Parthenon And The Pantheon

Greece’s Parthenon and Rome’s Pantheon are two iconic temples that exemplify the values of the cultures in which they were built. The Parthenon is a marble building that was built between 447 BC and 432 BC and stands 45 feet high and 228 feet long by 101 feet wide. The Pantheon is made of limestone, brick, and pumice. Its dome is 142 feet in diameter and 71 feet in height. The height of the section below the dome is also 71 feet. I chose these two temples because I want to improve my knowledge of architecture, especially the differences between Greek and Roman architecture. I would like to learn more about which elements and styles each culture emphasized. The Parthenon is a temple dedicated to Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom and war; she
The temple rests on a stylobate and stereobate, creating a base of steps that surrounds the entirety of the building. Two entrances to the Parthenon are located on the east and west sides. There is a row of eight outer columns followed by a row of six inner columns outside the doorway. On the pediments above the doorways, several statues in the round once stood. The East Pediment’s statues depicted an armor-clad Athena recently born from the head of Zeus with other mythological figures looking on. The West Pediment’s statues depicted Athena winning a contest against Poseidon and becoming the patron of Athens. The exterior frieze below the pediments had sculptures in low relief that showed the Greeks winning legendary battles. The interior frieze that lined the cella showed a procession that was part of a yearly Athenian festival. This frieze was made in higher relief at the top and lower relief at the bottom to angle the image toward the viewer. The designers of the Parthenon, Kallikoates and Iktinos, were very aware of the effect of certain mathematical proportions and utilized this knowledge in the design of the Parthenon. The ratio of 4:9 was used throughout
The front of the building is a rectangular façade that resembles the structure of most Roman temples. Behind the façade is an enormous dome that makes up the majority of the building. Today, the entire shape of the Pantheon is visible. When it was first built, however, the dome was hidden by a courtyard, making the dome visible only once the viewer had entered the building. The temple is in the Corinthian order, as shown by the columns’ base and decorative leaf pattern and the uninterrupted frieze. Instead of Doric metopes and triglyphs, the frieze bears an inscription reading “Marcus Agrippa son of Lucius, having been consul three times made it,” reflecting a previous building that used to stand on the same site. The pediment, now empty, once held statues that depicted Roman gods battling the Titans. The dome of the temple has a 29 foot wide oculus at the top, which is the main source of lighting in the temple. The oculus sometimes lets in rain, which runs down the slightly convex floor to drain out of the building. The design of the Pantheon, especially the size of the dome and oculus, shows incredible skill in engineering and mathematics: the height of the dome is exactly the height of the rotunda below it, light building materials were used at the highest parts of the building and heavier materials were used at the bottom so that the structure is able to support itself