Question 1 | Question 2 | Question 3 | Question 4 | Question 5 | Question 6 | Question 7 | Question 8 | Question 9 | Question 10

Question 4

Could you please tell me whether it is true that:
1) the Parthenon was visible from the sea that it was a political statement for everyone to see, and;
2) it was highly decorated with coloured paint and not the all-white edifice it appears now? Thank you.

(From Ann, Horsell)

Bettany Hughes: Hi Ann. Thanks so much for writing in and apologies that it has taken a little time for me to respond. An interesting question. I am in fact planning to sail around the Saronic Gulf and Cape Sounion later this autumn to try to gauge exactly what could be seen of 'violet-crowned' Athens from the sea. I suspect nothing (apart from the ancient harbour and city at Piraeus), but fishermen will tell you tales of their great great grandfathers who worked before any high-rises were built in Southern Attica, and that the Parthenon was a potent symbol for them. Certainly it is interesting that there was said to be a mythic battle for possession of Athens between Athena and Poseidon (the God of the Sea) – Athena won.

What is also certain is that the Parthenon is visible for miles by land. It still seems to me to be one of those rare moments where you can position yourself at a vantage point around the city and empathise with travellers of antiquity, imagining how awestruck they must have been to see, for the first time, the feted Acropolis and its monuments, rising out of the plain.

And you're right, the Parthenon would have been very vividly painted. One exciting aspect of the latest research by the team restoring the structure is that we now realise the colourways would have included many more deep greens and rich blues, plus a lot of gold. The Acropolis must have been surmounted by a proud peacock of a building.

Once the new Archaeological Museum for the Acropolis is built I suggest you try (if you can!) to visit. Their displays ref paintwork etc will be excellent and very detailed. The background of many of the 'figurative' sculptures (eg metopes, the Elgin marbles currently in the British Museum) would have been a vivid blue, or a red, sometimes with a wavy stripe running through block colour. Another recent discovery shows that women's faces in particular were painted with luscious eye-lashes, some with a kind of dew-drop at each tip (a bit like Twiggy in the early 70s!)

Hope this helps. Thanks for your interest.

< Previous question | Next question > | See all questions