Metopes of Parthenon (c-435). The metopes of the Parthenon are the surviving set of what were originally 92 square carved plaques of Pentelic marble originally located above the columns of the Parthenon peristyle on the Acropolis of Athens. If they were made by several artists, the master builder was certainly Phidias. They were carved between 447 or 446 BC. or at the latest 438 BC, with 442 BC as the probable date of completion. Most of them are very damaged. Typically, they represent two characters per metope either in action or repose. The interpretations of these metopes are only conjectures, starting from mere silhouettes of figures, sometimes barely discernible, and comparing them to other contemporary representations. There is one theme per side of the building, representing a fight each time: Amazonomachy in the west, fall of Troy in the north, gigantomachy in the east and fight of Centaurs and Lapiths in the south. The metopes have a purely warlike theme, like the decoration of the chryselephantine statue of Athena Parthenos housed in the Parthenon. It seems to be an evocation of the opposition between order and chaos, between the human and the animal, between civilization and barbarism, even the West and the East. This general theme is considered to be a metaphor for the Median wars and thus the triumph of the city of Athens. The majority of metopes were systematically destroyed by Christians at the time of the transformation of the Parthenon into a church towards the sixth or the seventh century AD. A powder magazine installed in the building by the Ottomans exploded during the siege of Athens by the Venetians in September 1687, continuing the destruction. The southern metopes are the best preserved. Fourteen of them are in the British Museum in London and one is in the Louvre Those of the other sides, very damaged, are in Athens, sometimes even still in place on the building. In 480 BC, the Persians ransacked the Acropolis of Athens including the pre-Parthenon then under construction. After their victories at Salamis and Plataea the Athenians had sworn not to restore the destroyed temples, but to leave them as they are, in memory of the Persian barbarism. The power of Athens then grew gradually, mainly within the league of Delos which it controlled more and more hegemonically. Eventually, in 454 BC., the treasure of the league was transferred from Delos to Athens. A vast program of construction was then launched, financed by this treasure; among these, the Parthenon. This new building was not intended to become a temple, but a treasury to accommodate the colossal chryselephantine statue of Athena Parthenos. The Parthenon was erected between 447 and 438 BC. The pre-Parthenon was hexastyle. Its successor, which was much larger, was octastyle and measured 30.88 meters wide and 69.50 meters long. The sekos in itself had a width of 19 meters. Thus, two large rooms could be created: one, to the east, to accommodate the statue of a dozen meters high; the other, to the west, to shelter the treasure of the league of Delos. The construction site was entrusted to Ictinos, Callicrates and Phidias The decor project was both traditional in its form albeit unprecedented in scale. The pediments were bigger and more complex than what had been done before. The number of metopes, all carved, was unprecedented and never repeated. Finally, while the temple was of the Doric order, the decoration around the sekos was replaced by a frieze of the ionic order. On Doric marble buildings, the metopes decorated the entablature above the architrave alternating with the triglyphs. These were a reminiscence of the wooden beams that supported the roof. The part between the triglyphs, at first a simple unadorned stone space, was quickly used to receive a carved decoration. The Parthenon numbered ninety-two polychrome metopes: fourteen on each of the east and west facades, and thirty-two on each of the north and south sides. To designate them, scholars usually number them from left to right with Roman numerals. They were carved on practically square Pentelic marble slabs: 1.20 meters high for a variable width, but averaging 1.25 meters. Originally, the block of marble measured 35 centimeters thick: the sculptures were made in high relief, even in very high relief at the edge of the round-bump, standing out about 25 centimeters. The metopes were a dozen meters high and had an average of two characters each. No ancient Greek building has ever been adorned with so many metopes, neither before nor after the construction of the Parthenon.