Parthenon. East metope 12
Inventory number
Ακρ. 20011
Artist
Pheidias' workshop
Category
Architectural sculpture
Period
Classical Period
Date
445-440 BC
Dimensions
Height: 1.337 m
Length: 1.332 m
Material
Marble from Penteli
Location
Parthenon Gallery
On metope 12 Aphrodite attacks a Giant that is about to strike her with a big rock. Eros on the previous metope 11 (Ακρ. 20010) aims at the same Giant. This Giant is possibly Porphyrion who was eventually defeated only after he was tricked by Zeus. In order to weaken him, the king of the gods ordered Aphrodite to make the Giant fall in love with Hera. Indeed Aphrodite sent her son Eros to throw his arrows at Porphyrion and thus the Giant abandoned the battle and went after Hera. This gave Herakles, the hero who fought on the gods’ side, the chance to slay him.
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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