Architecture and decoration of the Parthenon
The Parthenon is a Doric order temple with a rectangular floor plan with a series of low steps on every side, and a colonnade (8 x 17) of Doric columns around the outside of the entire structure. Although the temple is predominantly Doric there are some aspects of and ionic temple incorporated into it. There is an inner section of the Parthenon were Doric columns give way to ionic. Another example of this is the frieze; it uses ionic components that were borrowed from the ionic design. The frieze itself is a very important aspect of the temple it surrounds the temple, it’s relatively small size (3 feet 5inces tall) made it fairly hard to see from the ground, unlike the metopes the frieze has a single subject on all four sides it depicts a procession of horsemen, musicians, sacrificial animals and other figures with various religious functions. On the east side there is a child handing a folded cloth to an older man, on one side of them the gods are present and seated, on the other side two girls are holding something. Most scholars believe that it represents the Panathenaic procession however some think that it shows the procession which took place at the same period as the temple was built and that it shows the over confident Athenians who dared to put themselves where ordinarily only the gods and heroes might be found.