Archive:Athena Parthenos

2007-04-20T19:55:47Z

80.218.51.190: /* Replica at Nashville */

'''''Athena Parthenos''''' is the title of a massive [[chryselephantine]] [[sculpture]] of the [[Greek mythology|Greek]] [[goddess]] [[Athena]] by [[Phidias]], which was housed in the [[Parthenon]] in [[Athens]].
[[Image:NAMA Athéna Varvakeion.jpg|thumb|200px|A votive sculpture, found near the [[Ioannis Varvakis|Varvakeion school]] reflects the type of the restored ''Athena Parthenos'': Roman period, second century CE (National Archaeological Museum, Athens).]]
It was the most renowned [[cult image]] of Athens,<ref>The ''Athena Parthenos'' was featured on contemporary reliefs commemorating Athenian treaties and for the next century and a half on coins of [[Hellenistic]] monarchs avid to proclaim their Hellenic connections; see Hector Williams, "An Athena Parthenos from Cilicia" ''Anatolian Studies'' '''27''' (1977, pp. 105-110), p 108f.</ref> considered one of the greatest achievements of the most acclaimed sculptor of ancient Greece. Phidias began his work around 447 BCE,<ref>Andrew Stewart gives 446.</ref> [[Lachares]] removed the gold sheets in 296 BCE to pay his troops, and the bronze was probably gilded thereafter; it was damaged by a fire about 165 BCE but repaired.<ref>W.B. Dinsmoor, "the repair of the Athena Parthenos" ''[[American Journal of Archaeology]]'' '''38''' (1934) pp 93-106.</ref> It continued to stand in the Parthenon in the fifth century CE, when it may have been lost in another fire. An account mentions it in Constantinople in the tenth century, however.<ref>[[Gisela Richter]], ''Sculpture and Sculptors of the Greeks'', p 220 with ancient references, noted by Gorham P. Stevens, "Concerning the Parthenos" ''Hesperia'' '''30'''.1 (January 1961, pp. 1-7) p. 2.</ref>

==Description==
The ancient historian [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] gave a description of the statue:
<blockquote>...The statue itself is made of ivory and gold. On the middle of her helmet is placed a likeness of the [[Sphinx]] ... and on either side of the helmet are [[griffin]]s in relief. ... The statue of Athena is upright, with a tunic reaching to the feet, and on her breast the head of [[Medusa]] is worked in ivory. She holds a statue of [[Nike (mythology)|Victory]] about four [[cubit]]s high, and in the other hand a spear; at her feet lies a shield and near the spear is a serpent. This serpent would be [[Erichthonius of Athens|Erichthonius]]. On the pedestal is the birth of [[Pandora]] in relief.<ref>Pausanias, ''Description of Greece'', Book I, 24.5–7.</ref></blockquote>

Athena's head is inclined slightly forward. She stands with her left hand resting on an upright shield. Her left knee is slightly bent, her weight slightly shifted to her right leg. Her [[chiton]] is cinched at the waist by a pair of [[Serpent (symbolism)|serpents]], whose tails entwine at the back. Locks of hair trail onto the goddess's breastplate. The Nike on her outstretched right hand is winged; whether there was a support under it in Phidias' original has been much discussed;<ref>[[Gisela Richter]] decided there was not and summarized the discussion in "Was there a vertical support under the Nike of the Athena Parthenos?" ''Studi in onore... Calderini e Paribeni'' (Milan) 1956, pp 147-54.</ref> evidence in surviving versions is contradictory. The exact position of a spear, often omitted, is also not fully determined, whether held in the crook of Athena's right arm or supported by one of the snakes in the [[aegis]], as N. Leipen restores it,<ref>Leipen 1971:29.</ref> following the "Aspasios" gem.

The sculpture was assembled on a wooden core, covered with shaped bronze plates covered in turn with removable gold plates, save for the ivory surfaces of the goddess's face and arms; the gold weighed 44 [[talent]]s, the equivalent of about 2500 pounds: the ''Athena Parthenos'' embodied a sizeable part of the treasury of Athens.<ref>S. Eddy, "The gold in the Athena Parthenos'' ''Merican Jopurnal of Archaeology'' pp107-11.</ref>

The general type of the ''Athena Parthenos'', though not its character and quality, can be assessed from its image on coins<ref>L. Lacroix ''Les reproductions des statues sur les monnaies gracques'' (Liège) 1949, pp 266-81.</ref> and its reproductions as [[Votive deposit|votive object]]s and representations on engraved gems.<ref>Leipen 1971.</ref> The Varvakeion votive figure (''illustration, right'') is one of the two versions of ''Athena Parthenos'' considered most faithful to the original; the other is the uncompleted Lenormant Athena, also in the National Museum, Athens.

==Ancient copies==
*The ''Varvakeion Athena'', a Roman copy in marble of the ''Athena Parthenos'' from the second century, is housed in the [[National Archaeological Museum of Athens]]. [http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/classics/photos/photodb/Beasom/ParthAthena.jpg]
*Another copy is housed in the [[Louvre]].[http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=809]

==Notes==

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==Further reading==
*Leipen, N. ''Athena Parthenos'' (Toronto) 1971.

==External links==
*[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cl135/Students/Colin_Delaney/fathena.html Colin Delaney, "Pheidias, Sculptor to the Gods"]
* [http://alanlequire.com/athena.html Alan LeQuire Page]
* [http://www.nashville.gov/parthenon/index.htm Nashville Parthenon Page]

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Archive:Athena Parthenos