Financial accounts for the construction of the gold and ivory statue

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Inventory number

ΕΜ 6738

Artist

Attic workshop

Category

Inscription

Period

Classical Period

Date

440/39 BC

Dimensions

Height: 0.44 m
Length: 0.29 m
Width: 0.105 m

Material

Marble from Penteli

Location

Atrium. Parthenon Gallery

Description
Bibliography

Part of an inscribed stele found in January 1889 embedded in the south walls of the Acropolis. The stele contains the annual revenue and expenditure account of the officials whom the Athenian state had charged with overseeing the construction of the colossal chryselephantine statue of Athena Parthenos commissioned from Pheidias.

The text, divided in two columns with the left containing only money sums, is inscribed stoichedon and written in the Attic alphabet. Preserved are seventeen lines from the right column and eight from the left.

The inscription is most likely the complete account of one year. The text begins with the name of the secretary of the statue epistatai and the name of Athena's treasurers’ secretary. They are followed by the names of seven more treasurers although these officials were ten. The available amount for the purchase and cost of the golden sheets that covered the statue’s wooden frame are also included. The ivory used for the face and the limbs of the goddess is mentioned as well. The inscription’s good preservation state suggests that the stele was displayed inside the Parthenon.

On this stele another inscription ΕΜ 637 was also carved which stated the financial account of the following year.

The unusually large sums spent, indicate that the gold employed in the construction of the statue of Athena Parthenos belonged to the public treasury and could be used in case of emergency.

Attic Inscriptions Online, https://www.atticinscriptions.com, αρ. κατ. IG I3 458, Fragment a
Foucart, P., «Inscriptions de L'Acropole: Le Temple D'Aphrodite Pandemos», Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 13, 1889, σελ. 171-174, αρ. κατ. 7
Λόλλιγκ, Α., Καββαδίας, Π., «Τεύχος μηνός Ιανουαρίου», Αρχαιολογικόν Δελτίον E, 1889, σελ. 6-10, αρ. κατ. 1
Meiggs, R., Lewis, D., A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions to the end of the fifth century B.C., Oxford, 1969, σελ. 146-149, αρ. κατ. 54 (47)
Inscriptiones Graecae Ι3 , αρ. κατ. 458, Fragment a
Fornara, Ch.W., Translated documents of Greece and Rome 1. Archaic times to the end of the Peloponnesian War, Cambridge, 1983, σελ. 128, αρ. κατ. 114A
Davison, C.C., Lundgreen, B., Waywell, G.B., Pheidias. The Sculptures and Ancient Sources, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies Supplement 105, London, 2009, σελ. 1091-1093, αρ. κατ. 458A
Παντερμαλής, Δ. (επιμ.), Περικλής Ξανθίππου, Μουσείο Ακρόπολης, 20 Ιουνίου 2010-31 Ιανουαρίου 2011, Αθήνα, 2011, σελ. 46, 52-53, αρ. κατ. 29
Ματθαίου, Α., Μαλούχου, Γ., Συνοπτικός κατάλογος των επιγραφών της Ακροπόλεως, Αθήνα, 2012, σελ. 23
Ματθαίου, Α., «Οι Επιγραφές της Ακροπόλεως», Ανθέμιον 27, 2016, σελ. 12-13, εικ. 18
Παντερμαλής, Δ., Ελευθεράτου, Σ., Βλασσοπούλου, Χ., Μουσείο Ακρόπολης. Οδηγός, Αθήνα, 2016, σελ. 238-239, εικ. 293