Inventory number
Ακρ. 2381
Artist
Pheidias' workshop
Category
Architectural sculpture
Period
Classical Period
Date
437-432 BC
Dimensions
Height: 0.317 m
Length: 0.312 m
Width: 0.4 m
Material
Marble from Penteli
Location
Parthenon Gallery
Part of a head reassembled from three joining fragments. The represented figure remains as yet unidentified. Some researchers believe it belongs to the peplophoros woman that stood in the centre of the pediment (Ακρ. 6711) usually interpreted as Hera or Eileithyia. According to another approach, the head belongs to a male figure, perhaps Helios (Sun) (Ακρ. 1215).
Only the left eye and part of the right one are preserved. The wavy hair that form locks over the forehead is held with a band and partially covered by the edge of the himation. Metal ornaments that were fitted into the small holes drilled in the hair completed the hairstyle. One additional hole was opened at the top of the head. The more elaborate rendering of details on the left side may indicate that this was the primarily visible side of the sculpture.
The head fragments were retrieved separately at different locations and at different dates. The first was found in 1984 among other marble fragments north of the Propylaia and the second in 1990 on the south slope of the Acropolis whereas we have no relevant information about the third fragment.
The east pediment portrayed the miraculous birth of Athena from the head of her father Zeus. The scene takes place on Mt Olympus in the presence of the other gods who watch standing, sitting or half-reclining. The pediments' corners contained the chariots of Helios (Sun), which emerges from the sea, and Selene (Moon), which sinks in the ocean waves, indicating thus that the goddess' birth takes place at dawn. The centre of the scene was occupied by the statues of Zeus and Athena. Due to the misadventures suffered by the Parthenon over the following centuries, many of the temple's sculptures have been destroyed; some survive in mutilated form, while others are represented only by small fragments.
The two Parthenon pediments are adorned with about fifty oversized statues. The sculptures perfectly worked even on their unseen sides present scenes from the myths of the goddess Athena.
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