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Greece: Parthenon (Room 18)
447 – 432 BC
The Parthenon was built as a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena. It was the centrepiece of an ambitious building programme on the Acropolis of Athens. The temple’s great size and lavish use of white marble was intended to show off the city’s power and wealth at the height of its empire.
Playwright, author and British Museum trustee, Bonnie Greer celebrates the enduring beauty and humanity of the Parthenon Sculptures
Room 18 exhibits sculptures that once decorated the outside of the building. The pediments and metopes illustrate episodes from Greek mythology, while the frieze represents the people of contemporary Athens in religious procession.
Rooms 18a and 18b feature fragments of the Parthenon sculpture and also pieces of architecture. Video displays using computer graphics explain how the sculptures were placed on the building, and a touch tour for visually impaired visitors includes a model, some original architecture and plaster casts of the frieze.
See this gallery on the floor plan
More information about the Parthenon sculptures at the British Museum
Museum statements
The Parthenon
sculptures at the British Museum
Statement of the British Museum
trustees
Facts and figures
Research publication
Cleaning and controversy: the
Parthenon sculptures 1811 - 1939
By Ian Jenkins
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Marble metope from the Parthenon 440 BC
More informationMarble metope from the Parthenon 440 BC
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Figure of Dionysos from the east pediment of the Parthenon 438-432 BC
More informationFigure of Dionysos from the east pediment of the Parthenon 438-432 BC
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Horsemen from the west frieze of the Parthenon 438-32 BC
More informationHorsemen from the west frieze of the Parthenon 438-32 BC
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Figure of a river-god from the west pediment of the Parthenon 438-432 BC
More informationFigure of a river-god from the west pediment of the Parthenon 438-432 BC
