The biggest achievement that came from Athens in the Golden age was said to be the Parthenon. The Parthenon was a temple that was dedicated to Athena, the Goddess of war. Along with being a Shrine for the gods, temples were also used as public meeting places and somewhere to house religious assets. Here was also the treasury for the Delian League. The original temple that stood in its place was burned and destroyed during the Persian War. "The Parthenon symbolizes the peak of a long history of post-and-lintel temple building among the Greek. The layout of the temple consisted of a rectangle enclosed on all four sides by a colonnaded walkway; reflecting the typically Classical admiration for clarity, balance, and harmonious proportion " (Fiero 122). The temple was valued in Athenian culture for its respect to architecture, as a shrine to Athena, and also stood as a victory monument.
The Greeks had developed three different forms when it came to architecture and two of them were used in the building of the Parthenon. Although mainly used was Dorian order, you still will notice slight uses of the Ionic order as well in the interior columns. The architecture of this building is directly related with the aesthetic ideal that the Greeks respected. The Doric style provides the look which showed the Athenian's desire to be perfect god-like beings. This was visualized in the sculptures present on the temple. Metopes, were sculptures that are very detailed in the representation of the human anatomy, these sculptures are considered to be some of the "high points " of Greek art. Not only did these sculptures follow precise order of the Greeks but they also paid homage to the Greek Gods. This is very important to the Greeks as the Gods were who they worshiped. .
Even more importantly, this temple paid homage to Athena, who was the protector of Athens. Around the exterior walls of the building is a frieze of the Panathenaic Procession that was took place every four years.
