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Question 10

Dear Bettany, in the second episode you mentioned the Parthenon's role as a palace on Earth for the gods and godesses, part of Athens' traditional religious beliefs which Socrates seemed to undermine with his questioning of accepted thought. Built to glorify Athens, the temple stands as a supreme symbol of this golden age of Athenian democracy. How strongly has it been identified with democratic ideas in Western history? For example, was the revival of classical architecture particularly, the Greek Revival, linked to the political reform movements of the 18th and 19th centuries? The Parthenon's modern image, seen as the 'essence of Greek culture' – as you say – and perhaps an icon for the rationality and revolutions of the Age of Enlightenment, seems at odds with its original role at the heart of ancient Athens' beliefs.

(From Graham, Leicester)

Bettany Hughes: Dear Graham, I couldn't agree more. I think the Parthenon, as an isolated building, has come to represent some kind of ideal, to incarnate 'liberal, equal, free-thinking and democratic' Western values. It is indeed often used as a frontispiece for publications about the Enlightenment

In the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it became very fashionable to copy the dimensions and design of the Parthenon to prove your Enlightenment credentials. Ironic – as you point out – that in 'Golden Age' Greece it was constructed as a temple-home to one of the deeply 'irrational' religious cults that made up the Ancient Greek spiritual landscape, as well as being a monument to raw imperial ambition and to hard cash. You couldn't do better than to read Prof. Mary Beard's excellent little publication 'The Parthenon' (Profile Books). Beard deals with reactions to the temple down the centuries and includes some really funny anecdotes…including quotes from those early travellers who'd risked life and limb to cross the oceans to gaze upon the Greek stones, and were deeply disappointed once they arrived.

There are others though who have a positively religious experience in-situ… as if the old gods were still inhabitants. Oscar Wilde's reported reaction was: He spoke to her of the Parthenon, the one temple – not a building – a temple, as complete, as personal as a statue. And that first sight of the Acropolis, the delicate naked columns rising up in the morning sunshine; "It was like coming upon some white Greek goddess…"

My one personal tip when next visiting, or contemplating, the Acropolis is to remember this was a place of words; stone blocks (stele) would have littered the approaches, covered with hard (inscribed) evidence of the decisions of the democracy. Words in the Assembly breathed life into the Parthenon-project itself and then were made incarnate around it. In fifth-century Athens the logos was king. Thanks so much for your astute comment.

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