Temple of Athena Nike on the Acropolis, South Frieze

One slab.
The little temple of Athena Nike was built on the site of an earlier shrine. Unlike the Parthenon it used the more slender proportions of the Ionic order of architecture. It has a dramatic high position looking westwards from the edge of the Athenian Acropolis, next to the entrance.

The external frieze is made up of a series of battle scenes involving the Greeks and their enemies. The south frieze here features opponents in oriental dress, probably Persians.

Like much of the temple, the friezes had been dismantled and reused to build fortifications in late medieval times

Number

158

Material

Pentelic marble

Location of Original

London British Museum 424

Size

1.95m long

References

Lippold: Griechische Plastik, 194, pl. 69.3
Richter: Sculpture & Sculptors of the Greeks (1950), fig.295

Date

c.425 BCE

Provenance

Removed from the Acropolis by Lord Elgin, the temple having already been dismantled in medieval times

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