Thursday, October 12, 2006

Colors of the Parthenon

Artists wax eloquently about the colors of the Parthenon. They point out how the marble used in the columns reflect different colors in different weather and in different light. They point out how the colors tend to be “pearly” in the early morning and how they gleam brightly in midday, and then in the evening they take on an erie glow and so on and so forth.

What a shock to find out these columns were not intended to be naked marble, but dressed in vibrant colors, wild beyond belief. How could that have been? Was that the way they looked when Socrates and Plato were walking among them?

And they were apparently not just colored, but decorated in outlandish colors. Here is one artist’s rendition of how they once looked:







Well, the last time I saw the Parthanon was on a ragged day. the wind was up and grit was hitting our camera lenses and faces. The people gathered around the great structure were grimicing trying to see it but it was towering up above us, a creature more of the great clouds than of the earth. It appeared perhaps that we had all come, pilgrims from afar, to watch it launch. Wow! What a sight that was. It didn't go!


It was still there when we left.

2006.1017

© John Womack, 2006. All rights reserved.
Photos made with Canon Elura 70 on SD card.

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