Reconstruction of the temple

Nike means "Victory" in Greek, and Athena was worshiped in this form, as goddess of victory, on the Acropolis, Athens. Her temple was the earliest Ionic temple on the Acropolis was compensated by its prominent position on a steep bastion at the south east corner of the Acropolis, to the right of the entrance (propylaea). There the citizens worshipped the goddess in hope of a prosperous outcome in the long war fought on land and sea against the Spartans and their allies. The Temple of Athena Nike was an expression of Athens' ambition to be the leading Greek city state in the Peloponnese. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The Acropolis of Athens, seen from the hill of the Pnyx to the west. ... Temple of Hephaestus, an Doric Greek temple in Athens with the original entrance facing east, 449 BC (western face depicted) For other uses, see Temple (disambiguation). ... Crowds of tourists climb the steps to the Propylaea, gateway to the Acropolis, Athens Stairs leading up to the Propylea The Propylaea, Propylea or Propylaia (Greek Προπυλαια) is the monumental gateway that serves as the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens. ... Sparta (Doric: Spárta, Attic: Spártē) is a city in southern Greece. ... A polis (πόλις, pronunciation pol-is) — plural: poleis (πόλεις) — is a city, or a city-state. ... The Peloponnese or Peloponnesus (Greek: Πελοπόννησος Peloponnesos; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is a large peninsula in southern Greece, forming the part of the country south of the Gulf of Corinth. ...

The Temple sits within the sanctuary of Athena Nike, atop a bastion on the south flank of the great stair to the Athenian Acropolis. In contrast to the Acropolis proper, a walled sanctuary entered through the Propylaia, the Nike Sanctuary was open, entered from the Propylaia's southwest wing and from a narrow stair on the north. The sheer walls of its bastion were protected on the north, west, and south by a parapet, the famed "Nike Parapet", named for its frieze of Nikai celebrating victory and sacrificing to their patroness, Athena. The Acropolis of Athens, seen from the hill of the Pnyx to the west The Acropolis of Athens, seen from the north, with the restored Stoa of Attalus in the foreground The south wall of the Acropolis of Athens, seen from the Theatre of Dionysus The Acropolis of Athens, seen... Crowds of tourists climb the steps to the Propylaea of the acropolis of Athens Stairs leading up to a Propylaea Propylaea, Propylea or Propylaia (in Greek — Προπυλαια) is the monumental gateway that serves as the entrance to an acropolis. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... [[Nike means Victory]] in Greek, and Athena was worshiped in this form, as goddess of victory, on the Acropolis, Athens. ...

Temple architecture and sculpture

Floor plan

The Temple of Athena Nike is a tetrastyle (four column) Ionic structure with a colonnaded portico at both front and rear facades (amphiprostyle), designed by the architect Kallikrates. This building was erected on top of the remains of an earlier sixth century temple to Athena, demolished by the Persians in 480 B.C. The total height from the stylobate to the acme of the pediment while the temple remained intact was a modest 11 feet. The ratio of height to diameter of the columns is 7:1, the slender proportions creating an elegance and refinement not encountered in the normal 9:1 or 10:1 of Ionic buildings. Constructed from white pentelic marble, it was built in stages as war-starved funding allowed. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Tetrastyle temple with its tetrastyle portico of four Ionic columns, The Temple of Portunus In classical architecture, Tetrastyle is a colonnaded portico of four columns at the front of a building, usually a temple, or a building incorporating a tetrastyle colonnade. ... Deconstructing a Roman pillar. ... Architects first real look at the Greek Ionic order: Julien David LeRoy, Les ruines plus beaux des monuments de la Grèce Paris, 1758 (Plate XX) The Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and... Enormous colonnade of the Kazan Cathedral in St Petersburg. ... Categories: Architectural elements | Stub ... West facade of the Notre-Dame de Strasbourg Cathedral A facade (or façade) (Pronounced fa-sa-de) is generally the exterior of a building — especially the front, but also sometimes the sides and rear. ... In classical architecture, Amphiprostyle denotes a temple with a portico both at the front and the rear. ... This article includes a list of works cited but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... Kallikrates was one of the two architects of the Parthenon, active mid-5th century BC. He was responsible for the Temple of Athena Nike, also on the Acropolis. ... The Persian Empire was a series of historical empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the old Persian homeland, and beyond in Western Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus. ... In Greek architecture, stylobate is a platform on which colonnades of columns are placed (it is the floor of the temple). ... A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of a triangular section or gable found above the horizontal superstructure (entablature) which lies immediately upon the columns. ... Pentéli or Pendeli, (Greek: Πεντέλη, ancient forms: Pentele or Pentelicus, Mendeli in medieval times) is a tall mountain and mountain range situated northeast of Athens and southwest of Marathon. ...

