Athena Nike Temple. Parapet. Nike

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Provision of image

Inventory number

Ακρ. 1014

Artist

Agorakritos' workshop

Category

Architectural sculpture

Period

Classical Period

Date

Around 410 BC

Dimensions

Height: 0.74 m
Length: 0.4 m

Material

Marble from Penteli

Location

First Floor, West

Description
Bibliography

Part of a slab mended of joining fragments and restored. It comes from the parapet that was constructed around the Temple of Athena Nike. Both the location and the time that they were found remain unknown although the first time they were mentioned is 1842. Some smaller fragments were lost during the dismantling and restoration of the depicted figure in the 19th century, however, they are known through plaster casts housed today in the Acropolis Museum and Staatlichen Museen in Berlin.

A standing Nike with spread wings is depicted, preserved down to her middle thighs. She is draped in a girded peplos fastened with metal fibulae on the shoulders and over it a fine himation. The edges of the band around her hair fall on her shoulders. With her left hand, which is now lost, she held a greave. Most probably she was about to adorn a trophy or watched a sacrifice. It not known where this Nike stood on the balustrad.

The parapet enclosed the three sides of the bastion, on which the temple was built. It consisted of slabs approximately one meter in height whose outer surfaces were decorated with relief scenes visible by those ascending the Acropolis. The holes preserved on the upper surface of these slabs indicate that there was originally a metal railing, which further raised the height of the parapet.

The theme depicted on the parapet is a celebration of the military victories of the Athenians against their enemies, either Persians or other Greeks. The narrative is not continuous; instead it is composed of separate, individual scenes which – with slight variations – recur on each side of the parapet: winged Nikai lead bulls to sacrifice or hold weapons and adorn victory trophies with Greek or Persian armour. Among them sits goddess Athena, resting after victorious battles. The carving of the temple's sculptures was carried out by many different artists under the supervision of Agorakritos. These sculpted figures are highly representative of the end of the 5th cent. BC style called by archaeologists the "Rich Style".

In 1687 the temple and the parapet of Athena Nike were dismantled by the Ottomans and the material was used for the reinforcement of a gun emplacement and the fortification of the west side of the Acropolis against the attacks by the Venetians under the command of the general Francesco Morosini. Between 1835 and 1836 the gun emplacement was demolished and the Temple of Athena Nike was restored for the first time under the supervision of Ludwig Ross, the administrator of antiquities at the time. A second reconstruction was carried out in 1940, while a third was completed in 2010.

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