THE ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS

The Acropolis of Athens is the best known acropolis (high city) in Greece. Although there are many other acropoleis in Greece, the Acropolis of Athens is commonly known as 'the Acropolis' without qualification.

Quick Links Propylaea The Parthenon The Erechtheum Athena Nike

ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS: Acropolis Museum, Areopagus, Athena Parthenos, Athena Promachos, Erechtheum, Hadrian's Library, Metopes of the Parthenon, Odeon of Herodes Atticus, Old Temple of Athena, Parthenon, Parthenon Frieze, Parthenon Marbles, Propylaea, Temple of Athena Nike, Theatre of Dionysus,

ACROPOLIS MUSEUM The Acropolis Museum is an archaeological museum focused on the findings from the Acropolis of Athens. The museum was built to house every artifact found on the rock and on its feet, from the Greek Bronze Age to Roman and Byzantine Greece. It also lies on the archaeological site of Makrygianni and the ruins of a part of Roman and early Byzantine Athens ...

THE AREOPAGUS The Areopagus or Areios Pagos is the 'Rock of Ares', north-west of the Acropolis, which in classical times functioned as the high Court of Appeal for criminal and civil cases in Athens. Ares was supposed to have been tried here by the gods for the murder of Poseidon's son Alirrothios (a typical example of an aetiological myth) ...

ATHENA PARTHENOS Athena Parthenos (literally Athena the Virgin) was the title of a massive chryselephantine sculpture of the Greek goddess Athena made by Phidias and housed in the Parthenon in Athens. Its epithet was an essential character of the goddess herself. A number of replicas and works inspired by it, both ancient and modern, have been made ...

ATHENA PROMACHOS The Athena Promachos ('Athena who fights in the front line') was a colossal bronze statue of Athena sculpted by Pheidias, which stood between the Propylaea and the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens. Athena was the goddess of wisdom and warriors and the protectress of Athens. Pheidias also sculpted two other figures of Athena on the Acropolis ...

THE ERECHTHEUM The Erechtheum (or Erechtheion) is an ancient Greek temple on the north side of the Acropolis of Athens in Greece. The temple as seen today was built between 421 and 406 BC. Its architect may have been Mnesicles, and it derived its name from a shrine dedicated to the legendary Greek hero Erichthonius ...

HADRIAN'S LIBRARY Hadrian's Library was created by Roman Emperor Hadrian in AD 132 on the north side of the Acropolis of Athens. The building followed a typical Roman Forum architectural style, having only one entrance with a propylon of Corinthian order, an inner courtyard surrounded by columns and a decorative oblong pool in the middle ...

METOPES OF THE PARTHENON The Metopes of the Parthenon are a series of marble panels, originally 92 in number, on the outside walls of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece, forming part of the Doric frieze. The metopes of each side of the building had a different subject, and together with the pediments, Ionic frieze, and the statue of Athena Parthenos contained within the Parthenon ...

ODEON OF HERODES ATTICUS The Odeon of Herodes Atticus is a stone theatre structure located on the south slope of the Acropolis. It was built in 161 AD by Herodes Atticus in memory of his wife, Aspasia Annia Regilla. It was originally a steep-sloped amphitheater with a three-story stone front wall and a wooden roof, and was used as a venue for music concerts with a capacity of 5,000 ...

OLD TEMPLE OF ATHENA The Old Temple of Athena was an Archaic temple located on the Acropolis of Athens. Until its destruction by the Persians in 480 BC, it was the shrine of Athena Polias, the patron deity of the city of Athens. It was located at the centre of the Acropolis plateau, probably on the remains of a Mycenaean palace ...

THE PARTHENON The Parthenon is a temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their patron. Its construction began in 447 BC and was completed in 438 BC, although decorations of the Parthenon continued until 432 BC. It is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece ...

PARTHENON FRIEZE The Parthenon frieze is the low relief, pentelic marble sculpture created to adorn the upper part of the Parthenon's naos. It was sculpted between ca. 443 and 438 BC, most likely under the direction of Pheidias. Of the 524 feet of the original frieze, 420 feet survives - some 80 percent. The rest is known only from drawings made in 1674 ...

PARTHENON MARBLES The Parthenon Marbles, known also as the Elgin Marbles, are a collection of classical Greek marble sculptures, inscriptions and architectural members that originally were part of the Parthenon and other buildings on the Acropolis of Athens. The debate continues as to whether the Marbles should remain in the British Museum or be returned to Athens ...

THE PROPYLAEA The monumental gateway to the Acropolis, the Propylaea was built under the general direction of the Athenian leader Pericles, but Phidias was given the responsibility for planning the rebuilding the Acropolis as a whole at the conclusion of the Persian Wars. According to Plutarch, the Propylaea was designed by the architect Mnesicles ...

TEMPLE OF ATHENA NIKE Nike means 'victory' in Greek, and Athena was worshiped in this form, as goddess of victory in war and wisdom, on the Acropolis in Athens. The Temple of Athena Nike was the earliest fully doric temple on the Acropolis, compensated by its prominent position on a steep bastion at the south west corner of the Acropolis to the right of the entrance (propylaea) ...

THEATRE OF DIONYSUS The Theatre of Dionysus is a major open-air theatre, one of the earliest preserved, in Athens. It was used for festivals in honor of the god Dionysus. It is commonly confused with the later and better-preserved Odeon of Herodes Atticus, located at the southwest slope of the Acropolis ...

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