Lemnian Athena, headless figure

The sculptor of the Parthenon Pheidias made a bronze Athena that stood on the Acropolis in Athens. It was dedicated and paid for by a colony of Athenians on the island of Lemnos in the north Aegean Sea, shortly after they began living there in 451 BCE.

This is a headless and armless Roman copy of the bronze original. Ancient writers considered it to be close stylistically to the cult statue of Athena in the Parthenon, long since lost. The aegis, the short cloak with a gorgon in the middle and edged with snakes, is unusual in the way it is slung over just one shoulder

Number

131

Material

Marble

Location of Original

Kassel 2

Size

2.01m

Accession

Purchased in 1884 from the casting establishment of the Berlin Museum (?)

References

Lippold: Griechische Plastik, 145, n.8 (?)
Walston: Catalogue of Casts in the Museum of Classical Archaeology (1889), 70, no.321
Bieber: Die Antiken Skulpturen in Cassel, no.2, pl. IX & fig.2
Hurwit: The Athenian Acropolis, 27 & 151

Date

Roman. Original: c.448 BCE

Sculptor

Of original: Pheidias

Provenance

Probably found in Rome

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