Financial accounts for the construction of the gold and ivory statue

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Provision of image

Inventory number

ΕΜ 6769

Artist

Attic workshop

Category

Inscription

Period

Classical Period

Date

438/7 BC

Dimensions

Height: 0.86 m
Length: 0.16 m
Width: 0.17 m

Material

Marble from Penteli

Location

Atrium. Parthenon Gallery

Description
Bibliography

Two joining fragments of an inscribed stele which were found in 1862 embedded in the sanctuary of the Christian Church Parthenon was converted into. The stele contains the complete account of revenues and expenses of the officials whom the Athenian state had charged with overseeing the construction of the colossal chryselephantine statue of Athena Parthenos commissioned from Pheidias.

Preserved are roughly 19 lines inscribed stoichedon in the Attic alphabet. The lettering on the lines that refer to sums of money is larger than the rest of the text. The total amount used is estimated between 700 and 1000 talents. Then the amount is analysed: a sum given by someone called Kallaeschros is mentioned followed by the expense lists, lists of final workmanship, statue construction and workmen cost.

The unusually large sums of money recorded on this stele may have implied that the gold employed in the construction of the statue of Athena Parthenos could be used as state backlog in case of emergency.

Attic Inscriptions Online, https://www.atticinscriptions.com, αρ. κατ. IG I3 460
Πιττάκης, Κ.Σ., «Α΄ Επιγραφαί Ελληνικαί», Αρχαιολογική Εφημερίς 1862, σελ. 72-74, εικ. 74-75
Inscriptiones Graecae Ι3 , αρ. κατ. 460
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. 114Β
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. 1094-1097, αρ. κατ. 460
Παντερμαλής, Δ. (επιμ.), Περικλής Ξανθίππου, Μουσείο Ακρόπολης, 20 Ιουνίου 2010-31 Ιανουαρίου 2011, Αθήνα, 2011, σελ. 46, 54-55, αρ. κατ. 30
Ματθαίου, Α., Μαλούχου, Γ., Συνοπτικός κατάλογος των επιγραφών της Ακροπόλεως, Αθήνα, 2012, σελ. 23
Παντερμαλής, Δ., Ελευθεράτου, Σ., Βλασσοπούλου, Χ., Μουσείο Ακρόπολης. Οδηγός, Αθήνα, 2016, σελ. 238-239, εικ. 294