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As dawn breaks over Athens, 
Pheidias is already late for work.

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The year is 432 BCE,

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and he’s the architekton, 
or chief builder,

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for the Parthenon— 
Athens’ newest and largest temple.

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When completed, his masterpiece will be 
an enormous shrine to the goddess Athena,

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and a testament to the glory 
of the Athenians.

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But when he arrives onsite he finds 
five epistatai, or city officials,

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waiting to confront him.

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They accuse Pheidias of embezzling gold

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designated for the temple’s 
sacred central statue.

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He has until sundown to provide 
all the temple’s expenses

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and account for every flake of gold— 
or face the judgement of the courts.

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Though he’s insulted by these 
false charges, Pheidias isn’t surprised.

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Pericles, the politician 
who commissioned the Parthenon,

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has many enemies in city government,

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and this project 
is somewhat controversial.

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The public is expecting a classic temple 
in the Doric style:

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simple columns supporting 
a horizontal entablature,

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crowned with a triangular roof.

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But Pheidias’ plans are far more radical 
by Athenian standards.

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His designs combine Doric columns 
with a sweeping Ionic frieze,

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hosting a vast panorama of the city’s 
Great Panathenaic festival.

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Not only will this sculpture show 
humans and gods side by side—

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something never before seen 
in a temple’s décor—

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it will also cost much more 
than the traditional approach.

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Praying to the Gods that his colleagues 
have been keeping track of their spending,

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Pheidias sets off to prove his innocence.

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First, he checks in with his architects 
Iktinos and Callicrates.

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Rather than using a blueprint,

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they pore over the syngraphai, 
or general plan,

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and paradeigma, a 3D model.

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Without an exact blueprint, the team 
often has to resolve issues in real time,

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guided only by careful calculation 
and their instinct for symmetry.

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Maintaining this symmetry 
has proven especially difficult.

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The Parthenon is built on a curve 
with the columns leaning slightly inwards.

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To project strength,

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and potentially keep the columns 
looking straight from a distance,

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the architects incorporated entasis, 
or slight bulging, in each column.

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For the temple’s other elements,

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the team calculates symmetry by employing
relatively consistent proportions

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across the design.

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But their shifting plans require 
constant recalculations.

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After helping solve one such computation,

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Pheidias collects his colleagues’ 
gold records

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and heads off to receive 
a special delivery.

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Immense marble blocks for the Parthenon’s 
pediment have just arrived

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from quarries at Mount Pentelikon.

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The usual ramps would collapse

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under the weight 
of these 2 to 3 ton stone blocks,

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so Pheidias orders the construction 
of new pulleys.

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After recording the additional expense

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and supervising 
the construction all afternoon,

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he finally arrives 
at the sculpture workshop.

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His sculptors are carving 
92 mythical scenes, or metopes,

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to decorate the temple.

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Every carving depicts fighting 
from different epic battles—

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each a mythical representation 
of Greece’s victory over Persia

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about 40 years earlier.

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No temple has ever used 
so many metopes before,

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and each scene adds to the temple’s 
ballooning expenses.

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Finally, Pheidias turns 
to his primary responsibility,

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and the focal point of the entire temple.

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Covered in thick layers of gold,
minutely decorated,

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and towering above her worshippers,

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this will be a statue of the city’s 
patron and protector: Athena Parthenos.

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When the temple is complete, 
throngs will gather on its perimeter—

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offering prayers, performing sacrifices,

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and pouring libations 
for the goddess of wisdom.

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Pheidias spends the rest of the day

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designing finishing touches 
for the statue,

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and as the light fades, 
the epistatai arrive to confront him.

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After looming over his records, 
they look up triumphantly.

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Pheidias may have accounted 
for the temple’s general spending,

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but his records show no mention 
of the statue’s gold.

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At that moment, Pericles himself arrives 
to save his chief builder.

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The temple’s sponsor tells 
them that all the gold on the statue

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can be removed and weighed individually 
to prove Pheidias’ innocence.

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Assigning laborers to the task—

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and charging the officials to watch 
them late into the night—

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Pheidias and his patron 
leave their adversaries

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to the mercy of mighty Athena.