PARTHENON, the name generally given, since the 4th century B.C., to the chief temple of Athena on the Acropolis at Athens (e.g.,. Demosthenes, c. Androt. 13, 76). The name is applied in the official inventories of the 5th and early 4th centuries to one compartment of the temple, and this was probably its original meaning. It is certainly to be associated with the cult of Athena Parthenos, "the Virgin." The most convenient position for a temple upon the natural rock-platform of the Acropolis was occupied by the early temple of Athena. When it was decided to supersede this by a larger and more magnificent temple, it was necessary to provide a site for this new temple by means of a great substructure, which is on its south side about 4o ft. high. This substructure was built for an earlier temple, probably dating from the 6th century B.C.
The extant temple was the chief among the buildings with which Pericles adorned the Acropolis. The supervision of the whole work was in the hands of Pheidias, and the architects of the temple were Ictinus and Callicrates. The actual building was not begun until 447 B.C., though the decision to build was made ten years earlier (Keil, Anonynus argentorensis). The temple must have been structurally complete by the year 438 B.C., in which the gold and ivory statue of Athena Parthenos was dedi cated; but the work of decoration was still going on in 433 B.C. The temple designed by Ictinus was about 15 ft. shorter and about 6 ft. wider than the building for which the foundations were intended; it thus obtained a proportion of length to breadth of exactly 9:4. It is the most perfect example of the Doric order. The plan was peculiar. The cella, which was exactly 100 ft. long, kept the name and traditional measurement of the old Hecatompedon. It was surrounded on three sides by a Doric colonnade, and in the middle of it was the great basis on which the statue was erected. This cella was probably lighted only by the great doorway and by the light that filtered through the marble tiles. The common notion that there was a hypaethral opening is erroneous. At the back of the cella was a square chamber, not communicating with it, but entered from the west end of the temple ; this was the Parthenon in the narrower sense.
It seems to have been used only as a store-house, though it may have been originally intended for a more important purpose. The Prodomus and the Opisthodomus were enclosed by bronze grat ings fixed between the columns, and were thus adapted to contain valuable offerings and other treasures. We have inventories on marble of the contents of these four compartments of the temple. The opisthodomus, in particular, probably served as a treasury. The metopes over the outer colonnade were all sculptured, and represented on the east the battle of gods and giants, on the west, probably, the battle of Greeks and Amazons, on the south Greeks and Centaurs; those on the north are almost lost. The east pediment represented the birth of Athena, the west pediment her contest with Poseidon for the land of Attica. The frieze, which was placed above the cella wall at the sides, represented the Panathenaic procession, approaching on three sides the group of gods seated in the middle of the east side. These sculptures are admirably adapted to their position on the building.
The Parthenon probably remained intact until the 5th century of our era, when the colossal statue was removed, and the temple is said to have been transformed into a church dedicated to S. Sophia. In the 6th century it was dedicated to the Virgin Mother of God (eforencos). The adaptation of the building as a church involved the removal of the inner columns and roof, the construction of an apse at the east end, and the opening of a door between the cella and the chamber behind it. These alterations involved some damage to the sculptures. In 1456 Athens was captured by the Turks, and the Parthenon was changed into a mosque, apparently without any serious structural alterations except the addition of a minaret. In this state it was described by Spon and Wheler in 1676 and the sculpture was drawn by the French artist Carrey in 1674. In 1687 the Turks used the build ing as a powder magazine during the bombardment of the Acrop olis by a Venetian army under Morosini, and a shell caused the explosion which blew out the middle of the temple.