To what extent does the Parthenon show a different approach from the temple of Zeus at Olympia both in design and in sculptural decoration?
When it comes to function, the Parthenon and the temple of Zeus at Olympia vary a lot. While both were designed to be grand and eye catching, the temple of Zeus was designed specifically to honour Zeus and to house the cult statue. Also, it was also designed, primarily, for extremely large... mehr anzeigen
To what extent does the Parthenon show a different approach from the temple of Zeus at Olympia both in design and in sculptural decoration?
When it comes to function, the Parthenon and the temple of Zeus at Olympia vary a lot. While both were designed to be grand and eye catching, the temple of Zeus was designed specifically to honour Zeus and to house the cult statue. Also, it was also designed, primarily, for extremely large crowds to congregate around it due to its location at the home of the Olympic Games. On the other hand, the Parthenon was built to be a grand display of Athens wealth; acting as a treasury as well as a home for the statue. While it too had room for large crowds it was used differently to the temple of Zeus. So they differ to quite a large extent when it comes to function.
In the case of materials, the only similarity is that both temples had solid marble roofs. While the Parthenon, with a brilliant supply of high quality pentelic marble, continued to be made entirely of marble, the temple of Zeus used local shelly limestone covered stucco for the rest of its building material. The Parthenon builders were clearly trying to one up the older Temple of Zeus with their solid marble blocks.
Unlike the Temple of Zeus, which had to be adapted and remodelled to house the huge statue of Zeus, the Parthenon was designed with the chryselephantine statue in mind. So, while the Temple of Zeus has a large area between the outer colonnade and the naos to support the massive crowds but a cramped interior with the statue ‘shoe horned’ in, the Parthenon has a narrower walk way around the outside and a spacious interior designed perfectly for the cult statue.
Both temples have a different approach to the problem of the over large steps. The temple of Zeus at Olympia used a ramp at one end to let processions move up it with ease. In contrast, the Parthenon uses more subtle sets of half steps at both ends to allow easy passage in and out of the temple. They’re at both ends due to the fact the Parthenon has a back room used to store money and other valuables. As they are almost as important as the statue, they need to be just as accessible.
At the front of the naos, the temple of Zeus has just two columns at the front with walls for the sides. The Parthenon, however, has six columns that are smaller than the ones for the outer colonnade which they are in line with to create the ‘forest of columns’ effect.
In terms of size, both temples are extremely large, the Parthenon has much thinner, more slender columns to create the image of a more elegant, feminine temple for a goddess opposed to the down to earth, stocky, sturdy masculinity of a temple for a god.
The use of more feminine elements is emphasised with the Parthenon’s use of ionic features. While the temple of Zeus is completely Doric without any ionic features, the Athenians indulged themselves by adding a flavour of their relations with the Ionians. This included four ionic columns in the back room and the carved ribbon frieze around the outside of the naos.
So, in terms of architecture, the temples differ to quite a high extent.
When it comes to sculpture, the two temples differ quite a bit. While the temple of Zeus at Olympia only has the two pediments and the metopes above the two porches of the naos carved, the Parthenon has everything that can be carved sculpted which means: both pediments, all 92 metopes and the entire length of the ribbon frieze.
The subject of the carvings differ in some ways: the temple of Zeus contains mainly stories about Zeus or his most famous son, Heracles. The metopes on the outside are left blank to draw attention to the pediments: the east of the story of Pelops which would have been contradicted slightly by the interior metopes of Heracles’s labours (both telling a different story for how the Olympic games were started) if they had been on the outside. Both temples contain the story of the Lapiths and the centaurs, the temple of Zeus with the West pediment and the Parthenon with the South facing metopes. For the Parthenon, the story of the centaurs and the Lapiths ties in the the general theme of the metopes which is good/order conquering evil/chaos. This theme is displayed in the other metopes with: the fall of Troy, the Athenians battling the Amazons and, at the front, the Greeks battling the Giants this theme of good vs evil is specifically significant for the Athenians as the Parthenon was built as a sign of victory of the Persian armies, victory of good (the Greeks) over the evil barbarians (the Persians).
The Pediments for the Parthenon are very obviously about Athena: the West one showing her contest with Poseidon for patronage of Athens, the East her birth from Zeus’s head. As for the ribbon frieze, it ties in with the East frieze as it represents the Great Panathenaic procession which celebrates the day of Athena’s birth.
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I've only just seen this.
Figures it would be when my YouTube fails to work.