The Athenian Acropolis, Then and Now

In this episode, Emily and Cam talk about what it’s like to visit the Athenian Acropolis today; how that experience compares to what visitors would have seen in the fifth century BCE; when and why the remains of the structures there today were created (especially the Parthenon and the Erechtheion); and what those structures meant to ancient Athenians.

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Episode Links:

• Our short blog post featuring pictures of Nashville’s replica of the Athena Parthenos statue.

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00:11 - Introduction

02:05 - Visiting the Acropolis: the modern experience

• 02:32 - The geography of Attica
• 03:41 - Our first impressions of the Acropolis (and how Goethe did it better)
• 05:45 - What visiting the Acropolis is like: sacred and profane space; the temple of Athena Nikē (and aspects of the gods); the Propylaia; the Parthenon; the Erectheion; the Dörpfeld Foundations

14:23 - What visiting the Acropolis was like in the fifth century BCE

• 14:30 - The ramp
• 16:28 - Athena Promachos
• 17:01 - Colorful temples
• 17:38 - Dedications everywhere (and why dedications mattered)

20:20 - How and when the structures on the Acropolis came to be

• 20:25 - The basic context: Darius, Xerxes, and the Persian invasions of Greece
• 22:20 - The Oath of Plataia: the Greeks swear not to rebuild their temples
• 23:59 - What changed? War in the Aegean, the Peace of Kallias, and the Athenian Empire

29:01 - The Parthenon

• 29:26 - The basics of the Parthenon and Greek architectural orders
• 32:38 - The Parthenon’s pediment sculptures: the west pediment group and the east pediment group
• 37:31 - The metopes: the Amazonomachy (west), the Trojan War (north), the Gigantomachy (east), Lapiths vs. Centaurs (south)
• 40:37 - The Ionic frieze and various interpretations of its imagery
• 43:53 - Pheidias’ statue of Athena and its decoration
• 46:04 - The meaning of the Parthenon’s sculpture: the Athenians, their empire, and their imperial mission

49:41 - The Erechtheion

• 49:49 - The fundamental weirdness of the Erechtheion
• 52:08 - Why is it so strange? The persistence of ancient ritual.
• 52:54 - The most sacred image of Athena: the Xoanon
• 54:08 - Is the building we call the Erechtheion the building the ancient Athenians (and Pausanias) called the Erechtheion? Or is it the temple of Athena Polias?
• 56:48 - Emily delivers a fine rant about the perils of “received wisdom” in Classics
• 1:01:08 - Cam footnotes Emily’s rant with a digression on horror vacui

1:02:02 - Wrap-up