the main factoid tidbits that NOVA wanted to relate last night had to do with the architectural design much more than the actual fabrication. not that they didn't discuss initial construction, but, coming from the perspective of restoration, they were much more caught up in the complete and utter lack

of right angles. HUGE blocks of marble, that were put together in such a way as to camouflage the cracks of space between them, in some instances not more than a human hair apart, surely would indicate a consciousness of right angles, wouldn't they?

i appreciated the discussions of optical illusion, the history of the building itself (along with it's looting: apparently the brits still have the freizes that ran along the outside), how they're doing the restoration, how it was initially constructed, how all the masons were able to work together with a common system of measurement, all of which you could probably read about yourself at:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/

for me, two things were in my mind.
1)the whole concept of the golden mean, which is some kind of ultimate ratio in nature, and which was used extensively in the design of the parthenon. i like the idea of integrating nature into structure via mathematics, mostly because mathematics at large remain a huge mystery to me.

2)when the parthenon was initially conceived, it was under the athenian schtick of general consent, which was important, since so many tax dollars were necessary for it's construction. i wondered if the same conscent was given for it's current restoration, since just one block of marble for just one column's capital was about 1 million US dollars.....dude, that's math i can do!
***when i see parthenon written, it translates in my mind to by the none, which is kinda funny, if you think about it. i mean it was construction by the many men who are nameless, so in a way, it IS kinda by the none....