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My guide to the

The Parthenon Marbles

Images of the marble panels

Discussion of the ownershipof the marbles

Reconstruction of the Parthenon, a temple primarily built to house the 12 metre high
gold and ivory statue of Athena Parthenos (Maiden) sculpted by Pheidias.

Taking just 9 years to complete, the temple was dedicated to the goddess in 438 BC.

Reconstruction of the East face of the Parthenon




Reconstruction of the West face of the Parthenon



Plan of the Parthenon
The red asterisk indicates the south-west corner where the internal frieze starts.
The scenes of the 12 tribes of the Archaic period (6th century BC) circulate around the west and north sides.
The scenes of the 10 tribes of the Classic period (5th century BC) circulate around the south and west sides.

Artists impression of the viewing the internal frieze from a raised platform during the temple construction.
Note that the marble sculptures were originally painted in bright colours.

NOTE:
The majority of the marble panels removed from the temple by Lord Elgin were from this internal frieze.

Here is a section on display at the British Museum, London, England

Originally, there were 92 metopes (individual sculptures in high relief) on the Parthenon.

Of 64 that survived, 15 are in the British Museum and 18 remain in Athens.

In some cases, parts of the same sculpture are divided between Athens and London.