#nashville parthenon

[copperbadge]

[ID: A photograph of an enormous statue of the goddess Athena, surrounded by columns and with a latticed roof overhead; she wears gold robes and a golden helm, and in her right hand holds the goddess Nike, who has large wings and a victory wreath. Her left hand holds up an enormous shield, which has a massive and very adorable snake hiding behind it; a lance leans against her left shoulder.]

The crown jewel of the Nashville Parthenon is the gilded statue of Athena, 42 feet tall and Not Air Conditioned.

She is very impressive, and also very difficult to photograph. As you can see, she's holding a figure of Nike, the Winged Victory, and they have a cool feature nearby where they show an image of Nike at full scale so you can see how you measure up (she's 6'4" or almost two meters).

In person the statue is...I think unavoidably a bit gaudy, but also we're learning that the original Greek statues were probably a bit gaudy too, so that's fine. What I honestly found more captivating were the bronze doors opposite her, though.

[ID: a huge pair of bronze doors set into a sandy-colored wall; the doors have three large square panels each, handles near the bottom, and are topped with a window covered with a decorative grille.]

They're a bit unassuming at first, but then you read the little placard that says they weigh 7.5 tons each and are a foot thick; it's thought that they're the largest matching set of bronze doors in the world. There's another pair in the "treasury" behind Athena, facing her back but in a separate walled-off room. They're very compelling once you get a good look at them, but what really got me was that they're locked.

With a single chain and a Master lock.

[ID: The handles of the doors in close-up; they are made of intertwined snakes holding pearls in their mouths, and the bottoms of the handles are worn bright with repeated touching. Threaded through the handles is a short length of pretty standard grade chain like you might use if you didn't have a cable lock for your bicycle; the ends of the chain are threaded onto a padlock with "Master" printed across the bottom.]

Which, if you're a fan of the Lockpicking Lawyer, is especially funny, but even without that context (Master are notoriously easy to pick) it's pretty funny that 15 tons of bronze in the middle of a public park are locked shut with a Master brand padlock. Just. It's so human.

[lunarobyn22]

P A R T H E N O N

S C U L P T U R E

A P P R E C I A T I O N

T I M E

Ok but seriously LOOK at the craftsmanship, because even though this is a fairly recent duplicate of the original Parthenon, they didn't have to go so hard, but dang it they did and I'm in love with the action of Athena and Poseidon fighting in the main pediment and just ...👌

[lenbryant]

This YouTuber's sound and narration are less than perfect, but they give a great tour of the Nashville Parthenon. If it's not winter when you're there, by the way, the big lawn is actually green.

[killrspringlock]

tennessee has not one, but TWO knockoff versions of the 7 wonders of the world. they got great value pyramid of giza, and the half price parthenon.

and why the FUCK do yall need a basspro shops pyramid when yall got a whole ass parthenon?

[thegalleryobscura]

Took the weekend off to spend some time in Nashville. We visited Athena at the Parthenon for some inspiration.

The Parthenon has permanent collections, as well as a featured exhibition that changes regularly. Upstairs is where you'll find Athena and some wonderful info about how she was built and how the artists behind the Parthenon used casts of the ruins in Greece to recreate the structure.

[coasterqueencat]

Tonight, me and Uzi walked to the Parthenon, and we saw Athena.

This place was famously featured in the first Percy Jackson movie. It was a good long walk, but we made it.

[athenepromachos]

The magnificent 42 ft high, 12 ton reconstruction of the Athena Parthenos statue in the Nashville Parthenon. - this is on my bucket list for sure🏛🏛😍😍

[rotisseries]

caught up with pjo episode 4 with my mom tonight and when they got to st louis she was like "oh did they skip nashville?" and I was like "nashville???" and she's like "yeah don't they go visit the parthenon in nashville?" which I did NOTTT remember but it sounded familiar once she said it so this is really solidifying how much I need a reread

[cottagecorewannabe]

Athena in all her glory 💛

[maryworshipper]

What the fuck I need to go here

[copperbadge]

The Parthenon in Nashville felt very familiar to me, because like the MSI in Chicago, it was built as part of an exposition, then just kinda...stuck around (and was rebuilt for permanence, also like the MSI). So it's a bit of a muddle of various things -- cultural center, outreach organization, art museum, architectural landmark, and just sliiiightly a tourist trap. That's not derogatory; I love a small, weird museum.

The bottom level is predominantly an art museum; they have a nice collection of American 19th-20th century paintings, a gallery about replicas and restoration, and a rotating gallery which at present is running a very interesting exhibit on repatriation. I had a really good time but the highlight of the collection -- at least, the visible one, since part of the gallery was closed -- was the painting on the left by Frederick Judd Waugh, "Widening Sea". I love a luminous waterscape. The other odd object there on the right is a replica of an ancient crane, which would have been used to build the original Parthenon. It's about as tall as me, and very fun to look at. I can only imagine it was a kick to build.

[ID: Two photographs; left, a photo of an oil painting hanging on a wall, depicting a rocky shoreline, a dark sea beyond with a streak of illumination, and a sunset above the sea, mostly hidden behind luminous white clouds. The whole effect makes the painting glow. On the right, the as-mentioned scale model of the crane, which looks a bit like a catapult that has gotten away from itself, surrounded by explanatory placards and marked off with a low barrier.]

[mimaruandjam]

Mimaru and Jam terrorize the replica Pantheon <3

[antinoo5]

Luna e Parthenon my snap

[hankemeier]

We have our ownParthenonin Nashville @juphanie

[magical-girl-rose]

Two days ago, I took a hop on hop off trolley tour of the city these were taken at Centennial Park in Nashville, Tennessee and I'm still in Nashville until Sunday.

I saw this replica of the Parthenon where the nice tour guide said contains a very big and beautiful statue of the goddess, Athena. Part of me wishes to go visit since I felt it might be the closest I'll get to the real deal which is among the ruins in Greece.

I wish I could see that statue of Athena and maybe snap a picture and probably pray to her to grant me courage and wisdom but Tennessee is the buckle of the "Bible Belt" and folks there don't take kindly to polytheistic pagans like me and through their ignorance see me as a false idol worshipper or a something heathenous The gods tagged along with me for this trip and Aphrodite liked how my pictures turned out and told me I will get to see the real deal in Athens one day.

[lenbryant]

Observation: in the 1800s we built homages to Ancient Greek culture and its contribution to learning, philosophy, justice, and democracy. But in the 2000s we’ve built homages like The Creation Museum and The Ark Encounter, convincing people these Bronze Age stories really did happen.

How long will this stand as Tennessee becomes more Bible Belt-y?