The Parthenon was the Athenian state's most splendid monument - the last word in Doric architecture. Work on it started in 448/7 B.C.; it was officially opened in 438 B.C.; and its decorative sculptures were completed in 433/2 B.C.. The architects involved were, our sources tell us, Ictinus, Callicrates, and (probably, and with additional responsibility for the sculptures) Phidias himself. The project was finished in an astonishingly short time. This was, after all, the largest Doric temple of classical times, with platform base measurements of 31 by 70 metres. (Two other huge Doric temples, at Selinus and Acragas in Sicily, remained unfinished). The Parthenon was also the only Greek temple where no stone save marble was used; and the only Doric temple with relief sculpture on every one of its metope-panels. Many parts of its decorative sculpture, and its architraves and ceiling coffering, were painted. The colours used were red, blue and gold. The stone used was Pentelic marble, except for the platform base which was of limestone; a large number of teams of workmen worked simultaneously - quarrying the blocks, bringing them to the Acropolis, and hewing them into shape - and a high degree of labour organization was achieved.

The pteron was eight columns deep - instead of the usual six - and seventeen columns long. On the shorter sides there was a second row of columns giving the illusion of a two-spanned temple. Another unusual feature was the frieze - perhaps the most obvious Ionic influence present - that ran all the way round the cella. On the inside of the building there was a Doric colonnade on two storeys (ditone colonnade) in the shape of the Greek letter pi. This formed a sort of gallery on which visitors could marvel at the gold-and-ivory statue of Athena from various viewpoints. To give them plenty of light to see by, two small windows were let into the front of the cella. All these details show us that the building was planned in order to harmonize with the great statue that was going to be housed in it.

The temple's reputation was enhanced by unimaginable refinements - by divergences from vertical and horizontal straightness so minute as to be imperceptible, and by the use of harmonic ratio. The dominant ratio in the various members, from base platform through to entablature, was 4:9. The platform exhibited a very slight drumlike curvature; the slender columns diverged from the vertical towards the centre of the temple; and the overall design was pyramidal. A centripetal and upward effect was thus achieved, transforming the Parthenon into a vibrant organic whole. These numberless delicate touches were briliantly conceived and executed with matchless mathematical accuracy.