Considering The Parthenon from a Platonist Perspective

The glory and majesty of beholding this edifice, of such wonder and grandeur, has stirred the soul for centuries. Even today, millennia after millennia and in utter ruin; efforts are made to preserve what still stands. Today, only imitations give us a notion of what it was like to witness the grandness of the great Parthenon. High above on the Athenian Acropolis, near to the fabled Aegean Sea, the Parthenon does reign. The physicality and location of the edifice alone conjure images of power and the divine. Even the “innocent eye” of Panofsky’s methodology would bow in astonishment and acknowledge the structures emanating power.

If the average person can deduce, from a pre-iconographical analysis, i.e. from seeing it for the very first time that this was a structure of splendor, meant to stand the test of time, how much more would an informed, educated person? Plato is arguably the greatest philosophical thinker of all time. According to his own Simile of the Line, he himself dwelled in the realm of the intelligible; where the mind truly recognizes form. It is safe then to say that he not only saw the aesthetic majesty of the Parthenon, but he also acknowledged and understood the mathematically perfect forms. Plato viewed mathematics as the language of the universe, and thus the perfect, harmonious mathematical proportions of the Parthenon; to Plato were man’s connection to the divine. Also, through (what is later to be conceived as) iconographic and iconological analysis, i.e. recognizing, acknowledging and understanding the symbolisms, allegories and cultural history of the Greeks, it becomes imminently easier to decipher the power and significance the structure is meant to represent. Plato saw the Parthenon as the precursor to, or arrival of, The Kallipolis, or “the beautiful city”. The greatest architects of that time contributed to the erection of this crowning achievement; a characteristic of Plato’s vision of a utopian society. A doctor should heal, a farmer should farm and an architect should build in a utopian society, and it was so with the Parthenon. It was built during the time of Pericles, at the height of the Golden Age. The marvelous sculptures on the frieze and interior walls, they were sculpted by Phidias, the master at his craft, and the architects Iktinus and Kallikrates, too were masters and their crafts, and they supervised the building’s architecture and construction. These criteria were the basis for the ideal state, making the Pantheon an object perfectly formed from the visions of Plato. It is then, my presumption, that Plato would have embraced the Parthenon with a love and passion that supersedes our limited understanding.

My intention in this essay is to ascertain that the Parthenon was the embodiment of Plato’s most noble wishes and the fulfillment of his world-changing, prophetic philosophies. Plato wished for the ideal state, built on justice, reason, and logic and his famous Republic is the model for Democracies around the world. Assuming that Plato applied his philosophies to his very existence, we can reasonably extrapolate and then consider the Parthenon from Plato’s point of view. The Parthenon was a tangible human expression of the nature of reality. It is not an illusion or fantasy, conjured in the throws of our wildest imagination. The goddess Athena, in contrast, is then an illusion, or as Plato would describe it, a shadow. She is an illusion, or shadow of something very real, a reflection of an idyllic standard or perfection itself. The great sculptures of Athena exist in the visible realm as objects that help us to believe and form opinions. Plato relished in the notion that the Greek citizens gathered to celebrate the personification of reason and wisdom at the Parthenon, another vision of a utopian society. Metaphorically speaking, Plato enjoyed watching his fellow man finding an escape from the “dark cave” of ignorance and into the light of wisdom, even though the medium (the Parthenon) was the actual message; Athena took a backseat to the Parthenon in the eyes of Plato. To Plato, the Parthenon was a physical object that although it exists in the visible realm, somehow transcends the division of the line into the intelligible realm. Through architecture, and the curative adornment of the finest art, the Parthenon to Plato was a portal from the visible realm into the intelligible realm, a realm where the perception and understanding of immaculate forms can be achieved.

The Parthenon is a physical manifestation of a diagram of the golden mean. A diagram is merely an illusion on the line of Plato, because it is only a representation of a truth. The philosophy of the golden mean (in précis, a desirable middle between two extremes, one of excess and the other of insufficiency) is all but illusion unless it is balanced and understood between the intelligible and visible realms. The Greeks, through the Parthenon, brought the golden mean to life, again perfectly balancing it on Plato’s line.

In further support, the art historian can juxtapose the Tripartite Soul of Plato and Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Judgment to theorize what Plato may have thought of the Parthenon. Both Plato’s and Kant’s philosophies on the soul coincide, giving me a solid foundation from which to base my argument. The logical, spirited, and appetitive are in perfect harmony with Kant’s “faculties of the soul” of knowledge, the senses (pleasure/pain), and desire.[1] If we accept as truth that everyone has but one soul, it should then be impossible for a person to both desire something and be adverse to it at the same time. From this we can conclude that there must be at least two aspects of soul. In the cosmic balance of the universe, everything has an opposite. Plato’s passion for supreme wisdom, the ideal state, and beautiful, intelligible forms would suggest his gratefulness and appreciation for the Parthenon.

