Athena Promachos

The "Athena Promachos" (Ἀθηνᾶ Πρόμαχος "Athena who fights in the front line") was a colossal bronze statue of Athena sculpted by the great Pheidias, which stood between the Propylaea [Its surviving base shows that it was aligned with the old Propylon, before the construction of the existing "new" Propylaea.] and the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens. Athena was the goddess of wisdom and warriors and the protectress of Athens. Pheidias also sculpted two other figures of Athena on the Acropolis, the huge gold and ivory ("chryselephantine") cult image of "Athena Parthenos" in the Parthenon and the "Lemnian Athena". The designation "Athena Promachos" is not attested before a dedicatory inscription of the early fourth century CE: [Birte Lundgreen, "A Methodological Enquiry: The Great Bronze Athena by Pheidias" "The Journal of Hellenic Studies" 117 (1997, pp. 190-197) p 198. Lundgreen usefully assembles the literature.] Pausanias (1.28.2), for one, referred to it as "the great bronze Athena" on the Acropolis.

The "Athena Promachos" was one of Pheidias' earliest recorded works: it was placed in about 456 BCE. It was made with the spoils of the Battle of Marathon, won several years earlier. Parts of the marble base remain; according to the preserved inscription, it measured about 30 feet (9 m) high. [Dinsmoor, William Bell. 1921. "Attic building accounts. IV. The statue of Athena Promachos.", "American Journal of Archaeology" 25/2, pp 118-129.] It showed Athena standing with her shield resting upright against her leg, and a spear in her right hand. The statue was so big it was possible to see the tip of the spear and her helmet crest at sea off Cape Sounion. ["There is first a bronze Athena, tithe from the Persians who landed at Marathon. It is the work of Pheidias, but the reliefs upon the shield, including the fight between Centaurs and Lapithae, are said to be from the chisel of Mys, for whom they say Parrhasius the son of Evenor, designed this and the rest of his works. The point of the spear of this Athena and the crest of her helmet are visible to those sailing to Athens, as soon as Sunium is passed." Pausanias, "Description of Greece" 1.28.2]

Surviving accounts for the sculpture cover nine years, but the dates are not identifiable, because the names of officials are missing (Stewart; Lundgreen 1997:191). The sculpture may have commemorated Kimon's defeat of the Persians at the Eurymedon in 467 or the peace of Kallias in about 450/49 (Walsh 1981).

The appearance of the "Athena Promachos" can only be certainly identified on a few Attic coins minted in Roman times, in the first and second centuries CE, providing clues to identifying versions in surviving sculptures, with varying confidence. They show that she wore a belted garment and stretched forward her right hand on which a winged object can be seen. A spear leans against one shoulder and her shield, which we know was made separately, by different artists, rests on the ground. Sometimes the plinth is indicated. Her crested helmet is sometimes rendered as Attic in type, sometimes Corinthian. [ Lundgreen 1997:191. Lundgreen rejects as useful evidence reliefs on Attic and Roman lamps and Byzantine manuscript illuminations.]

"Athena Promachos" stood [Some references casually refer to her as "sitting".] overlooking her city for about 1000 years until shortly after 465 CE, [Lundgreen 1997:190.] when she was transported to Constantinople (capital of the Eastern Roman Empire), as a trophy in the "Oval Forum", the last bastion and safe haven for many surviving Greek bronze sculptures, under the protection of the Eastern Empire's Imperial court.

The "Athena Promachos" was finally destroyed in 1203 by a superstitious Christian mob who thought she was beckoning the crusaders who had besieged the city (Jenkins 1947).

Of surviving models thought to represent the type, the two outstanding are the "Athena Elgin", a small bronze statuette in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, [MMA acc. no. 50.11.1. Height 0.149 m.] who bears an owl in her outstretched hand (like some coin types), and the "Athena Medici" torso in the Musée du Louvre [MA 3070. Height 2.6 m.] , of which there are a number of replicas.

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"
* [http://www.swan.ac.uk/classics/staff/dg/lectures/ma/niket.htm 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.
* [http://www.goddess-athena.org/Museum/Sculptures/Alone/Athena_Promachos_Acropolis_x.htm Roy George, "Athena Promachos (Pheidias)"] : interpreting documentation of a Roman coin. Reconstructions of urbanistic context.
* [http://bama.ua.edu/~ksummers/cl222/LECT6/sld012.htm The pre-Phidian type of "Athena Promachos", armed, striding forward, spear at the ready] : votive bronze, ca 480 BCE (Archaeological Museum of Athens)