(855) 4-ESSAYS

Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

Temple of Nike Athena

.
             The design of the friezes balanced each other out. The image of Athena holding a helmet and a pomegranate represents a token of war and of natural abundance. Battles are depicted on the temple's friezes, and on the parapet frieze. In one version of this repeated scene, on the prominent west face of the parapet, a Nike raises a sword in her right hand, and wrenches back the animal's head with her left. The ox is being slaughtered in the fashion prescribed for the  abaton. .
             The slab comes from the south side of the temple and shows heroically nude Greeks fighting Persians. The subject of this part of the frieze is perhaps the moment of the death of the Athenian general Callimachus during the final stages of the battle of Marathon in 490 BC. The Persians are dressed in their distinctive apparel of thick, belted jackets with long sleeves and tight-fitting trousers. (Above Exhibit).
             The topmost part the temple included a parapet, a wall-like barrier at the edge of the roof. The parapet was created late during the Peloponnesian war. It was erected to prevent people from falling from the steep bastion. The outside of the parapet was adorned by decorative carved relief sculptures showing Nike in a variety of activities. Each one depicts and independent scene. Nike is depicted leisurely adjusting her sandal. She bends from the waist in order to reach her upraised foot, while balancing on her left leg. She is in a barely stable pose. Drapery is used with great effect to emphasize Nike's pose. The sculptor used many widely-spaced folds as well as details such as the fabric from her dress slipping off her right shoulder, baring skin. The thin cloth has many folds and clings to her torso. Each corner of the parapet included moldings. The carving on the Parapet was confined to its outer face, the inner side toward the temple being smooth and in a single surface except for the minute and almost invisible projection of a headband four inches broad.


Essays Related to Temple of Nike Athena

1. History Of The Acropolis

... interceded for Athens, (Durant/Ashmole/Hurwit). To the right of the Propylaia was the temple of Athena Nike. Nike is the Goddess of Victory, a symbol of her immortality. The marble altar is an architectural symbol of the harmony with which the Dorian and Ionian peoples lived under the government of Athens. The construction of the temple of Athena Nike had been established during the early years of the Peloponnesian War with Sparta, most probably in 427 ... -426 BC. It has been generally presumed that the temple of Athena Nike was intended ... ...

  • Word Count: 2470
  • Approx Pages: 10
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

2. History of the Parthenon

... by groves into three sections) which narrates the 4 major battles the Greeks fought. There were 4 outer collonades(row of columns) and two inner collonades. On the east and west sides of the temple the outer collanades had 8 columns each and the north and south sides had 17 columns each. The two inner ... collanades had 6 on the west end and 6 on the east end. Inside the the temple there were two cellas(principle interior space of the temple). There was the larger eastern cella which housed the statue of Athena Parthenos and the smaller western cella which housed the treasury. In the eas...

  • Word Count: 769
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Athena

... , purity, strength, leadership, and war in literature and modern culture. Her character has been used to help people express themselves thoroughly through her reputation and popularity. The myth of the goddess Pallas Athena came about around 700 BC. In Greece her name arose from the city that she protected, Athens. [Allardice 25] Later in Roman mythology she became known as the goddess ... her father's favorite advisor and child. [Aliki 30] The myth of Athena affected life in ancient times. Her "son" Erichthonius became king of Athens and established the Cult of Athena. She was therefore...

  • Word Count: 948
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Greek orders of Architecture

... and the capitals are volute. Incidentally, the volute capitals are not just decorative, they spread the weight bearing surface of the column. The emphasis is on the frieze and unlike the Doric order it provides a continuous band of figurative relief, for example the "Athena Nike Temple". Sometimes columns were replaced by statues, as on the "Erechtheum." These statues have certain likenesses to the columns such ... as the fold in the figures tunic could symbolize the fluting on a column, and the headdress may be regarded as a capital. On the other hand, in Doric temples the sculpture se...

  • Word Count: 846
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

5. The Seven Wonders of the World

... to dazzle historians. The third, chronologically, of the Seven Wonders of the World is the Statue of Zeus, built in Olympia, Greece. The Greek sculptor Phidias created the Statue of Zeus. He is credited with building other sculptures, such as the sculpture which depicts the Goddess Athena, in the Parthanon. In Zeus' right hand was a small statue of Nike, the goddess of victory, and in his left hand ... as the story is terrific. Measuring about three hundred feet by one hundred fifty feet, and the one hundred twenty seven columns each having a heighth of about sixty feet, one can easily ...

  • Word Count: 1858
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Nikeof Samothrace

... This was, in fact, the standard portrayal of the goddess. A few examples of Nikai show the goddess in the south portico of the Agora at Magnesia, paired with Eros and Anteriors on Poseidon's alter, in the Temple of Demeter, in the Temple of Artemais at Ephesesos, in the Temple of Hekate, in the Temple of Athena Nike, and the Nike of Paionios. All of these statues show Nike fully clothed in a loose, windblown peplos ... or large sheetlike dress. Frequently the Nike was just alighting or taking off from ground so the feet are not totally ... one with a bull and the other a ram" at the Temp...

  • Word Count: 2669
  • Approx Pages: 11
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Greek Art & Arcitecture

... simplicity of form. Artists introduced a new set of proportions that dictated a more slender body and a smaller head. Examples include the pediment sculptures from the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, the Standing Youth; Blond Head & Contemporary with the Parthenon are the Flying Nike at Olympia, and the subsequent works of the distinguished sculptor Myron. Two of his most celebrated works, Disco bolus (Discus Thrower) and Athena ... and Marsyas. (A short history of western Civilization) Myron, in his statue of the discus thrower, manages to catch ... more widely used than before, as in the T...

  • Word Count: 3840
  • Approx Pages: 15

8. The Periclean Building Program

... The Doric style provided the perfect look, and can be used as a perfect example of the ideals of order and harmony from which Greek architecture is known. Sharing the Acropolis were many other striking architectural structures including the Propylaea and the Temple of Athena Nike, which utilised different styles and patterns. In 437 BC the architect Mnesicles began his project ... for the Propylaea, the monumental new gateway to the sanctuary of the Acropolis. A marvel of architectural achievement, the Propylaea consists of a central portal with two adjoining Doric stoa wings, made of Pe...

  • Word Count: 1463
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

9. Women in Ancient Greece

... by the owl on Athenian coins, and the goddess for the creative arts of the Greeks, worshipped by weavers, potters, and craftsmen. Remarkably, Athena was also the goddess of war and military victory, illustrated by her title Nike or Victory. Inside this monumental pillared temple to Athena was a forty foot statue of Athena made from gold and ivory. Young girls specially chosen from noble families wove ... the cloth and then made the dress or peplos for Athena to wear in a special festival held ... every four years. At Ephesus in Asia Minor, settled by Greeks from the mainland, was the ce...

  • Word Count: 7196
  • Approx Pages: 29
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

Got a writing question? Ask our professional writer!
Submit My Question