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The Secrets of the Parthenon
The Parthenon is a popular temple dedicated to the goddess of Athena. People of Athens considered Athena as their patron goddess. The Parthenon is seen as a symbol of endurance of Ancient Greece and its democracy. It is also regarded as one of the world’s greatest cultural monuments. It is said that Parthenon replaced an earlier temple of Athena, which historians refer to as older Parthenon that was destroyed in the Persian invasion in 480 B. C. Almost like all Greek temples, Parthenon was used as a treasury of the Delian League. It was around the 5th century that the Parthenon was converted into a Christian church where people worship Virgin Mary, and in 1687, while being used as an Ottoman Ammunition dump, it was ignited by Venetian bombardment that severely damaged the entire Parthenon and its sculptures.
According to one belief, Salamis stone depicts arm, hands, and feet, and it was a conversion table possibly. Salami stone is the clue to how ancient Greeks used human body to make perfect sculptures with respect to proportions.
Since the year 1975, a team headed by Greek architect Manolis Korres spent about $100 million to restore the Parthenon along with many of the other structures surrounding the Parthenon. Many items that were scattered around were salvaged, and most remaining original sculptures moved to the Acropolis museum and their places replaced with exact replicas. Despite all this, Parthenon, when it reopens ostensibly in 2020, will still remain a ruin, thus standing the testimony of time to it being the original temple, treasury house, a church, mosque – a witness to its torturous past.
