Parthenon Vs Pantheon

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The Parthenon and Pantheon: Similarities and Differences in famous Greek and Roman Temples There are few better surviving examples of ancient architecture than those found in the Greek city of Athens and the Italian city of Rome. The Temple of Athena Parthenos, or the Parthenon, in Athens, Greece and the Pantheon in Rome, Italy are marvels of engineering for their time and are tangible celebrations of the Athenian and Roman culture and people. These buildings were lavish constructions and adorned with valuable metals and stone. In the end, the Athenian Parthenon and Roman Pantheon share few key characteristics outside of their general purpose and portions of their aesthetic design, making them far more dissimilar than similar. Designed by…show more content…
Made entirely out of marble with a limestone stylobyte (or base), each column, line, and angle of the Parthenon was calculated in order to achieve the Greek ideal of perfection through harmonic numerical ratios. These harmonic ratios dictated the height and diameter of each individual column and its resulting placement in the structure, the number of columns on each side of the temple, and the size and height of the temple itself. The temple's colonnade consists of eight columns on the facade and seventeen on the side, the latter governed by the ratio x=2y+1, where y is equal to the eight facade columns, for a total of 46 outer columns. The cella, or the inner structure which made up the inside of the temple, also added another row of six columns on the shorter sides of the temple for a total of 23 inner columns. The Parthenon is constructed almost entirely using Doric order architectural elements, which is the oldest Greek architectural order, though elements of its successor, the Ionic order, make an appearance. The outer entablature of the temple consists of Doric order columns, a trigliph and metope frieze, and a simple cornice and pediment while an Ionic order continuous frieze exists around the inner cella. The metope, continuous frieze, and pediment, whether Doric or Ionic, were filled with low-relief sculptures, only a few of which survive today. These sculptures would have been…show more content…
The temple was considered sacred, as it was the earthly dwelling of the Athenian's patron goddess. Thus, only priests and priestess were allowed inside the temple, and worship by the masses, including ritualistic sacrifices, took place on the temple's outer

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