The ''Athena Promachos'' (, "Athena who fights in the front line") was a colossal bronze statue of

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of v ...

sculpted by

Pheidias Phidias or Pheidias (; grc, Φειδίας, ''Pheidias''; 480 – 430 BC) was a Greek sculptor, painter, and architect. His Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Phidias also designed the st ...

, which stood between the

Propylaea In ancient Greek architecture, a propylaea, propylea or propylaia (; Greek: προπύλαια) is a monumental gateway. They are seen as a partition, specifically for separating the secular and religious pieces of a city. The prototypical Gr ...

and the

Parthenon The Parthenon (; grc, Παρθενών, , ; ell, Παρθενώνας, , ) is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the goddess Athena during the fifth century BC. Its decorative sculptures are considere ...

on the

Acropolis An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens, ...

of Athens. Athena was the

tutelary deity A tutelary () (also tutelar) is a deity or a spirit who is a guardian, patron, or protector of a particular place, geographic feature, person, lineage, nation, culture, or occupation. The etymology of "tutelary" expresses the concept of safety a ...

of Athens and the goddess of wisdom and warriors. Pheidias also sculpted two other figures of Athena on the Acropolis, the huge gold and ivory ("

chryselephantine Chryselephantine sculpture (from Greek grc, χρυσός, chrysós, gold, label=none, and grc, ελεφάντινος, elephántinos, ivory, label=none) is sculpture made with gold and ivory. Chryselephantine cult statues enjoyed high status ...

cult image In the practice of religion, a cult image is a human-made object that is venerated or worshipped for the deity, spirit or daemon that it embodies or represents. In several traditions, including the ancient religions of Egypt, Greece and Ro ...

of ''

Athena Parthenos The statue of Athena Parthenos ( grc, Παρθένος Ἀθηνᾶ, lit=Athena the Virgin) was a monumental chryselephantine sculpture of the goddess Athena. Attributed to Phidias and dated to the mid-fifth century BCE, it was an offering fr ...

'' in the Parthenon and the ''

Lemnian Athena The ''Lemnian Athena'', or ''Athena Lemnia'', was a classical Greek statue of the goddess Athena. According to geographer Pausanias (1.28.2), the original bronze cast was created by the sculptor Phidias circa 450–440 BCE, for Athenians living ...

''. The designation ''Athena Promachos'' is not attested before a dedicatory inscription of the early fourth century CE;

Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to: *Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium'' *Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC * Pausanias of Sicily, physician of t ...

(1.28.2) referred to it as "the great bronze Athena" on the Acropolis.

History

The ''Athena Promachos'' was one of the earliest recorded works by

and was originally a well-known and famous Athenian landmark. According to the Greek traveler and geographer,

, the top of Athena's helmet as well as the tip of her spear could be seen by sailors and anyone approaching Athens from

Attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean ...

, at

Sounion Cape Sounion (Modern Greek: Aκρωτήριο Σούνιο ''Akrotírio Soúnio'' ; grc, Ἄκρον Σούνιον ''Άkron Soúnion'', latinized ''Sunium''; Venetian: ''Capo Colonne'' "Cape of Columns") is the promontory at the southernmost ...

. It originally stood between the Erechtheion and the

Erected around 456 BCE, the ''Athena Promachos'' was either to memorialize the Battle of Marathon or the Persian Wars which is possibly what the dedicatory inscription refers to; this inscription also mentions that the trophies won in the Persian War were once placed around the

pedestal A pedestal (from French ''piédestal'', Italian ''piedistallo'' 'foot of a stall') or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In ...

of the statue (Raubitschek, A. E., and Gorham P. Stevens). It took somewhere near nine years to construct. According to the Greek Byzantine historian Niketas Choniates, the Athena Promachos stood at around tall. It is known that the statue was to be a 'thanks' after war but there are many disagreements about which war. It has also been suggested that the ''Athena Promachos'' may have been a cult statue. For a long time there was speculation if the ''Athena Promachos'' even existed, however most scholars now agree that it did as there is proof from Roman coins that depict it. Surviving accounts for the creation process for the sculpture cover nine years, but the dates are not identifiable, because the names of officials are missing. The sculpture may have commemorated Kimon's defeat of the Persians at the Eurymedon in 467 or the peace of Kallias in approximately 450 or 449. Made entirely of bronze, the ''Athena Promachos'' was spoken of as both 'the bronze Athena' and 'the great bronze Athena,' in ancient times. The term 'Promachos' meaning 'fighting before' or 'in front of' was not originally used when referring to the statue; this nickname came later, most notably being used by Zosimus. ''Athena Promachos'' stood overlooking her city for approximately 1000 years, until shortly after 465 CE, when the sculpture was transported to

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

(capital of the

Eastern Roman Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantino ...

