Tour of American Copycat Culture — Stop #2
Pagan Temple dedicated to the Sixteenth President of the United States.
The next stop on our tour brings us to a wannabe Wonder of the World. You’ve heard of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, yes? The original list comes from a work by Philo of Byzantium written in 225 B.C. called On The Seven Wonders. This list includes some of mankind’s most extraordinary achievements in ingenuity and imagination:
- Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt
- Hanging Gardens of Babylon
- Statue of Zeus at Olympia
- Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
- Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
- Colossus of Rhodes
- Lighthouse of Alexandria
Tragically, only one of the seven ancient wonders exists today.
Wouldn’t this have been remarkable to see? A 5th century B.C. 40-foot cryselephenine sculpture of Zeus, the chief of the gods, seated inside a massive white-columned temple?
Unfortunately after eight centuries, Christians persuaded the Roman emperor to close the temple in the fourth century A.D and the statue was moved to a temple in Constantinople, where it is believed to have been destroyed in a fire in the year 462. Only shattered fragments of the great temple remain today.
Fortunately for us, Washington D.C. has something stunningly similar. Although there are several monuments dedicated to American Presidents, the Lincoln Memorial is by far the grandest.
This neoclassical masterpiece stands 189.7 by 118.5 feet (57.8 by 36.1 m) and is 99 feet (30 m) tall, surrounded by 36 fluted Doric columns, one for each of the 36 states in the Union at the time of Lincoln’s death. Centered in the open air Memorial is a 19-foot Tennessee-marble statue of Abraham Lincoln sitting in contemplation, staring through the columns across the National Mall.
It may seem strange to see a Doric temple dedicated to a mortal man in a country who was founded upon rejection of royalty, but Abraham Lincoln was no ordinary man.
A 2015 poll administered by the American Political Science Association (APSA) among political scientists specializing in the American presidency had Abraham Lincoln in the top spot among the rankings of US presidents. He saved this nation from the brink of disaster, preserved the Union, modernized the economy, and issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which was the beginning to freeing the slaves. He whole-heartedly believed in America as “the land of the free and the home of the brave,” acting as the moral compass for the country through the First American Civil War*.
“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.”
— Abraham Lincoln
His legacy is a reminder of courage and compassion. Since the Memorial’s dedication in 1922, it has become a major tourist attraction and since the 1930s has been a symbolic center for race relations. Martin Luther King Jr delivered his historic “I Have A Dream” speech before the Memorial, honoring the president who had issued the Emancipation Proclamation 100 years earlier.
The Memorial is a reminder that history often repeats itself, whether in architecture or in events. Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it. Let’s not be those people.
^Zeus making an appearance?
We will follow Lincoln’s eyes to our next stop, a giant Egyptian obelisk in the middle of Washington D.C., commonly known as the Washington Monument.
Thanks for reading!
*Just in case.
