The Parthenon is a octostyle peripteral Doric temple with some Ionic architectural features. One feature is the set of Ionic columns inside the Parthenon. The other is the frieze that runs along the upper part of the naos (inner building, sanctuary). The frieze is missing from the Nashville Parthenon replica. On the original Parthenon, it is a low relief sculpture. It is a 525 foot long procession “celebrating the festival that took place in Athens every four years.” (Stokstad 133)

 There is a second frieze on the Parthenon, this one Doric. It consists of 92 marble relief panels, called metopes. Each group of metopes portrays a legendary battle, with each of the individual metopes showing a fight between two representative figures within that battle. The fourteen metopes on the east side of the Parthenon convey the story of the battle between the Olympian gods and the Giants. The metopes on the west side show the invasion of Athens by the Amazons. The northern metopes are representative of the Trojan War. The southern metopes, which include some of the best preserved on the original Parthenon, shows the Battle of the Lapiths and the Centaurs. This scene is likely representative of the Greek’s battle against the Persians, and we never see the Centaurs winning in one of these fights. 

The Athena Parthenos is the colossal cult statue of Athena as the warrior goddess. The original was created by the renowned sculptor, Phedias. Unfortunately, the original was lost long ago, and we only know what it looked like from copies, coins, miniatures, and descriptions. The ancient historian, Pausanias, described it like this:

“The statue itself is made of ivory silver and gold. On the middle of her helmet is placed a likeness of the Sphinx ... and on either side of the helmet are griffins in relief. ... The statue of Athena is upright, with a tunic reaching to the feet, and on her breast the head of Medusa is worked in ivory. She holds a statue of Victory about four cubits high, and in the other hand a spear; at her feet lies a shield and near the spear is a serpent. This serpent would be Erichthonius. On the pedestal is the birth of Pandora in relief.