Athens

Athens is a city-state located in the Hellenistic World.

The Parthenon
The Parthenon, built between 447-432 BCE, is the most notable temple on the acropolis at Athens. Dedicated to Athena (the patron goddess of the city), it is a Doric style temple that is eight columns wide and seventeen columns deep and was originally decorated with many intricately crafted statues. The most important of those statues was a massive statue of Athena made of ivory and gold that once stood inside the temple.

During Xerxes', the king of Persia, invasion of Greece in 480 BCE Athens was burned following the defeat of the Greek army at Thermopylae. After the war ended in Greek victory, Athens began a massive rebuilding project on the Acropolis to replace the older temples destroyed by the Persians. The Parthenon was intended to be a testament to the greatness and power of Athens. The funding for the project, however, came largely from other city-states. The treasury of the Delian league, which had originally been formed for the purpose of fighting the Persians, was utilized for Athens' rebuilding efforts, including the Parthenon. As a result, the Parthenon was also a symbol of the simmering resentment against Athenian Imperialism in the Ancient Greek world. The Parthenon is sometimes referred to as The Temple of Minerva.

After the Athenian Empire
In the fifth century the Parthenon was converted into a Christian church, which it remained until the Ottoman Turks captured the city in 1456 and converted it into a mosque. When the Venetians besieged the city of Athens in 1687, the Ottoman's fortified the acropolis and stored gunpowder in the Parthenon. When the Venetians bombarded the city the Parthenon was hit, "The consequent explosion almost completely demolished the cella and its frieze, eight columns on the north side and six on the south, with their entablatures".

The Parthenon remained in disrepair for many years, with grave questions about its structural stability. Beginning in 1975, the Greek government began a rebuilding effort on the Parthenon, primarily to restore the structural stability of building and not to completely rebuild the structure. This process has not yet been completed.

Origins of Athens's name
Athena and Poseidon competed for patronage at the rise of the city. Creating a gift for the city, Poseidon created the first horses (in some versions, a saltwater spring), while Athena created an olive tree for her gift. The people of Athens appreciated Athena's olive tree over the horses and Athena won the contest. Since then, Poseidon and Athena have had a rivalry. This is why the city is named Athens, as Athena won and therefore became the patron of the city. It is also why the people of Athens had to be careful when going out to sea.

Peloponnesian War
Athens had to go to war with another Greek city-state when Sparta claimed that Athens was getting richer from the Delian League, a union of city-states after the collapse of the remnants of Persian Empire control in Greece. This was a terrible war because it caused problems for Athens when the city-state was trying to win the war. During the war, it seemed that Athens was going to defeat Sparta and take power and control over Sparta. However, towards the third phase of the Pelopponesian War, a terrible plague occurred in the city-state and killed millions of Athenian civilians within the city walls. Within seconds, almost every citizen in Athens was hit by the plague (especially their leader at the time of the war). So many devastation and the outburst of the unknown plague in the city caused the moral of the Athenian Army to demoralize which give Sparta an advantage over Athens. In the end, Athens lost to Sparta and the remainder of its former glory and power dwindled away to nothing.