ABSTRACT
The Athenian acropolis is a rock that stands about 156m (514ft) above sea level at its highest point, 270m (885ft) long, and 156m wide. The pomp, the ceremony, the ascent, all serve to raise the human beings’ minds above their mundane and political affairs, toward the divine. The most remarkable aspect of the Periclean building project on the acropolis was neither the number of new buildings it sought to construct, nor the numbers of people it involved, nor the cost, nor even the grandeur it finally achieved. One might say that by making the statue of Athena Parthenos so rich in gold and ivory and making her the principal occupant of the Parthenon the Athenians were secularizing the divine, using images of the divine for purely secular and political purposes.
