–82, 84, 86–88; Korres, “Architecture of the Parthenon,” 84–88; Korres, “Parthenon,” 22, 46, 52, 54; Korres, “Sculptural Adornment of the Parthenon,” 33.

  48. Korres, “Die Athena-Tempel auf der Akropolis,” 227–29; Korres, “History of the Acropolis Monuments,” 45–46; H. Catling, “Archaeology in Greece, 1988–1989,” Archaeological Reports JHS 35 (1989): 8–9; Ridgway, “Images of Athena,” 125.

  49. J. M. Hurwit, “The Parthenon and the Temple of Zeus at Olympia,” in Barringer and Hurwit, Periklean Athens, 135–45; Barringer, “Temple of Zeus at Olympia,” 8–20.

  50. For discussion and full list of inscriptions, see Harris, Treasures of the Parthenon and Erechtheion, 2–8, 103–200. Hurwit, Athenian Acropolis, 161–62. According to Harpokration, s.v. ʽΕκατόμπεδον, Mnesikles and Kallikrates used this term for the entire building; Plutarch, Life of Perikles 13.4, refe
rs to the Parthenon as the “Hekatompedon Parthenon.”

  51. A two-tier interior colonnade can be seen even earlier at the temple of Aphaia on Aegina, built around 500 B.C. Here, it forms a perforated screen that partially hides the walls of the cella, while enclosing the cult image at the sides and back. This makes the space seem less comprehensible, bigger, and more interesting, with ever-changing light and shadows adding to the mystery of the space. I am grateful to Richard C. Anderson for helpful discussions here. See Korres, “Architecture of the Parthenon,” 65, 93; Korres, “Parthenon,” 48; Korres, “Sculptural Adornment of the Parthenon,” 176.

  52. For mention of the parthenon chamber in the inventories, see IG I3 343.4 (434/433 B.C.); IG I3 344.19 (433/432 B.C.); IG I3 346.55 (431/430 B.C.); IG I3 350.65 (427/426 B.C.); IG I3 351.5 (422/421 B.C.); IG I3 352.29 (421/420 B.C.); IG I3 353.52 (420/419 B.C.); IG I3 354.73–74 (419/418 B.C.); IG I3 355.5 (414/413 B.C.); IG I3 356.31–32 (413/412 B.C.); IG I3 357.57–58 (412/411 B.C.). See Harris, Treasures of the Parthenon and Erechtheion, 1–8, 81–103, 253, and Hurwit, Athenian Acropolis, 161–63.

  53. Pedersen, Parthenon and the Origin of the Corinthian Capital, 11–31, fig. 16; Korres and Bouras, Studies for the Restoration of the Parthenon, 1:20; Korres, “Parthenon,” 22. On the origin of the Corinthian order, see T. Homolle, “L’origine du chapiteau Corinthien,” RA, 5th ser., 4 (1916): 17–60; Rykwert, Dancing Column, 316–49.

  54. Vitruvius, Ten Books of Architecture 3.4.5, for optical refinements and horizontal lines, especially those of the stylobate.

  55. Korres, “Der Plan des Parthenon,” 87.

  56. Hurwit, Athenian Acropolis, 167 with illustration. The façade columns would meet nearly 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) above the platform. See also Dinsmoor, Architecture of Ancient Greece, 165, who claims that the columns project “more than 1½ miles above the pavement.”