The sculptured 160 m. long band encircling the outer walls of the Parthenon’s cella, the metope of the Doric frieze and part of the two pediments of the temple were presented for the first time in digital form and are eventually available on Internet at the following web site: www.ekt.gr/parthenonfrieze

This technological project has been developed by the Greek Ministry of Culture – Office for the conservation of the Acropolis’ monuments – in cooperation with the National centre of documentation (EKT) and the first ephorship for the classic and prehistoric antiquities . For the first time both the archaeologists and the public in general are allowed to admire in its entirety the frieze of the Parthenon (which has a total length of 160 m. and is almost 1.00 m. high), unique in the world for its cultural importance, thanks to a virtual tour that offers as well a general introduction and a description, both in English and in Greek, of each block composing the frieze.

Of the original 115 sculptured panels composing the frieze of the Parthenon only 93 arrived to us: 36 of them are conserved in Athens, 56 in the British Museum and 1 in Louvre. Of the original 92 metopes, 39 are in Athens and 15 in London. Other 17 statues, included the caryatids, are conserved in the British Museum.

The exceptionality of project consists in the fact that the digital application allows to join all the sculptured panels of the frieze, which nowadays are conserved in the museums of different places of the world: Athens, London, Paris. Moreover the pictures of the original blocks of the frieze, many of which are incomplete because of the damages suffered during the years, are magnificently integrated by the original drawings of J. Carrey (1674) and J. Stuart (1751), who accurately copied all the reliefs of the frieze. In particular Carrey’s drawings are very important since they reproduce all the sculptured panels that were destroyed during the explosion caused in 1687 by F.

Morosini’s army, during the campaign to free Athens form the Turkey. The frieze of the Parthenon is a sculptured band of 160 m. that encircles the wall of the cella of the temple, and it shows all the originality and highness of its sculptor: Pheidias. Indeed by inserting this element, typical of the Ionic architecture, in a temple like Parthenone, which is of the Doric order, he underlined the symbolic value of Athens’ supremacy as expression of the whole Greek world. By using the technique of the bas-relief , following which the profile adheres to the bottom, Pheidias showed his unequalled execution, which saw the cooperation of many collaborators. Pheidias’ audacity consisted in the fact that he dedicated the enormous frieze to a totally human event: the Panathenaia, a festival that was celebrated every four years and during which all the city rendered homage to the goddess Athena. Athens’ citizens are conducted, in the procession represented on the long sides of the cella, to the threshold of the divine when they reach the assembly of gods, represented on the short east side of the temple. The creative freedom of the executors of the frieze gave to this long parade, mainly represented by the knights, a peculiar variety, animation and life warmth.

The realization of this project offers, to the students and to the public in general, the opportunity to see the entire iconographic programme of the Parthenone (at least the part that survived until today);moreover it offers the chance to sensitize the public opinion about an old problem: the restitution of the marbles to their native land and original positioning: Athens. At the beginnings of the 19th century the English ambassador Lord Elgin dismantled a big part of the iconographic programme of the Parthenone. Nowadays it is conserved in the British Museum of London but the construction of the new museum of the Acropolis, that will be ready within 2007, has the aim of exposing all this programme in its entirety, unless the English government refuses the Greek request of repatriation; in this case unfortunately the glass room dedicated to the Parthenone will host only an incomplete exposition.

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