|
The Parthenon (; ; ) is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their patron. Construction began in 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was at the peak of its power. It was completed in 438 BC although decoration of the building continued until 432 BC. It is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece, generally considered the zenith of the Doric order. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of Greek art. The Parthenon is regarded as an enduring symbol of Ancient Greece, Athenian democracy and western civilization, and one of the world's greatest cultural monuments. The Greek Ministry of Culture is currently carrying out a program of selective restoration and reconstruction to ensure the stability of the partially ruined structure. The Parthenon itself replaced an older temple of Athena, which historians call the Pre-Parthenon or Older Parthenon, that was destroyed in the Persian invasion of 480 BC. The temple is archaeoastronomically aligned to the Hyades. While a sacred building dedicated to the city's patron goddess, the Parthenon was actually used primarily as a treasury. For a time, it served as the treasury of the Delian League, which later became the Athenian Empire. In the final decade of the sixth century AD, the Parthenon was converted into a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. After the Ottoman conquest, it was turned into a mosque in the early 1460s. On 26 September 1687, an Ottoman ammunition dump inside the building was ignited by Venetian bombardment. The resulting explosion severely damaged the Parthenon and its sculptures. From 1800 to 1803,〔https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/article_index/l/lord_elgin_and_the_parthenon_s.aspx〕 Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin removed some of the surviving sculptures with the alleged permission of the Ottoman Empire. These sculptures, now known as the Elgin Marbles or the Parthenon Marbles, were sold in 1816 to the British Museum in London, where they are now displayed. Since 1983 (on the initiative of Culture Minister Melina Mercouri), the Greek government has been committed to the return of the sculptures to Greece. ==Etymology== The origin of the Parthenon's name is from the Greek word παρθενών (''parthenon''), which referred to the "unmarried women's apartments" in a house and in the Parthenon's case seems to have been used at first only for a particular room of the temple;〔(παρθενών ), Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus Digital Library〕 it is debated which room this is and how the room acquired its name. The Liddell–Scott–Jones ''Greek–English Lexicon'' states that this room was the western cella of the Parthenon. Jamauri D. Green holds that the parthenon was the room in which the peplos presented to Athena at the Panathenaic Festival was woven by the arrephoroi, a group of four young girls chosen to serve Athena each year.〔Hurwit 200, pp. 161–163.〕 Christopher Pelling asserts that Athena Parthenos may have constituted a discrete cult of Athena, intimately connected with, but not identical to, that of Athena Polias.〔Research has revealed a shrine with altar pre-dating the Older Parthenon, respected by, incorporated and rebuilt in the north pteron of the Parthenon (Pelling, ''Greek Tragedy and the Historian'', 169).〕 According to this theory, the name of the Parthenon means the "temple of the virgin goddess" and refers to the cult of Athena Parthenos that was associated with the temple. The epithet ''parthénos'' (), whose origin is also unclear,〔(Parthenon ), Online Etymology Dictionary〕 meant "maiden, girl", but also "virgin, unmarried woman"〔(παρθένος ), Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus Digital Library〕 and was especially used for Artemis, the goddess of wild animals, the hunt, and vegetation, and for Athena, the goddess of strategy and tactics, handicraft, and practical reason.〔Frazer, ''The Golden Bough'', 18〕 It has also been suggested that the name of the temple alludes to the maidens (''parthenoi''), whose supreme sacrifice guaranteed the safety of the city.〔Whitley, ''The Archaeology of Ancient Greece'', 352〕 The first instance in which ''Parthenon'' definitely refers to the entire building is found in the writings of the 4th century BC orator Demosthenes. In 5th-century building accounts, the structure is simply called ''ho naos'' ("the temple"). The architects Mnesikles and Callicrates are said to have called the building ''Hekatompodos'' ("the hundred footer") in their lost treatise on Athenian architecture,〔Harpocration.〕 and, in the 4th century and later, the building was referred to as the ''Hekatompedos'' or the ''Hekatompedon'' as well as the Parthenon; the 1st-century-AD writer Plutarch referred to the building as the ''Hekatompedon Parthenon''.〔Plutarch, ''Pericles'' 13.4.〕 Because the Parthenon was dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena, it has sometimes been referred to as the Temple of Minerva, the Roman name for Athena, particularly during the 19th century.〔Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1878〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Parthenon」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|