The statue of Athena Parthenos () was a monumental chryselephantine sculpture of the goddess Athena. Attributed to Phidias and dated to the mid-fifth century BCE, it was an offering from the city of Athens to Athena, its tutelary deity. The naos of the Parthenon on the acropolis of Athens was designed exclusively to accommodate it.
Many artists and craftsmen worked on the realization of the sculpture, which was probably built around a core of cypress wood, and then paneled with gold and ivory plates. At about 13 meters high, the statue reflected the established aesthetic canon of the severe style (clothing) while adopting the innovations of the high classical (leg position). She was helmeted and held a large round shield and spear, placed on the ground to her left, next to her sacred snake. Clothes, jewellery, accessories, and even the statue base were decorated, mainly with the snake and gorgon motif.
The statue was lost at an unknown date sometime in the first millennium. Several replicas and works were inspired by the original.
Parthenon and statue of Athena
In 480 BCE, the Persians ransacked the Acropolis of Athens, including the pre-Parthenon, which was under construction at the time. After their victories in Salamis and Plataea, the Athenians had sworn not to complete the destroyed temples but to leave them as they were, in memory of the Persian "barbarism".Neils 2006, p. 11. In the succeeding years, however, Athens grew to control much of the region through its domination of the Delian League, a confederation of Greek states originally designed to protect themselves against the Persians. Within 30 years, the league had evolved into an Athenian powerhouse. By 454 BCE, the Delian treasury had been relocated to Athens, where the money was funnelled into an ambitious plan to rebuild the city and its destroyed temples, including the Parthenon.Neils 2006, p. 44.R. Meiggs, The Athenian Empire, Oxford, 1999, p.48.
The new Parthenon was erected between 447 and 438 BCE. Pericles chose the sculptor Phidias to supervise the building program with the architects Ictinos and Kallikrates.Holtzmann 2003, p. 107. The sekos (closed part surrounded by the peristyle) was divided into two rooms. The small one to the west, the "Parthenon" itself (the "virgin room"), housed the treasure of the League of Delos and other offerings.Neils 2006, p. 28. To the east, the "hecatompedos neos" housed the statue of Athena Parthenos. The room was 29.90 m long, or around one hundred Athenian feet, by 19 m wide, with a ceiling height of 12.50 m.Holtzmann 2003, p. 117.
The new building was not intended to become a temple, but a treasury meant to house the colossal chryselephantine statue of Athena Parthenos. It is even likely that the statue project preceded the building project. This was an offering from the city to the goddess, but not a statue of worship: there was no priestess of Athena Parthenos.
Primary ancient sources about the statue are writings by Pausanias and Pliny the Elder. Pausanias is also the originator of the surname "Parthenos." Early writings mentioned "the statue", "the statue of Athena", "the golden statue of Athena", "the ivory statue of Athena", or simply "the Athena." Since at least the end of the fifth century BCE, however, the patron goddess of the Parthenon has been known as "Athena Parthenos."Lapatin 2005, p. 288, note 1.
Construction
According to Pausanias and Plutarch, the statue is not by Phidias alone but of a team of craftsmen representing several trades, Phidias supervising all the decoration work of the Parthenon.Richard David Barnett, Ancient ivories in the Middle East, Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1982, p. 63Lapatin 2005, p. 270-271. The location of the workshop where the statue was made is unknown. It could have been on the acropolis, at the eastern end, under what was later to become the old Acropolis museum. However, given the cost of precious materials (gold and ivory), it could also have been installed elsewhere, at the foot of the sacred rock, far from the comings and goings of the main site and its dust.
The statue was likely made of "spare parts", perhaps first mounted in the workshop, then dismantled, moved to the Parthenon, after its completion, and installed in its final place. The remaining accounts make it possible to estimate the cost of the work at 704 talents, or the equivalent of 200 Triremes (the city's naval power base). However, the statue was considered an ultimate financial reserve, the gold decorating it could be melted down if necessary.Holtzmann 2003, p. 109-112. According to the various ancient authors, the weight of gold used was between 40 and 50 talents, or between 1 and 1.3 tons of gold. By way of comparison, the annual toll of the "allies" of the League of Delos at the time amounted to 28 talents. On another note, this gold would have represented for the city of Athens more than a year's salary for 10,000 skilled workers, more than a year's pay for 10,000 hoplites or 10,000 rowers in the war fleet.Lapatin 2005, p. 270. The quantity and cost of ivory are more difficult to determine. It was needed for the face, arms, and feet of the statue, as well as for the gorgon's head depicted on the goddess's chest. It is less certain that ivory could have been used for the rendering of snake scales. On an inscription of 440-439 BCE there is recorded the purchase of an unknown amount of elephant ivory for the sum of 24 talents and 743 silver drachmas. However, it is difficult to know if this constituted all the necessary material.Lapatin 2005, p. 271.
