Parthenon

The Parthenon is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis that was dedicated to the goddess Athena [1]. The Parthenon was built in the 5th century BC in thanksgiving for the Greek victory over the Persian invaders during the Greco-Persian Wars [1]. Construction started in 447 BC when the Delian League was at the peak of its power [1]. In the Morean War, a Venetian bomb landed on the Parthenon, which the Ottomans had used as a munitions dump, during the 1687 siege of the Acropolis [1]. The resulting explosion severely damaged the Parthenon [1]. The Parthenon was built under the general supervision of Phidias, who also had charge of the sculptural decoration [1]. The Parthenon is an octastyle peripteral Doric temple with an Ionic hexastyle amphiprostyle two-chambered cella [1]. The cella of the Parthenon housed the chryselephantine statue of Athena Parthenos sculpted by Phidias and dedicated in 439 or 438 BC [1].