Elginism Profile picture
Sep 24 6 tweets 3 min read
The entry point to the Acropolis through the Propylaeum controls your first view of the Parthenon.
Everyone's first view of the Parthenon (up close) is this one. This was how it was designed to be seen.
#Parthenon #Acropolis #Athens #Greece #parthenonmarbles #greekarchitecture Image
The positioning of the buildings on the Acropolis may be less haphazard, than it first appears.
The three primary buildings (Propylaeum, Parthenon & Erechtheion) are arranged based on a system of rays giving an optimum view of the façade of the Parthenon. Image
From this vantage-point, the outermost limits of the other two buildings form an angle of 60 degrees, and the three points form an equilateral triangle, a geometric form that is also associated with Athena.
Some argue that this is coincidence, but combined with all the other optical refinements on the site, that is a lot of geometric coincidences.
One other thing of note is that although the long side of the Parthenon is very different in length to the short side, from this point both sides take up the same length in your field of view (despite you knowing that they are different lengths).
The north and west facades are presented as equals - but only for a brief moment before your architectural promenade through the site continues.

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More from @elginism

Sep 26
It is 335 years to the day since an explosion ripped apart the Parthenon on the evening of September 26 1687.
Drawing by Mannolis Korres). Image
As part of the Morean War (also known as the 6th Ottoman Venetian War), Venetian forces has landed on the Peloponnese (then known as Morea).
Venetian commanders under Francesco Morosini (pictured) decided to expand their campaign, with Athens as the first target. Image
The Ottoman Turks who controlled Athens at this time evacuated the town of Athens, with the garrison and many of the civilians retreating to the Acropolis to wait for reinforcements from Thebes. Image
Read 21 tweets
Sep 26
Doric columns on the Parthenon in the late afternoon sun.

A short thread on Greek architecture. Image
There are three ancient Greek architectural orders, Doric, Ionic and Corinthian.
The Parthenon is very much of the Doric order, but at the same time is seem as the high point of this order - and manages to merge in parts of the ionic order making it something of a hybrid. Image
The Doric order is the simplest and most squat in appearance. It originated in the western Doric région of Greece and it's the oldest of the three orders.
Read 13 tweets
Sep 25
Museums & galleries in England & Wales will be given unprecedented powers to dispose of objects in their collections if there is a compelling moral obligation to do so, under a provision of the Charities Act 2022, expected to come into force this autumn.
theguardian.com/culture/2022/s…
This could mark a momentous change for the sector - although it is not clear to me at this stage whether the Charities Act 2022 could override a conflicting provision in say the British Museum Act 1963.
If it does override it, then it would completely remove the current argument regularly trotted out by the British Museum in various cases along the lines that "even if we wanted to return X, we couldn't, because the law prohibits is from doing so"
Read 10 tweets
Sep 25
In Classical Athens, to decide whether to exile a certain member of society, citizens cast their vote by writing the name of the person on a shard of pottery; the vote was counted and, if unfavorable, the person was exiled for 10 years from the city.
Hence the term ostracism.
Themistocles (524–459 BC) was an Athenian politician & general, one of a new breed of non-aristocratic politicians rising prominence in the early years of the Athenian democracy. He was a populist, with support of lower-class Athenians, & often at odds with Athenian nobility.
He aroused the hostility of Sparta by ordering the re-fortification of Athens, and his perceived arrogance began to alienate him from the Athenians. In 472 or 471 BC, he was ostracised, and went into exile in Argos.
Read 6 tweets
Sep 22
The Propylaeum forms a grand monumental gateway onto the Acropolis. Because it funnels people through a relatively narrow route, it almost always feels like the most crowded part of the site.
#propylaeum #Acropolis #parthenon #Athens #Greece
There are other Propylaea, but the one on the Athenian Acropolis is seen as the prototypical example of such monumental gateways.
The Greek Revival Brandenburg Gate of Berlin (below) & the Propylaea in Munich were both designed to evoke the middle portion of the Athens propylaea.
Built between 437 and 432 BCE as a part of the Periklean Building Program, it was the last in a series of gatehouses built on the citadel. Its architect was Mnesikles (according to Plutarch), his only known building.
Read 11 tweets
Sep 22
Built in 420BC, the Tetrastyle (4 columned) Ionic Temple of Athena Nike, jointly dedicated to these two goddesses is one of the most prominent as you ascend the Athenian Acropolis.
#athenanike #Acropolis #Athens #Greece #ionicarchitecture #greekarchitecture
To people visiting the Acropolis today, it may come as a surprise to discover that this temple's position is not as permanent as it now appears.
It has in fact disappeared and reappeared multiple times in recent history.
The first was before the 1687 siege of the Acropolis by the Francesco Morosini's Venetian army, when Turkish defenders dismantled the temple & used its fabric to reinforce the bastion, fortifications in front of the Propylaia, and convert them into cannon emplacements.
Read 36 tweets

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