A cult statue of Athena Nike stood inside the small 5 m x 5 m naos. The account by ancient writer Pausanias describes the statue as made of wood, holding a helmet in her left hand, and a pomegranate (symbol of fertility) in the right. Nike was originally the "winged victory" goddess (see the winged Nike of Samothrace) The Athena Nike statue's absence of wings led Athenians in later centuries to call it Nike Apteros (wing-less victory), and the story arose that the statue was deprived of wings so that it could never leave the city. Kouros of the Archaic period, Thebes Archaeological Museum The sculpture of Ancient Greece is by far the most important surviving form of Ancient Greek art, although only a small fragment of Greek sculptural output has survived. ... Naos (nay-os, from the Greek ναύσ ship, also known as Suhail Hadar, Zeta Puppis or ζ Puppis), a white supergiant in the constellation of Puppis, is one of the brightest stars in the Milky Way, in terms of absolute magnitude. ... Pausanias (Greek: ) was a Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century A.D., who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. ... Binomial name Punica granatum L. The Pomegranate (Punica granatum) is a fruit-bearing deciduous shrub or small tree growing to 5–8 m tall. ... The Winged Victory of Samothrace The Winged Victory of Samothrace, also called Nike of Samothrace, is a marble sculpture of the Greek goddess Nike (Victory), discovered in 1863 on the island of Samothrace (Greek Samothraki) by the French consul and amateur archaeologist Charles Champoiseau. ...

The friezes of the building's entablature were decorated on all sides with relief sculpture in the idealized classical style of the 5th century B.C. The north frieze depicted a battle between Greeks entailing cavalry. The south freize showed the decisive victory over the Persians at the battle of Plataea. The east freize showed an assembly of the gods Athena, Zeus and Poseidon, rendering Athenian religious beliefs and reverence for the gods bound up in the social and political climate of 5th Century Athens. Frieze of the Tower of the Winds. ... An entablature is a classical architectural element, the superstructure which lies horizontally above the columns, resting on their capitals. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Helmeted Athena, of the Velletri type. ... The Statue of Zeus at Olympia Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in Ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th century engraving Zeus (in Greek: nominative: Zeús, genitive: Diós), is... Neptune reigns in the city of Bristol. ...

Some time after the temple was completed, around 410 B.C a parapet was added around it to prevent people from falling from the steep bastion. The outside of the parapet was adorned by exquisitely carved relief sculptures showing Nike in a variety of activities, the best-known illustrating Nike adjusting her sandle. A parapet consists of a dwarf wall along the edge of a roof, or round a lead flat, terrace walk, etc. ... The point of a bastion on a reconstructed French fort in Illinois. ...

After three separate restorations the small Temple of Athena Nike/Apteros still stands on the Acropolis, together with the Erechtheum and the Parthenon, a survivor of antiquity. The main structure, stylobate and columns are largely intact, minus the roof and most of the typanae. Only fragments of the sculpted frieze remain in the Acropolis museum; copies of these are fixed in their place on the temple. Erechtheum, from SW The Porch of Maidens The Erechtheum, or Erechtheion, is an ancient Greek temple on the north side of the Acropolis of Athens in Greece, notable for a design that is both elegant and unusual. ... The Parthenon seen from the hill of the Pnyx to the west. ... Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, which begins roughly with the earliest-recorded Greek poetry of Homer (7th century BC), and continues through the rise of Christianity and the fall of the Western Roman Empire (5th century AD... In Greek architecture, stylobate is a platform on which colonnades of columns are placed (it is the floor of the temple). ... A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of a triangular section or gable found above the horizontal superstructure (entablature) which lies immediately upon the columns. ...

Illustration of the frieze

Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 96 pixel Image in higher resolution (945 × 113 pixel, file size: 13 KB, MIME type: image/png) Remains of the frieze of the Temple of Athena Nike: Nike means Victory in Greek, and Athena was worshiped in this form, as... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 96 pixel Image in higher resolution (945 × 113 pixel, file size: 13 KB, MIME type: image/png) Remains of the frieze of the Temple of Athena Nike: Nike means Victory in Greek, and Athena was worshiped in this form, as...

See also

• Architecture of Ancient Greece
• Art of Ancient Greece
• Classical architecture
• Classical sculpture
• Greek Temple

dude The restored Stoa of Attalus, Athens Architecture, defined as building executed to an aesthetically considered design, was extinct in Greece from the end of the Mycenaean period (about 1200 BC) to the 7th century BC, when urban life and prosperity recovered to a point where public building could be undertaken. ... The Charioteer of Delphi, Delphi Archaeological Museum. ... From the point of view of modern times, the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean sometimes seem to blend smoothly into one melange we call the Classical. ... Classical sculpture refers to the forms of sculpture from Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. ... The Greeks began to build monumental temples in the first half of the 8th century BC. The temples of Hera at Samos and of Poseidon at Isthmia were among the first erected. ...

External links

• Dr. J's Illustrated Temple of Athena Nike
• Temple of Athena Nike Frieze Pictures
• Digital reconstruction drawings of the Temple of Athena Nike
• Temple of Athena Nike by Athens travel guide

References

• Greek architecture Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1968
• Greece: From Mycenae to the Parthenon, Henri Stierlin, TASCHEN, 2004