The Akropolis

This chapter focuses on the buildings of the Athenian Akropolis. A brief survey of earlier building activity is provided in order to consider how the Akropolis looked at the time of the Kleisthenic reforms and to highlight some of the problems and controversies in the architectural material. The issue of the “H-Architecture” (the Bluebeard Temple or Hekatompedon) is fully considered, including the ongoing controversy regarding its appearance and location. An account of the Akropolis at the end of the sixth and beginning of the fifth centuries then follows. The chapter closes with two sections that place these buildings within their broader topographical and historical context, including a calculation of the financial cost of the Old Athena Temple and a suggestion for how it might have been funded.