Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Parthenon |
ParthenonNoun1. The main temple of the goddess Athena; built on the acropolis in Athens more than 400 years B.C.; example of Doric architecture. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "Parthenon" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1829. (references) |
Etymology: Parthenon \Par"the*non\, noun. [Latin expression, from the Greek expression Parqenw`n, fr.parqe`nos virgin, i. e., Athene, the Greek goddess called also Pallas.]. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The Parthenon is one of the central buildings of the ancient Athenian acropolis. Its construction was started in 447 BC and completed in 438 BC. The architects were Iktinos and Kallikrates; the sculptural decoration was overseen by Phidias. The building housed a giant gold and ivory statue of Athena also created by Phidias, and the treasury of the Delian League.
Some of the financial accounts for the Parthenon survive, which make it clear that the largest single expense was transporting the stone from Mt. Pentelicus, about 16 kilometers from Athens, to the Acropolis.
The Parthenon holds a canonical position as the ideal Greek temple for many people; however, the original building was unusual in several attributes. Iktinos and Kallikrates built the Parthenon entirely with marble, while more usual temples had terra cotta roof tiles, often supported with wooden truss work. The Parthenon is also not an example of a purely Doric order building. The wall that separates the interior and exterior space carries an Ionic type frieze carved by Phidias and the West interior room of the temple supports its ceiling with four Ionic columns.
Later history
Over the years the Parthenon was converted first into a Christian church and then into an Islamic mosque.
In the 17th century A.D. the Turks used it to house ammunition, and most of the structure was destroyed when it was hit by a Venetian cannonball. The remains are a popular tourist attraction. The friezes that had decorated the outside are now in the British Museum, which calls them the Elgin Marbles, after the British ambassador, Lord Elgin, who purchased them from the Ottoman government and brought them to London in 1799. The Greek government has asked for their return, thus far unsuccessfully. Scholarship and appreciation of the Frieze is currently impaired as part is in Athens and part in London. Further details, together with an analysis of the meaning of the Frieze are at http://www.mistral.co.uk/hammerwood/elgin.htm Note. Not to be confused with Pantheon.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Parthenon."
Crosswords: Parthenon |
| English words defined with "Parthenon": Hecatompedon ♦ Octostyle ♦ Pentelican, Pericles. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "Parthenon": FREEMASONS ♦ Lapithæ. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "Parthenon": Hecatompedon. (references) |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Acropolis, Parthenon, east side, Athens, Greece. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Six figures: 1. View of ancient Athens; 2. Western front of the Parthenon; 3. The temple of Theseus; 4. The Tower of the Winds; 5. The Choragian monument of Lysicrates; 6. Temple of Segesta in Sicily] / G. Heck, dirt. ; Henry Winkles sculp. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | The Parthenon, Nashville, Tenn. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | The Parthenon, Nashville, Tenn. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| "Athens, Greece" by Geoff Hartman Commentary: "Parthenon in Athens, Greece." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | FREEMASONS, n. An order with secret rites, grotesque ceremonies and fantastic costumes, which, originating in the reign of Charles II, among working artisans of London, has been joined successively by the dead of past centuries in unbroken retrogression until now it embraces all the generations of man on the hither side of Adam and is drumming up distinguished recruits among the pre-Creational inhabitants of Chaos and Formless Void. The order was founded at different times by Charlemagne, Julius Caesar, Cyrus, Solomon, Zoroaster, Confucious, Thothmes, and Buddha. Its emblems and symbols have been found in the Catacombs of Paris and Rome, on the stones of the Parthenon and the Chinese Great Wall, among the temples of Karnak and Palmyra and in the Egyptian Pyramids -- always by a Freemason. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Parthenon" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 92.50% of the time. "Parthenon" is used about 40 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 92.5% | 37 | 56,631 |
| Noun (proper) | 5% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Noun (common) | 2.5% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 40 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
1. Parthenon, AR |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "Parthenon": parthenon-building. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "Parthenon"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | partenoni. (various references) | |
Arabic | توالد البكري (parthenogenesis). (various references) | |
French | parthénon. (various references) | |
Greek | παρθενώνασ, παρθενώνοσ. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | arthenonpay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | partenon. (various references) | |
Russian | парфенон. (various references) | |
Spanish | partenón. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | парфенон. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"Parthenon" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Athenon, Parthenay, Pordenone, Porthneal. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words rhyming with "Parthenon" (pronounced 'Par"the*non'): Anon, Champignon, Chignon, guenon, Memnon, Noumenon, Olecranon, Paralipomenon, Perispomenon, Phaenomenon, Phenomenon, Phonorganon, Prolegomenon, Properispomenon. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-h-n-n-o-p-r-t" | |
-1 letter: pantheon. | |
-2 letters: another, nephron, operant, panther, phaeton, phonate, phorate, pronate, protean. | |
-3 letters: anther, arpent, atoner, enrapt, entrap, hapten, hornet, natron, nonart, nonpar, nother, ornate, orphan, parent, parton, patron, ponent, pother, protea, tanner, tarpon, teopan, tephra, teraph, thenar, thorpe, threap, throne, tonner, trepan. | |
-4 letters: anent, antre, aport, apron, apter, arpen, atone, earth, ephor, hater, heart. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-h-n-n-o-p-r-t" | |
+2 letters: ctenophoran, pentahedron. | |
+3 letters: ctenophorans, enantiomorph, hymenopteran, pentahedrons, trephination. | |
+4 letters: anthropogenic, antiphonaries, containership, enantiomorphs, hymenopterans, trephinations. | |
+5 letters: anticensorship, containerships, enantiomorphic, hyperinflation, nontherapeutic, phenobarbitone, photoengraving. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Commercial 4. Images: Slideshow | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Images: Digital Art 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Cities 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Derivations 14. Rhymes 15. Anagrams 16. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
