After 2,000 Years: Mathematician Shatters the Giant Myth of Ancient Greece

A new study by an Oxford mathematician casts doubt on the ancient myth that the builders of the Parthenon deliberately designed curves and distortions in the structure to compensate for optical illusions. Prof. Alan Goriely examined 12 'optical corrections' attributed to the temple and found that they lack convincing scientific basis, or are too small for the human eye to discern.

A new study shatters a 2,000-year-old myth about the Parthenon in Athens. Prof. Alan Goriely from the Institute of Mathematics at the University of Oxford examined the claim that the builders of the Parthenon deliberately designed curves and distortions in the structure to compensate for optical illusions. In the study published in Royal Society Open Science, he reviewed 12 different 'optical corrections' attributed to the Parthenon and found that they are not supported by evidence, or are too small for a person standing in front of the temple to even notice their effect. A key example is the base of the columns, which is gently raised toward the center in an arc about 6 cm high. According to the myth, this was meant to compensate for an illusion where a long horizontal line appears to sag in the middle. Goriely argues that there is no convincing scientific basis for the existence of this illusion, and offers alternative explanations such as rainwater drainage or aesthetic considerations. Another myth concerns the columns themselves, which thicken slightly in the center (entasis) by a bulge of about 18 mm, also too small to have an effect. The study challenges the accepted story and points to its origins in the Roman architect Vitruvius and 19th-century measurements.