Inventory number
Ακρ. 20010
Artist
Pheidias' workshop
Category
Architectural sculpture
Period
Classical Period
Date
445-440 BC
Dimensions
Height: 1.338 m
Length: 1.334 m
Material
Marble from Penteli
Location
Parthenon Gallery
On metope 11 Herakles crushes the kneeling Giant on the viewer’s right. A fragment (ΕΑΜ 5673) kept in the Acropolis Museum storeroom has been attributed to the Giant’s face. A small Eros on Herakles’ left directs his arrows towards the Giant depicted on the next metope 12 (Ακρ. 20011). Eros’ wings were once rendered in colour and his quiver’s band made of bronze but now is lost.
Herakles presence was of pivotal significance for the outcome of the battle. According to an ancient oracle, the gods would defeat the Giants only if a mortal would come to their aid. Hence, Zeus summoned Herakles, the son he had with the mortal Alkmene. During the Gigantomachy Herakles slew many Giants among whom was Alkyoneas. The hero managed to kill the Giant only when he held him on his shoulders, pulling him thus away from his homeland’s soil that made him immortal. After the end of the battle Zeus rewarded Herakles for his bravery by making him immortal.
The fourteen metopes decorating the east side of the Parthenon represent the Gigantomachy, the battle between the Olympian gods and the Giants, in which goddess Athena played a leading role.
Each metope on the east side depicts two figures, apart from metopes 4 and 11 that include three figures, and metopes 5, 7, 10 and 14 that show one figure and a chariot. The severe damage of the metopes' surface has made the secure identification of the figures very difficult. The figures are recognised with the help of mythological, literary and iconographic sources. The damages were provoked mainly by intentional hammering perhaps during the conversion of the Parthenon into a Christian church.
The bombardment of the Parthenon by Francesco Morosini in 1687 did not affect the east metopes and their bad condition prevented their removal by Thomas Bruce, lord of Elgin. Between 1801 and 1804 when Greece was under Ottoman occupation, lord of Elgin forcibly detached a big part of the sculptural decoration of the Parthenon which ended up in the British Museum in London. Today all of the east metopes are in the Acropolis Museum. They were removed from the monument between 1987 and 1989 for their protection against air pollution and bad weather conditions.
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