Inventory number
Ακρ. 855
Artist
Pheidias' workshop
Category
Architectural sculpture
Period
Classical Period
Date
442-438 BC
Dimensions
Height: 0.22 m
Length: 0.27 m
Material
Marble from Penteli
Location
Parthenon Gallery
Fragment of the upper left corner of Block V fitted into the plaster cast of the original block which is exhibited in the British Museum in London. The fragment depicts the head of a young female goddess, possibly Iris, the messenger of the gods. Some scholars though identify her with Nike or Hebe. It was found in 1889 used as masonry for a Byzantine wall on the Acropolis.
On the rest of the block, Iris arranges her hair with her left hand while she straightens at the same time with her right hand the folds of her peplos. She stands in front of the divine couple of Hera and Zeus, both seated as they receive the procession of the Panathenaic festival, along with the other Olympian gods that are also depicted sitting. Hera turns towards her husband and with her two hands raises the himation that covers her head, known as the typical gesture of revealing found in wedding scenes. Zeus sits on his throne resting his left forearm on the back of his sit. In his right hand he must have held a sceptre, its lowest part shown in relief, the rest of it in applied bronze and its top painted. Behind Zeus the scene of presenting the peplos unfolds. It is composed of five figures. On the left two maidens carry on their heads stools that bear folded textiles and are about to hand them in to a woman, perhaps Athena's priestess. Behind her a mature man, possibly the Archon Basileus, holds up a folded cloth, the Panathenaic peplos, along with a young child, perhaps an Arrhephoros who took part in the peplos' weaving. On the right side of the block, Athena sits with her back turned to the peplos' scene. Her aegis is spread on her lap and she should have held a spear in her right hand. Beside her -turning towards her- sits Hephaistos whose walking-stick beneath his armpit indicates his crippleness.
The frieze on the east side of the Parthenon shows the arrival on the Acropolis of the procession formed by the people of Athens during the festival of the Panathenaia in honour of the protectress of the city, Athena. The procession’s destination was the temple of Athena Polias. Its purpose was the transportation of the Panathenaic peplos destined to adorn the age-old xoanon of the goddess and the offer of a grand sacrifice of animals at the Great Altar outside of the temple.
The converging groups of women from both sides of the east frieze hold ritual vessels and are received by supervisors. The central scene, right above the temple's entrance, depicts the giving of the Panathenaic peplos and takes place in the presence of the Olympian gods who are rendered at a larger scale than the mortals. The gods are flanked with ten male figures, possibly the Eponymous Heroes of Attica, the mythical progenitors of the Athenian tribes.
The east frieze is relatively well preserved as the explosion of the Parthenon by the Venetians under the command of the general Francesco Morosini, in 1687, did not cause many damages on this side of the temple. The drawings attributed to the painter Jacques Carrey, who visited the Acropolis in 1674, just thirteen year
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