Produced by Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net The Parthenon at Athens, Greece and at Nashville, Tennessee _Excerpts from The Parthenon of Pericles and Its Reproduction in America Illustrated_ By Benjamin Franklin Wilson, III Director of the Parthenon [Illustration: Parthenon Press] PARTHENON PRESS NASHVILLE THE PARTHENON AT ATHENS, GREECE And AT NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE (Excerpts from THE PARTHENON OF PERICLES AND ITS REPRODUCTION IN AMERICA) Copyright, MCMXLI By Benjamin Franklin Wilson III TO THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS 1920-1941 R. M. Dudley M. T. Bryan Lee J. Loventhal W. R. Cole R. T. Creighton Chas. M. McCabe Percy Warner Rogers Caldwell J. P. W. Brown Edwin Warner C. A. Craig Jas. G. Stahlman Vernon Tupper Bascom F. Jones _Whose intelligent and untiring interest made possible the reproduction of the Parthenon at Nashville; in memory of those who are gone, and in appreciation of those who are living, this booklet is gratefully dedicated_ Background The Parthenon of Pericles, while not thought to be one of the wonders of the world, nevertheless has always been regarded as one of the most wondrously beautiful and inspiring of the world’s buildings. It embraces the best effort of the mind, the heart, and the hand of man. In it are bound up the religion, the history, and the art of Greece. It has been well said that art is organized emotion, while science is organized knowledge. The field of emotion found its first great development among the Greeks and in the time of Pericles reached its zenith. Assuredly the Greeks have never been excelled in the beauty of their architecture or sculptural art. The influence of religion was dominant in the life and thought that produced such outstanding men in this period of world history as Phidias and Sophocles, Ictinos and Pericles. Every function of the mind, every activity of the hand, was closely associated with some god or goddess, and to this inspirational incentive the world is greatly indebted for the Parthenon. The mythological stories of the Parthenon largely cover the mythology of Greece. Twenty-eight of the major deities and numerous minor deities and personifications adorn its pediments.