Temple of Athena Nike
The Temple of Athena Nike
Greek Architecture is the most important and influential in Western history reaching a peak between 400 and 300 BC. Some examples of Ancient Greek architecture and sculptures were built primarily for religious purposes, to represent deities or to serve as temples, such as the Acropolis, the Parthenon, Erechtheum, Apollo Didyma, and the Temple of Athena Nike. The decision to build Athena Nike was an expression of Athens' ambitions to defeat Sparta and become a world power. The ancient Greek goddess Nike was the personification of the ideal of victory. One of the most common epithets for the goddess was Athena Nike. A temple to Athena was built on the Acropolis of Athens, Acropolis meaning “The Sacred Rock, the high city” (Ancient Greece). Bronze akroteria (added decoration) on the corners and central ridge of the temple roof represented Nike, and the temple itself was surrounded by a balustrade decorated with a frieze. Early in the Temple’s (Athena Nike) history, it was a place of worship for deities associated with wars, perhaps Bronze Age “Nike” gods or goddesses, which with time fused with the cult of Athena Nike of later centuries, but little is known about the history, nature or functions of the Athena Nike cult. The temple is smaller than the other temples of the Acropolis. This “5th-century Temple of Athena Nike, dedicated to Athena the Victor, stands on a projecting bastion originally a part of the Mycenaean fortifications, to the south of the Propylaia” (Freeman 2006, 73). This bastion, which was known as a pyrgos (tower), dates back to at least the Bronze Age. In Greek myth “It is from this elevated spot that Theseus’ father Aegeus is said to have kept watch for the return of his son from Crete. Theseus had promised to hoist a white sail if his ship was bringing him home alive. He forgot to do so, and seeing the black sail approach and believing his son to have been devoured by the Minotaur, Aegeus hurled himself
Greek Architecture is the most important and influential in Western history reaching a peak between 400 and 300 BC. Some examples of Ancient Greek architecture and sculptures were built primarily for religious purposes, to represent deities or to serve as temples, such as the Acropolis, the Parthenon, Erechtheum, Apollo Didyma, and the Temple of Athena Nike. The decision to build Athena Nike was an expression of Athens' ambitions to defeat Sparta and become a world power. The ancient Greek goddess Nike was the personification of the ideal of victory. One of the most common epithets for the goddess was Athena Nike. A temple to Athena was built on the Acropolis of Athens, Acropolis meaning “The Sacred Rock, the high city” (Ancient Greece). Bronze akroteria (added decoration) on the corners and central ridge of the temple roof represented Nike, and the temple itself was surrounded by a balustrade decorated with a frieze. Early in the Temple’s (Athena Nike) history, it was a place of worship for deities associated with wars, perhaps Bronze Age “Nike” gods or goddesses, which with time fused with the cult of Athena Nike of later centuries, but little is known about the history, nature or functions of the Athena Nike cult. The temple is smaller than the other temples of the Acropolis. This “5th-century Temple of Athena Nike, dedicated to Athena the Victor, stands on a projecting bastion originally a part of the Mycenaean fortifications, to the south of the Propylaia” (Freeman 2006, 73). This bastion, which was known as a pyrgos (tower), dates back to at least the Bronze Age. In Greek myth “It is from this elevated spot that Theseus’ father Aegeus is said to have kept watch for the return of his son from Crete. Theseus had promised to hoist a white sail if his ship was bringing him home alive. He forgot to do so, and seeing the black sail approach and believing his son to have been devoured by the Minotaur, Aegeus hurled himself