The Tennessee Parthenon

 

A person in military uniform holding a flag
Description automatically generated If you want to see a replica of what the original Parthenon temple in Athens, Greece looked like, a visit to Centennial Park, Nashville, Tennessee, United States is the place to go. Nashville’s nickname, the ‘Athens of the South’, influenced the choice of the building as the centrepiece of the 1897 Centennial Exposition in Centennial Park. It was designed by architect William Crawford Smith, who served in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.A statue of a person holding a gold object Description automatically generated

In 1982, the sculptor Alan LeQuire from Nashville, won the commission to recreate for the Parthenon temple the lost statue of the ancient Greek goddess Athena Parthenos, which had been designed by fifth-century BC Greek sculptor Pheidias. The statue is currently the largest piece of indoor sculpture in the Western World, standing almost 13m tall. It was unveiled in 1990 in a stark, white finish. It took Alan LeQuire over eight years to complete the statue of the goddess Athena Parthenos. In 2002, he oversaw a polychroming and gilding process that brought the statue to an appearance close to what it may have been like in the original Parthenon as all ancient Greek statues were painted. The plaster replicas of the Parthenon Sculptures found in the Treasury Room of the building are direct casts of the original sculptures that adorned the pediments of the Athenian Parthenos, dating to 438 BC, a large number of which are housed in the British Museum in London.

Statues of ancient statues in a museum
Description automatically generatedAlthough the Greek Government has asked for their return to their proper place in the Acropolis Museum in Athens as they were illegally acquired by Lord Elgin when Greece was still under Ottoman rule, this has not been possible so far.

The original statue of Athena Parthenos (Greek: Παρθένος Αθηνά, Athena the Virgin) was a monumental chryselephantine (Greek: χρυσός, chrysos, ‘gold’, and ελεφάντινος, elephantinos, ‘ivory’) sculpture of the goddess Athena. Pericles, the Greek politician and general during the Golden Age of Athens, chose Pheidias (Greek: Φειδίας, c. 480-c.430 BC), an Ancient Greek sculptor, painter, and architect to supervise the building of the Parthenon temple along with the architects Ictinos and Kallikrates. The statue was probably built around a core of cypress wood, and then paneled with gold and ivory plates. Athena Parthenos was helmeted and held a large round shield and spear, placed on the ground to her left, next to her sacred snake. In her right hand, she held the statue of Nike (Greek: Νίκη – Victory), the goddess who personifies victory in any field including art, music, war, and athletics. She is portrayed in Greek art either as ‘Winged Victory’, or without wings as ‘Wingless Victory’. Clothes, jewelry, accessories, and even the statue were decorated mainly with the snake and gorgon motif. The temple was built as a tribute to the goddess Athena after the victories against the Persian invaders in Salamis and Plataea, and the rebuilding of Athens under Pericles.

The Persian invasion of Greece was in two stages: The first invasion was under King Darius in 490 BC, but was defeated by the Greeks at Marathon. The second Persian invasion was under Darius’ son, Xerxes I. The invasion began in the spring of 480 BC, which was blocked at Thermopylae, the ‘Hot Gates’, led by a small force under King Leonidas of Sparta. After a three-day battle, the Greek forces were defeated due to the traitor Ephialtes, who revealed the existence of a path that led behind the Greek lines. At the same time, the naval battle of Artemisium was also taking place to delay the Persian forces from reaching Athens.

In the meantime, the Athenian general Themistocles succeeded in organizing the rest of the Greek navy and lured the Persian navy into the straits of Salamis, an island in the Saronic Gulf of Athens. This is where the famous battle of Salamis took place in 480 BC. The Persian navy was destroyed, and Xerxes I was forced to retreat to Asia leaving behind his general Mardonius and an elite army to complete the conquest. However, the battle of Plataea that followed in 479 BC, saw the defeat and death of Mardonius and the end of the Persian threat.

Coming back to the Parthenon in Nashville, some of the most elaborate events that have occurred there were the Spring Pageants of 1913 and 1914. These were theatrical productions with casts of up to 500 people, attracting audiences from surrounding states. It has also been used in many films such as ‘Nashville’ and ‘Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief’.

Today, the Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee, functions as an art museum with a permanent collection of 63 paintings by 19th and 20th century American artists. It also provides a venue for temporary shows and exhibits. In the summertime, local theatre productions use the building as a backdrop for classical Greek plays such as Euripides’ ‘Medea’ and Sophocles’ ‘Antigone’, performing on the steps of the Parthenon

 

Parthenon with columns and grass
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Despena Dalmaris

As a teacher of English, writing has always been a part of my life. As a Greek-Australian, I have always been interested in the history, culture and traditions of my country of origin, Greece. That is why I began writing short articles on the different places that I visited and the various activities that I took part in. I have shared my articles with many friends and the internet now gives me the opportunity to share these articles with you.