Architecture and iconography
However, when it was built in the mid-fifth century BCE, the ideology of Greece’s most powerful city was also sculpted in the decoration. The most important and overwhelming decoration was that of the pediments which literally crowned the building.
The theme of the eastern pediment was the birth of Athena; that of the western pediment was Athena’s victory over Poseidon to become patron deity of the city. Below these were the panels just below the roof structure (all around the building on the outside) which presented Panhellenic images of war: war with Asia, war with the Amazons, war with the Giants. The frieze within dealt largely with Attica and Athens.In the eastern pediment, it is the game-changing arrival of Athena, born from the crown of Zeus’ head, which is celebrated. In the western pediment, the wealth of the city - agriculture and sea-faring - is the background to the dispute between Athena who offers the olive and Poseidon who offers a briny spring. Beside Zeus, Athena and Hera will have been some of the Olympian gods - perhaps Hephaestus, Dionysius, Aphrodite, Demeter, and so on - along with Helios the sun god rising over the horizon with his chariot at one end and Selene the moon-goddess descending at the other end. Given the fragmentary state of the statuary, scholars will debate the layout for all eternity, but it is not clear that even if everything had been perfectly preserved there would be complete agreement on all points in the interpretation of the iconography.
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