The Parthenon

Oh, Parthenon,* Sublime aesthetic structure, Embodiment of unparalleled elegance, Incarnation of history, philosophy, and sciences, Everlasting beacon of human civilization, Glorification of architecture, Pride of the western world You, deathless temple of Athena, Undeniably, reflect the harmonious blending: Of matter with the form Of man with God, Of the temporal with the eternal, In you, one may easily discern: The drama of Sophocles, The wisdom of Socrates, The reason of Plato and The logic of Aristotle, incorporated Into The ageless white marble, that the Everlasting mountain of Pendelikon so Generously has offered And The skilled hands of Phidias and Ictinus, So expertly have shaped, into a Never-ending hymn of worldly beauty, Ascending to the heavens of perfection As a thanksgiving to the wisdom of the divine and as A never-dying monument to human creativity and Understanding Oh, Parthenon, before your perpetual magnificence, Humbly I bow! © Demetrios Trifiatis 13 JANUARY 2013 *One of the crowning monuments of the world and, unquestionably, one of the finest is the Parthenon, the ancient temple of Athena, daughter of Zeus, Goddess of wisdom. Built between 447 and 438 B.C. during the archonship of Pericles on the most prominent spot of the Acropolis- a rocky hill of 158 meters above sea level- Parthenon has dominated since then with its extraordinary architectural splendor, not only in the land of Attica and the rest of Greece but also, one may say the mind and the soul of the entire world!