What is the significance of the metopes of the Parthenon?
The Metopes illustrate scenes from Athenian mythology and history. For Athenians, they also symbolized the victory of Athenian reason and order over chaos. Many of the Metopes were damaged by Christians when the Parthenon was transformed into a Christian church.
Does the Parthenon have metopes?
The sculpted decoration of the Parthenon included ninety-two metopes showing scenes of mythical battle. Those on the south flank of the temple included a series featuring human Lapiths in mortal combat with Centaurs. The Centaurs were part-man and part-horse, thus having a civil and a savage side to their nature.
What is depicted on the Parthenon frieze?
The frieze of the Parthenon forms a continuous band with scenes in relief that encircles the upper part of the cella, the main temple, within the outer colonnade. The theme represented was the procession toward the Acropolis that took place during the Great Panathenaia, the festival in honour of the goddess Athena.
What is the difference between the two Parthenon and metopes?
The Parthenon metopes that were visible on the exterior of the temple were made in deep relief and surrounded the temple on all sides. Most Greek temples had few decorated metopes, but in the Parthenon all ninety-two metopes were decorated on all sides with scenes from Greek mythology.
What mythological battle is depicted in the metopes of the Parthenon?
The metopes illustrate episodes from Greek myth, including the battle of the Centaurs and Lapiths. Marble metope from the Parthenon showing the battle between a Centaur and a Lapith. Athens, 447–438 BC.
What are triglyphs and metopes?
Triglyph is an architectural term for the vertically channeled tablets of the Doric frieze in classical architecture, so called because of the angular channels in them. The rectangular recessed spaces between the triglyphs on a Doric frieze are called metopes.
Which gods are on the Parthenon frieze?
In front of them, however, the gods are in one long row: four seated one overlapping the next, Poseidon, Apollo, Artemis, and Aphrodite, and one stand- ing, the boy god Eros.
What is Parthenon Athens Greece?
Parthenon, temple that dominates the hill of the Acropolis at Athens. It was built in the mid-5th century bce and dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena Parthenos (“Athena the Virgin”).
Who won the Amazonomachy?
The first (on the south and east sides of the cella) was the Amazonomachy or the battle between the Greeks and Amazons. In this story, the ancient Greeks, led by Herakles (a semi-god, with one divine parent and one human) won a fight against the Amazons, a race of warrior-women.
What was specifically depicted in the metopes on the north end of the Parthenon?
Each metope represents a duel between a Greek and an Amazon, around Theseus, the central figure.
What myth was shown in the east pediment?
The East pediment showed the miraculous birth of the goddess Athena from the head of her father Zeus. Many of the figures from the central scene are now fragmentary or entirely lost. This figure was carved as an isolated horse’s head.
What are metopes made of?
marble
The metopes of the Parthenon are carved panels of a soft stone called marble that was very popular due to its workability and natural beauty. The metopes are carved in high relief.