The rock and the temple
The confusion is easy to understand: from almost anywhere in Athens you see the rock with the Parthenon on top, and the two merge into one image. But the words mean different things. Acropolis comes from the Greek akros, highest, and polis, city: the high city, the fortified hill that many Greek towns had. The Acropolis of Athens is a rocky hilltop of about 170 by 350 metres. The Parthenon is a temple, the largest building on that hilltop.
It works like a castle hill with a cathedral on it: the hill is the place, the cathedral is one building, however dominant.
The Acropolis came first
The rock was in use long before the Parthenon. A first fortification wall went up in the thirteenth century BCE, in the Mycenaean age, and the cult of Athena on the summit goes back to the eighth century BCE. An earlier temple, known as the pre-Parthenon, was being built on the same spot in 490-480 BCE, when the Persians took Athens and burned the sanctuary in 480. The Athenians buried the broken statues and offerings, and a generation later rebuilt the whole hill.
What stands on the Acropolis today?
The rebuilding of the Golden Age gave the Acropolis the four buildings that define it today:
- Propylaia: the monumental gateway, built in five years by the architect Mnesikles.
- Parthenon: the Doric temple of Athena Parthenos, built between 447 and 438 BCE, with sculpture finished in 432 BCE.
- Temple of Athena Nike: a small Ionic temple of about 425 BCE.
- Erechtheion: an Ionic temple of 421-406 BCE for the cults of Athena Polias and Poseidon-Erechtheus, with the porch of the Caryatids.
So the Parthenon was never the whole sanctuary. The cult statue of Athena Polias, to whom the new peplos was offered at her festival, was honoured in the Erechtheion, while the Parthenon housed the gold and ivory Athena Parthenos.
Two different histories
The Parthenon’s own story is longer and stranger than the temple’s ancient life. It became a church, dedicated in 1205 to the Holy Mother of Athens; after the Ottoman conquest of Athens it was turned into a mosque, with a minaret. In 1687, during a Venetian siege, gunpowder stored inside by the Turks exploded and turned the monument into a ruin. In the nineteenth century Lord Elgin’s agents removed eighteen pedimental statues, fifteen metopes and fifty-six blocks of the frieze. Restorations began after the founding of the modern Greek state, and those of Nikolaos Balanos (1896-1902 and 1923-1933) gave the building much of its present look.
The Acropolis as a whole was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1987 as a single site, rock and buildings together. The Acropolis Museum, at the foot of the hill, is a separate modern building that holds the sculptures found on the rock. To understand what it meant to the Athenians, you need both: the temple and the sacred hill around it.
Where to see them
The archaeological site covers the whole rock: Propylaia, Parthenon, Erechtheion and Temple of Athena Nike. The Acropolis Museum is a short walk away at the foot of the hill. Opening hours change with the season, so check the official sites before you go.
Sources
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre, “Acropolis, Athens” (404).
- Acropolis Restoration Service (YSMA): “Parthenon”; “Erechtheion”.
- Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, Odysseus: Parthenon; Erechtheion; Temple of Athena Nike.
- Plutarch, Life of Pericles 13 (LacusCurtius).