Kant’s view is similar, in that judgment is the middle ground between two existing aspects of soul, which are both understanding and reason. In other words, the soul governs choice and the soul chooses its existence. Plato’s soul, i.e. the harmony of his logic, spirit, and appetite must have been content with not only the aesthetic wonder, mathematic genius and architectural prowess but with the sheer symbolic representation of all he regarded as good in this life. The Parthenon, among many other things, symbolized Democracy, the idyllic existence of Plato. It is safe to say then, that Plato’s own Tripartite Soul was in harmony with the existence of the Parthenon. It more than appealed to his logic, it was the very embodiment of his spirit, but most importantly, the wisdom associated with its construction satisfied his appetite to achieve perfection. Philosophically, Plato struggled with the question, “can mankind be perfect”. The Parthenon symbolized an awe-inspiring hope that we could. After all, the wisdom associated with the construction of the Pyramids of Giza, Egypt or even Chichineza, Mexico remain a mystery, while the supreme science and mathematics used to construct the Parthenon is well-known and even used until this day.

The soul, which chooses between living an existence of barbarism and civility, delights in objects that symbolize and reflect its interests. According to Kant, “Interest is the delight which we connect with the representation of the real existence of an object”.[2] If we understand the object to be the Parthenon, and its representation to be Athens, its power, the incarnation of the ideal Tripartite Soul, and of course Democracy, Plato must have concluded that the Parthenon would not only delight his soul, but the souls of his idyllic societies now and into the future. Basically, Plato must have thought to himself that cultures of the future would model their structure after that of Athens, Greece, including its architecture, art, government, etc. The remarkable structure that still reigns above The Acropolis theoretically symbolized many of Plato’s philosophies for the ideal state, as evidenced in the Republic.

We can use Plato’s simile of the line, as outlined in the Republic, to also consider if he would equate the profession of architecture with that of an artist. Artists produce objects, which are manifestations of the visible realm. These manifestations are mere shadows and reflections, illusions of the real, underlying truth. In the best of art, the appearance of perfect form, the beautiful, that which is in harmony with logic and reason, is nevertheless superfluous and trivial. As perfect and immaculate as a work of art may be, it is not crucial to survival. One cannot wear a painting or live in a sculpture. Not in the very least. Architecture however is necessary for the survival of the human existence. Although it is an art from, it is far from unessential. This is not to say that art is done in vain. Art is crucial to our cultural way of life, but not necessary to existence. In essence, architecture safeguards the most valuable form in the expanse of the cosmos; the human form, created in the image of the divine. Most art is a reflection, shadow, and illusion of this divine human form or of nature itself. Architecture sets itself far apart in this regard. An edifice, in its most imperfect, unappealing form is far more valuable towards survival than the finest painting, sculpture or any form of art could ever be. This is not a general assertion, or even matter of opinion or discourse; architecture is fundamentally the most necessary of art forms know to man. My estimation may sound like it is quoted from the pages of the Freemasonic Order (where architecture is a divine science, God being the supreme architect), but it is simply based on all fundamental logic, reason, and understanding. It dare to, and humbly assume that the greatest of all thinkers would concur. Plato’s philosophy of essentialism attempted to bring objective truths to what he saw as relative and subjective experiences. Architecture then can be viewed as an objective truth that appropriates aesthetic form from art, which is relative and subjective. Architecture is a culmination of all essential knowledge, ingenuity and wisdom, in a visible form, whose aesthetic qualities often overshadow its relevancy

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In conclusion, According to Kant, “Beautiful is that which, apart from a concept, pleases universally”.[3] Apart from the concepts of Athenian military power, cities and states, democracy, wisdom, and all that the Parthenon encapsulates, it has proven itself to appeal to the taste, judgment, and rationale and reason of civilizations across the millennia. In regions around the world where justice was the ultimate goal, replicas of the Parthenon have been erected, fulfilling the prophetic philosophies of Plato and his “Republic”; that democracy would eventually reign. The Temple of Augustus and Livia, (1st century CE, Vienne, France), La Madeleine, (1807-45, Paris France), The Jefferson Memorial, National Gallery of Art, U.S. Supreme Court, and even an attraction in Nashville, Tennessee are all appropriations of the Parthenon, which is a living testament to Plato’s notion that Greek philosophy would bring man into the light. If “that which changes least is the most real”, then the Parthenon is arguably the realest architectural structure known to man. The model of the building itself is representative of power, structure, and justice, but was also efficient and vital towards survival. Plato envisioned civilizations and cultures that would come out of the cave of ignorance and into the light of knowledge, liberty, justice, and democracy in his Allegory of the Cave, also from the Republic. The grandeur of the Parthenon ensured that it would be a lighthouse to minds and souls of the future, much less the mind of the Athenian philosopher Plato. It satiated Plato’s own Tripartite Soul; I can almost imagine the tears he shed in beholding its spectacle at its height.

[1] Immanuel Kant, The Art of Art History, “The Critique of Judgment”, (New York, Oxford University Press, 2009), 62

[2] ibid., 68

[3] ibid., 73