The statue was mounted on a rot-proof wooden frame, probably cypress. A decree of the Athenians thanks the people of the Eteocarpathians for providing them with a large quantity of cypress wood. This wood came from a forest dedicated to Apollo and therefore could only be exploited for religious purposes. In the Parthenon's soil is still visible the hole (75.5 cm by 54 cm and 37 cm deep) where the central beam was planted. Around this "mast", a whole frame in the same cypress wood gave shape to the statue. The city had the technique and craftsmen capable of this work with its many marine carpenters.Lapatin 2005, p. 272-273. To this reinforcement were fixed, probably nailed, gold plates. It is not possible to know if they had been melted (and the moulds preserved, perhaps in case of repair) or hammered (Sphyrelaton technique).Lapatin 2005, p. 274-275 and 278. Ivory work was much more difficult, even if the statue of Athena Parthenos was not the first Greek statue to use this imported material. Oppian gives valuable indications of the techniques used. The necessary surfaces (face, arms, and feet) far exceeded the size of elephant tusks. However, these are made up of thin layers of superimposed ivory that can be "unrolled like a roll of papyrus". The next problem was to give shape to these long blades. It was the work of specialists able to soften the material and then mould it. The ivory plates thus created had the flexibility of the wax plates used for moulding bronze statues, a technique that Phidias mastered perfectly.Lapatin 2005, p. 272 and 275-278. If the gold plates were probably directly nailed to the frame, the more fragile ivory was certainly fixed more delicately with dowels or glued with fish glue. The joints between ivory plates would most certainly have been masked in the drop shadows and by jewellery (bracelets and necklace). The ivory then had to be polished, most often with squatine skins (type of shark). Finally, the ivory was painted: the goddess was "made-up", using red pigment on her cheeks and lips as well as on her nails. It is also very unlikely that the gold was left as is; it would likely have been inlaid with precious and semi-precious stones that reflected the light.Lapatin 2005, p. 278-279.
The statue must have been completed in 438 BCE when it was consecrated and installed in the Parthenon. Gold and ivory that had not been used were then offered for sale.
Description
The statue was installed in the main room of the Parthenon to the east. Behind her and on her sides, Doric columns supported the roof and offered her the setting of a canopy. In front of her, a large basin filled with water played several roles: it was used to maintain a sufficient degree of humidity in the room (to conserve ivory) and it also had to reflect the external light and illuminate the work. It was suggested that there could have been windows (probably 3 m high and 2.5 m wide) on each side of the door (9.75 m high and 4.19 m wide) that would have allowed daylight in.Lapatin 2005, p. 262 and 279.Holtzmann 2003, p. 118.
According to Pliny the Elder, the statue measured 26 cubits (about 11.50 m) in height, probably including the base. Thus it would have risen within one and a half meters from the ceiling, filling the room with the divine presence. Phidias' idea was apparently to represent the goddess under her "true" aspect, in all her majesty, beauty, magnificence, and size, since the gods were considered to be much taller than humans.
Only the pedestal of the statue has been preserved. It is a parallelepiped in poros measuring and high. On the front of this base, a carved plaque evoked the birth of Pandora in the presence of twenty gods. It is the only decorative element that was not subsequently copied and reproduced, so its details are unknown. It is not even possible to know if the plaque was made of marble or gilded bronze. The presence of this theme (birth of the first woman and the first femme fatale) is quite difficult to reconcile with the representation of the virgin goddess of wisdom. It was perhaps a symbol of both aspects of femininity, or even the growing role of women in Athens in the fifth century BCE. Other interpretations have been proposed. Because Helios and Selene framed the scene, it is possible to interpret it as a kind of calendar. But Pandora can also be understood as a warning that, with the gods, nothing is ever taken for granted. On this reading, the triumphant Athens of Pericles has mastered modern techniques, just as the first men mastered fire. But those men had thereby unbalanced the old order and had been punished with the gift of a dangerous woman made by Hephaestus, god of fire and technology. Athens, therefore, had to avoid a similar form of hubris. More optimistically, Pandora's myth could be a reminder that even in dire straits, hope can always be reborn.Lapatin 2005, p. 269. Finally, far from Pandora described by Hesiod and quoted by Pausanias to evoke the decoration of the base, there is an Athenian Pandora. She is one of the daughters of Erechtheus, one of the Hyacinthides who sacrificed herself to save the city. She would have had a miraculous birth, of the autochthonic type, and was linked to the goddess Athena, mainly by weaving. Pandora was presented in this Athenian myth as a kourotrophic (child carrier therefore a nurse) and a bearer of benefits. From then on, Joan Connelly proposes to read the scene as the apotheosis of Athenian Pandora, and not as the birth of the "Hesiodic" Pandora.Lapatin 2005, p. 269 and 289 (note).
Athena wore a peplos half-open on the right side, as was the rule for female representations in the first half of the fifth century BCE. However, her posture was new (in the canon that Polykleitos would then develop for his athlete statues): the left leg was a little bent, the knee forward, the heel not posing on the ground. This posture seems to have been chosen more for technical reasons of balance and volume of the lower manikin than for aesthetic reasons. The bust, on the other hand, does not seem to have been affected by the imbalance of the lower body, it would have been very straight and frontal.