Cigarette Card

Wills’s Cigarettes “Wonders of the Past” Cigarette Card #38 “The Parthenon”

Produced in 1926 by W. D. & H. O. Wills.

Issued by The Imperial Tobacco Company (of Great Britain & Ireland) Ltd.

Text on reverse of card reads:

“The great temple to Athene Parthenos on the Acropolis at Athens, known as the Parthenon, is universally conceded to be the finest masterpiece of Greek architecture and sculpture. It was begun in 447 B.C., after the defeat of the Persians at Marathon, by the architects Ictinus and Calli crates at the command of Pericles, and Pheidias, the supreme sculptor, was entrusted with its decoration. Besides the gold and ivory statue of the goddess he designed or inspired the sculpture visible in this restoration, as well as the more famous frieze running round the top of the wall of the shrine within the colonnade.”