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Grace Watson

Communication Studies

October 4, 2023

The Parthenons

The Athenian Parthenon is a place we all know about even if we have never been there. It

has a long history and many architects have been inspired by it in their designs. Today I will be

talking about the Nashville and Greek Parthenons.

You may have wondered why Nashville out of all places in the world has a parthenon. I

wondered the same thing when I first got to Nashville my freshman year. A parthenon was built

in centennial park in 1897 as an exhibit in the Tennessee centennial exposition which was in

celebration of Tennessee being a state for 100 years. They built a parthenon because Nashville

was considered to be the Athens of the south. Nashville received that term because of all colleges

and Universities. The original was made from wood and was meant to be a temporary exhibit.

Since people seemed to enjoy having their own parthenon a permanent one was built in 1920.

They used concrete to build the parthenon that we see today. They attempted to recreate the

original as closely as they could. Without using marble to build the structure because it was too

expensive. Such as the freezes and the giant Athena statue. The Athena statue that you see in

Nashville’s parthenon was built in 1982. In Athena’s hand is the Nike, the goddess of Victory.

Painted in Athena’s shield are different Greek stories. To give some perspective on how tall this

statue is Nike is 6ft tall and the spear she is holding is made from an old Mcdonalds flag pole.

The Greek Parthenon has a much longer and more complex history, it was first built

between the years 447-479 B.C.E. It was built in the honor of the patron goddess Athena. Athena

is the Patron goddess because in Greek myth Athena and Posieden had a competition to see who
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the city would be named after, Athena created an olive branch and Poseiden created water. The

water Poseidon created ended up being seawater which is undrinkable so Athena became the

patron goddess of the city. Inside was a large Athena statue built in the goddess’s honor. The

temple was made from marble, decorated with statues. The freeze statues at the top were once

believed to be painted but over time the paint has faded. During the temple's glory days only

priests would have been allowed inside but they would have held ceremonies and rituals outside

on the steps so the people could participate. Early Christains eventually took over the temple and

turned it into a church, taking out all the pagan stuff. When the ottoman empire took over Athens

in the fifteenth century they turned it into a mosque. In the year 1687 on September 26, the

Venetians sieged the city. For some reason the Ottomans stored gunpowder in a thousand year

old building. A Venetian bombardment caused an explosion and much of the temple was

destroyed. The Venetians took Acropolis and more damage was done when many sculptures fell

down and crashed. The damages were done and there were no repairs, the Turks decided to

build a mosque within the ruins of the Parthenon. The Mosque is now no longer there and now

some of the Parthenon is in London in the British Museum. Which the Greeks back since they

have their own museum which can house their own artifacts. You may be wondering how they

got there. In the early 19th century a British diplomat came to visit Athens and took back with

him some ancient Parthenon ruins. He later had some money trouble so he sold the artifacts to

the British Museum where they remain today.

Both the Parthenons in Nashville and Athens have their similarities and differences such

as they both have the doric style columns surrounding the buildings. As well as they both have

freezes surrounding the top depicting Greek myth. The one in Athens is made from marble

while the Nashville one is made from concrete. There are many more differences and similarities
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that I don't have time to get into. I hope this presentation helped you to learn about the

Parthenon both in Nashville and Greece. Thank you!

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Work Cited

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/greek-parthenon-nashville

https://smarthistory.org/the-parthenon-athens/

https://www.thecollector.com/athena-poseidon-contest-athens-name-giving/