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The Parthenon at Athens, Greece
and
at Nashville, Tennessee
_Excerpts
from
The Parthenon of Pericles
and Its
Reproduction in America
Illustrated_
By
Benjamin Franklin Wilson, III
Director of the Parthenon
[Illustration: Parthenon Press]
PARTHENON PRESS
NASHVILLE
THE PARTHENON AT ATHENS, GREECE
And
AT NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
(Excerpts from THE PARTHENON OF PERICLES AND
ITS REPRODUCTION IN AMERICA)
Copyright, MCMXLI
By Benjamin Franklin Wilson III
TO
THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS
1920-1941
R. M. Dudley
M. T. Bryan
Lee J. Loventhal
W. R. Cole
R. T. Creighton
Chas. M. McCabe
Percy Warner
Rogers Caldwell
J. P. W. Brown
Edwin Warner
C. A. Craig
Jas. G. Stahlman
Vernon Tupper
Bascom F. Jones
_Whose intelligent and untiring interest made possible the
reproduction of the Parthenon at Nashville; in memory of those who are
gone, and in appreciation of those who are living, this booklet is
gratefully dedicated_
Background
The Parthenon of Pericles, while not thought to be one of the wonders of
the world, nevertheless has always been regarded as one of the most
wondrously beautiful and inspiring of the world's buildings. It embraces
the best effort of the mind, the heart, and the hand of man. In it are
bound up the religion, the history, and the art of Greece.
It has been well said that art is organized emotion, while science is
organized knowledge. The field of emotion found its first great
development among the Greeks and in the time of Pericles reached its
zenith. Assuredly the Greeks have never been excelled in the beauty of
their architecture or sculptural art.
The influence of religion was dominant in the life and thought that
produced such outstanding men in this period of world history as Phidias
and Sophocles, Ictinos and Pericles. Every function of the mind, every
activity of the hand, was closely associated with some god or goddess,
and to this inspirational incentive the world is greatly indebted for
the Parthenon. The mythological stories of the Parthenon largely cover
the mythology of Greece. Twenty-eight of the major deities and numerous
minor deities and personifications adorn its pediments.
At the time of its destruction in the seventeenth century, a little more
than two thousand years after its completion, the Parthenon was almost
in as good condition as it was at its beginning. The changes made by the
Christians in the fifth century and by the Turks in the fifteenth
century had impaired it but little, all of which is eloquent testimony
to the thoroughness with which the task was accomplished. The
co-ordination of mind, hand, and heart of the Greeks of that age has
never been excelled by men of any time and found its culmination in the
Parthenon.
[Illustration: The Ruins of the Parthenon at Athens in 1929]