) as a trophy in the " Oval Forum", which became the last bastion and safe haven for many surviving Greek bronze sculptures under the protection of the Eastern Empire's Imperial court. Niketas Choniates documented a riot taking place in the Forum of Constantine in Constantinople in 1203 CE where a large, bronze, statue of Athena was destroyed by a "drunken crowd" which is now thought to have been the ''Athena Promachos.'' Lemnia torso05 pushkin

Of surviving models thought to represent the type, the two outstanding ones are the ''Athena Elgin'', a small bronze statuette in the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, who bears an owl in her outstretched hand (as among some coin types), and the ''Athena Medici'' torso in the

Musée du Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

,MA 3070. Height 2.6 m. of which there are a number of replicas.

Iconography

The engravings on the shield which Athena is holding were originally drafted by the great Greek painter,

Parrhasius (painter) Parrhasius of Ephesus ( grc-gre, Παρράσιος) was one of the greatest painters of Ancient Greece. Life Born to the painter Evenor, he settled in Athens. The period of his activity is fixed by the anecdote which Xenophon records of the c ...

Ephesus Ephesus (; grc-gre, Ἔφεσος, Éphesos; tr, Efes; may ultimately derive from hit, 𒀀𒉺𒊭, Apaša) was a city in ancient Greece on the coast of Ionia, southwest of present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built i ...

. Although he drafted them, the engravings were physically done by an engraver named Mys. The engravings were not done during the time the statue was being made but actually added after. A 'molding pit' from the fifth century BCE was found near the south side of the Acropolis and it is thought that the statue was made in a nearby workshop. Niketas gives a vivid description of the Athena Parthenos:

Similar depictions

, another lost colossal statue that was originally located inside the

. Made by Phidias. *

, classical Greek statue also made by Phidias. * Varvakeion Athena, a 3rd-century Roman copy of the ''Athena Parthenos''.

Coinage depictions

The very first specific archaistic ''Athena Promachos'' coin image was depicted on coins that were issued by

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...

in 326''.'' One side of this coin depicts

Heracles Heracles ( ; grc-gre, Ἡρακλῆς, , glory/fame of Hera), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptiv ...

while the other side shows the god,

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek relig ...

, with Athena by his knee ready to fight with her spear in her right hand and a shield held in her left. Around ten years later, the ''Athena Promachos'' appears on coins issued by

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...

in Alexandria before taking the title of king around 315 BCE. Attic coins from the second and third centuries CE show the only known images of Phidias' ''Athena Promachos''. On one side is the depiction of the view of the

from the north. Between the Propylaia and the Erechtheion, there is large female statue of Athena facing towards the west. As these images place the statue of the Athena Promachos in this specific location, there is no doubt that it existed. There is another group of provincial Roman coins that depict the bust of Athena alone. In this depiction she is wearing a Corinthian helmet with a "wave" of hair upon her forehead. These coins date from the first half of the second century CE to the second half of the third century CE and are considered to be the most common. Since more coinage depictions of Athena wearing a Corinthian helmet have been found as opposed to those that depict her with an Attic helmet, it is thought that the Corinthian were a more popular representation.

Notes

References

* John Boardman and David Finn, ''The Parthenon and its Sculpture'' * J. J. Pollitt, 2nd ed., 1990. ''The Art of Ancient Greece: Sources and Documents'' (Cambridge University Press) * Jenifer Neils, ed., ''The Parthenon: From Antiquity to the Present''
The Temple of Athena Nike at the Acropolis
Bibliography of the temple and the ''Athena Promachos'' * R.J.H.Jenkins, 1947. "The Bronze Athena at Byzantium", ''Journal of Hellenic Studies'' 67 pp 31–33.

interpreting documentation of a Roman coin. Reconstructions of urbanistic context.

votive bronze, ca 480 BCE ( Archaeological Museum of Athens)

External links

* {{coord, 37, 58, 18, N, 23, 43, 33, E, source:kolossus-itwiki, display=title 5th-century BC religious buildings and structures Acropolis of Athens Sculptures by Phidias Promach Battle of Marathon Ancient Greek military art Ancient Greek and Roman colossal statues Sculptures of Athena