ARCHITECTURE. 43 
greater distance between the two centre columns, and on the strength of the 
representations of chariots in the bas-reliefs of the Panathensean games on 
the frieze. The marble beams which formed the ceiling were 17 to 18 feet 
long, and of sufficient thickness to receive deep panels, which were orna- 
mented and painted. The depth of the building from the front to the rear 
wall was 43 feet, to which the posticum, of 18 feet in depth, was attached. 
The wings, or side buildings, had temple fronts of three columns between 
pillars, and were constructed, like the main building, of Pentelican marble. 
The columns of the propyleum are 27 feet high; those of the side buildings 
are 18 feet high by 3 feet in diameter. 
The Parthenon, dedicated to Pallas Athene, was one of the largest and 
most magnificent temples in Greece, for the illustration of which we refer to 
pl. 9, fig. 2, western front; pl. 10, fig. 6, eastern front; and pi. 11, fig. 6, 
longitudinal section. It was in excellent preservation as late as the year 
1676, when it was visited by Wheler and Spoon, but in the following year, 
when the Venetians bombarded Athens, a shell penetrated to the ammuni- 
tion of the Turks, kept in the temple, and the explosion that followed did 
great damage to the edifice. The sculptures of the gable and frieze have 
been taken away by the English, and are now in the collections of the Bri- 
tish Museum. 
The temple is a peripteros with 8 columns in front and 17 at the sides, 
and a hypethros with its interior columns in double tiers. The porticoes 
had two rows of columns each. The temple was built by Ictinos and Calli- 
crates (470 B.c.), and is 227 feet 7 inches in length, by a width of 101 feet 
1 inch. It presented the peculiarity that the usual corner pillars of the 
second row of columns in the porticoes are substituted by columns. The 
outer columns are 35 feet, 5 inches high, by 6 feet, 1 inch in diameter; those 
on the corners are 2 inches thicker. 
In ancient times the Parthenon was called Hecatompedon, because it had 
exactly 100 feet front, according to Roman measure. The width of the cella 
in the rear was 623 feet by a length of 98 feet 7 inches; the length of the 
vestibule was 43 feet 10 inches, and the total height of the temple 65 feet. 
The cella contained a magnificent statue of Minerva by Phidias, made of 
the costliest materials, chiefly gold and ivory. The two gable fields were 
also richly adorned with sculptures, which, as late as 1683, were in tolerably 
good preservation, when the French ambassador at the Porte, Nointel, caused 
them to be drawn accurately by a Dutch artist, whose drawings have been 
consulted in the various attempts made at restoring the groups in recent 
times. The groups in the western gable fields had reference to the birth of 
Pallas Athene, whilst those of the eastern represented her contest with Nep- 
tune about the sway of the land. The panels in the external Doric entabla- 
ture contained 92 bas-reliefs representing the wars of the Lapithee and the 
Centaurs, and the frieze around the cella and vestibule, which was upwards 
of 500 feet in length, bore sculptures representing the Panatheneean games. 
Another remarkable group on the platform of the Acropolis is formed by 
the temples of Minerva Polias and Erechtheus, and the hall of the nymph 
Pandrosos. /7. 10, fig. 8, gives a view, and jig. 9 the plan of this group, 
43 
