Before the Parthenon and the other buildings that we see today were built, there were earlier temples on the Acropolis long since destroyed. Excavations have uncovered the foundations of several buildings, and also some sculptures, discarded and buried in antiquity.
This group came from one such temple. It shows Athena, with arm outstretched, striking down a fallen Giant. The Battle of Gods and Giants for supremacy of the world is one of the earliest Greek myths. Significantly, this group was the first temple sculpture to be carved completely in the round, and the first with a unified subject
Athens, Acropolis Museum 631
Purchased 1930
Lippold: Griechische Plastik, 75, pl. 21, 1
Schrader: Archaischen Marmorbildwerke des Akropolis (1939), 353-
Payne & Young: Archaic Marble Sculpture from the Acropolis, 52-
Dickins: Catalogue of the Acropolis Museum I, 169-
Stewart: Greek Sculpture, 129, pls. 205-6
Moore: American Journal of Archaeology vol.99 no.4 (October 1995), 633
Hurwit: The Athenian Acropolis (1999), 123
Found on the Acropolis, Athens
