To understand the Parthenon, however, one must realize that its primary purpose was to provide protective shelter and serve as a showcase for the colossal statue of Athena Parthenos.

The ekkelesia commissioned Phidias to create the statue of Athena Parthenos. Phidias had earned a reputation as a master bronze worker principally for his Marathon bronze group dedicated by the city of Athens to Apollo at Delphi and for his larger than life statue of Athena Promachus which had just recently been installed on the Acropolis.

The statue of Athena Parthenos was to be constructed, not of bronze, but of gold and ivory. The face, arms, and feet of the statue were to be fashioned of ivory; the clothing, of thickly plated gold. The eyes of Athena Parthenos would stare down at the observer with the gleam of precious gems. The enormous size of the statue, a towering thirty-three feet, and the costly nature of the materials out of which it was to be fashioned were designed to overwhelm the viewer, occasioning a sense of religious awe.

Phidias conceived of a statue so huge that the temple would have to be enlarged beyond the preexisting foundations in order to make room for it.

In order to combine the gold and ivory, Phidias constructed an armature on which to fasten the various parts. Plutarch reflects on the prudence of this measure. He asserts that Pericles recommended the idea of a snap together statue to his friend Phidias in case anyone should ask to weigh the gold by way of challenging the sculptor's honesty, which Pericles' opponents did, as soon as the statue was completed. Plutarch also notes the humorous fact that the hollow statue served as a nesting place for a colony of noisy field mice who gladly accepted the protection of the goddess.

The statue presented Athena in full battle array.

A winged Nike settled in Athena's outstretched right hand; the left clasped a spear. By her side rested a gloriously engraved shield, behind which curled Erichthonios, the mystic cult serpent of Athens. The crested helmet on her head flourished a team of horses. There is little beyond this of which we can be certain, for no detailed replica of this famous statue has come to light, although we have many crude models. Simply imagine trying to reconstruct an exact copy of the Statue of Liberty from a souvenir pencil sharpener.

We do know that the statue of Athena Parthenos was decorated with three prominent battle scenes. The first, embossed on the outside of the shield, depicted the Battle of the Amazons.

Theseus, the mythological founder of Athens, leads an army of Athenian men in battle against an invading army of Amazons driving down from the north. The second scene was portrayed on the inside of the shield and featured the Battle of the Olympians and the Titans for control of the universe.

The third scene, the Battle of the human Lapiths and the half-human Centaurs, embellished the sandals. The Lapiths were believed to be the early inhabitants of Thrace. When the Lapith King was married, he invited the Centaurs to the wedding. The bestial Centaurs got drunk and assaulted the women. After a violent struggle, the Lapiths routed the Centaurs and banished them from the country.

To the ancient Greeks, myths were fused with historical understanding. Yet, from the way that they are treated in the Parthenon, we can see myths being used poetically, to strike resonant cords in the human imagination.

These mythological battle scenes suggest the struggle between civilization and barbarism, order and chaos, sophrosyne and hubris. In the minds of contemporary Athenians they could not have failed to evoke recollections of the valiant contest between Greece and Persia in which the city of Athens played a noble conspicuous role.

The battle scenes portrayed on the statue of Athena are echoed in the outer decorations of the temple itself. The Battle of the Amazons is portrayed in the metopes on the West side of the Parthenon. The Battle of the Titans appears in the metopes on the East side of the temple. The Battle of the Lapiths and  Centaurs, of which we have the only existing metopes, occurs on the south side of the building.

The birth of Erichthonios is also portrayed there. Only on the north side of the Parthenon is a new battle scene introduced: the Trojan War, the most obvious analogue of the Persian War, deliberately positioned to face the direction of the invasion.

The metopes were the first of the decorations to be completed. Originally, there were ninety-two of them. Thirty-two across each of the north and south sides and fourteen across each end.  When a Greek temple was constructed, the outside columns and entablature were erected first. Before the cornice could be set, the metopes had to be fixed in place. Consequently, the sculptors who worked on the metopes rushed to complete their assignment.

The quality of the metopes that we have varies greatly. In some of the metopes the figures appear to be rather crudely featured and poorly positioned. Some are scarcely animated.

In others, however, the figures are cleverly placed, figuratively refined, and vigorously animated. One of the best displays an arrangement of diagonal lines that nicely offsets the vertical framing of the triglyphs.

The metopes were executed in high relief and simple form in order to impress a viewer gazing upwards from thirty-five feet below. To come upon them at eye level in a museum does not really do them justice. Moreover, the metopes were painted.

According to Pausanius, the figures themselves were left bare, but the backgrounds were painted. The triglyphs were dark blue. The molding was red. Draperies were painted in natural colors, as were the eyes and hair.