The Parthenon
The Ancients
History Hit
4.7 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 19 January 2023
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The unofficial 8th wonder the Ancient World, the Parthenon is still standing today. Located on the Acropolis in Athens, towering above a busy, modern metropolis - it's a symbol of the city's long standing ancient past. But why was this monumental structure built? And what do we really know about it?
In this episode of The Ancients, Tristan is joined by Dr Maeve McHugh from the University of Birmingham to take us through the Parthenon's remarkable history. Looking at the mastermind behind it's construction, the iconography of the building, and it's role across history - just what happened within the walls of the Parthenon?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the ancients on History Hit. |
| 0:14.8 | I'm Tristan Hughes, your host and in today's podcast, Well, we are talking about another |
| 0:21.5 | of these incredible ancient structures from the Mediterranean world. |
| 0:26.6 | Not one of the official wonders of the ancient world, but one that you'll definitely know |
| 0:31.9 | the name of, and one that is also always on the cusp, on the edge of the seven wonders. |
| 0:39.0 | Sometimes they were the eighth one of the world alongside the Colosseum. |
| 0:42.5 | We're talking, of course, about this central bastion, this great ancient light of Athens. |
| 0:50.0 | That is the Parthenon. |
| 0:52.0 | This massive temple mixture of Doric and Ionic orders, with incredible freezes and metapes, |
| 0:59.0 | and just an amazing structure of marble that people visit in their tens and their hundreds |
| 1:06.7 | of thousands down to the present day, atop the Acropolis. |
| 1:10.5 | Now, I remember going to the Parthenon as part of a school trip many, many years ago, with |
| 1:16.6 | classics teachers such as Mr. Presley, Misska Weaker. |
| 1:19.9 | It was an incredible trip. |
| 1:21.8 | And in a year, one of the last years I was at RGS that he did study art and architecture |
| 1:28.2 | from the ancient Mediterranean world, part of the classical civilization, and part of |
| 1:31.8 | the course was looking at temples such as the Parthenon. |
| 1:35.2 | So thank you, Misska Weaker, for those interesting, very fun classes that have now resulted |
| 1:43.4 | in this podcast episode. |
| 1:44.4 | We're talking all about the Parthenon. |
| 1:46.5 | With Dr. Maeve McHugh from the University of Birmingham, this was a fun chat we go from |
| 1:52.4 | the construction of the Parthenon itself, why it was built, how it was built, the material |
... |
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