Pericles entrusted Phidias, the sculptor, with the supervision of the work on the Acropolis. Ictinus and Callicrates served as the architects of the Parthenon, which was built on the foundations of an ancient large temple known as the Parthenon or Hecatompedon, which had been destroyed by the Persians. The construction process took fifteen years, from 447 to 432 BC.
The interior of the Parthenon was divided into two separate areas, with entrances on each opposite facade of the building. The eastern hall, the largest, was divided into three aisles by Doric columns and housed the sculpture of Athena created by Phidias. The western hall, with four Ionic columns in the center, was used to guard the treasure of the goddess and was known as the Parthenon, i.e. the hall of the virgins. The main facade was oriented towards the east, in the direction where the sun rises, as was common in the religious constructions of antiquity. It had eight columns on its two main facades and seventeen on the sides that surrounded the entire temple, creating a corridor or ambulatory that allowed the population to circulate around the temple during religious festivities.
On the outside, the temple had an area of 69.54 meters by 30.87 meters, with columns measuring 10.43 meters in height. It had a staircase composed of three steps that surrounded the base: the first two lower steps were called stereobaths and the upper step, stylobath.
The Parthenon was Doric in style and was designed with slight corrections to counteract the optical effects of perspective, using apparently straight lines that were actually slightly curved to achieve greater harmony. This feature was identified by the English architect Penrose in 1847. The building remained largely intact until 1687, when it suffered significant damage due to an explosion during the Veneto-Turkish war. It is believed that Phidias' sculptures were initially created in clay or plaster and then converted to marble by his apprentices. The pediment on the western façade depicted the struggle between Athena and Poseidon for the patronage of the city, while the eastern pediment according to Pausanias, showed the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus. The pediments are known from 17th century drawings and ancient copies.
The innovative architectural feature of the Parthenon was the interior frieze that ran along the wall of the nave, a feature that no previous Doric building had employed for decorative purposes. This frieze was 160 meters long, 105 cm high and 5.6 cm deep in its most prominent parts. It was carved in marble from Mount Pentelicus, located 19 km from the Acropolis. The frieze was composed of 378 human figures and 245 animal figures representing the procession of the Panathenaean festivities.
The sculptures were polychrome, with the metopes and friezes in red, while the pediment had a blue tone and the eyes and hair of the figures were painted. Of the 92 original metopes, only 19 are preserved, some in the temple itself and others in the British Museum, since most were damaged on the many occasions when the building was looted. The metopes on the north side represented the capture of Troy; those on the east, the struggle of the gods against the giants; those on the south, the centauromaquia; and those on the west, a battle between the Greeks and the Amazons.