Two of the most famous buildings in the world the
Parthenon and the Pantheon, were constructed by the Greeks and the Romans the
respectively. The Greek architecture influenced Roman’s designs and as such
there are many similarities between the Parthenon in Athens, Greece and the
Pantheon located in Rome Italy. This essay will not only seek to give the
similarities and differences between these unmistakably beautiful edifices but
also a brief history of both edifices and the influence of culture on the
designs.
The Parthenon made for the goddess of Athena, began
construction under the leadership of the Athenian politician, Perikles in 447
BC and was completed in 432 BC. This Greek temple is the enduring symbol of
Athenian imperial power, Athenian democracy and western civilization
(Silverman, 2013). The Roman temple of Pantheon was commissioned to be built for
all the ancient Roman gods by Marcus Agrippa, after being destroyed it was
rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian in about 126 AD. Today the Pantheon is one of the
best-preserved Roman buildings (Wikipedia, 2013).
In terms of design the Parthenon is a Doric temple
supported by ionic columns. The temple
has an entire rectangular floor made from marble with limestone base and an
ionic frieze runs around the exterior walls. This magnificent temple reinforces
the ideals that the Greek culture had, that are attention to detail and the
fact that mathematics explained the harmony in the world. Evidence of these
ideals is seen as the Parthenon present perfect proportions, intricate
architectural elements even in the anthropomorphic statues that adorned it. In
addition the fact that the Parthenon has no absolute straight lines gives
character to the obvious geometric structure (Diffen
contributors.Diffen LLC, 2013.).
Like the Parthenon, the front of the Pantheon has
eight columns and a pediment which is characteristic of Greek temple designs.
However, the Pantheon is a circular building supported by Corinthian columns
which is not present in the Parthenon. The Pantheon has a concrete dome is 4535
metric tons and the temple is made from several other materials such as marble,
granite and brick (Wikipedia, 2013). Although inspired by Greek designs the Pantheon is the first
temple to use concrete in construction and this was evidence of the
progressiveness of the Roman culture in the first millennium. In addition the
Pantheon is more decorated than the Parthenon, it is stated that the highly
decorated dome is 43 meters in diameter and 43 meters from the floor to the top
of the dome (Diffen contributors.Diffen LLC,
2013.).
Both of these Parthenon and the Pantheon temples were
constructed for worship, and were both uniquely design based on the culture of
the period. The Greeks focused more on proportions and mathematics while the
Romans became more innovative with the influence of Greek designs and used new
materials such as concrete for construction. These structures have face the
test times and have served to link present day to historic times, giving people
a beautiful look into the past.
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