Inventory number
Ακρ. 7301
Artist
Pheidias' workshop
Category
Architectural sculpture
Period
Classical Period
Date
437-432 BC
Dimensions
Height: 0.61 m
Length: 0.425 m
Width: 0.23 m
Material
Marble from Penteli
Location
Parthenon Gallery
Statue of a nude boy identified with Erysichthon, albeit some researchers suggest he is Erichthonios or Iacchus. Only two fragments of his torso and one from his left leg are preserved. Two drills, one between the shoulder-blades and one at the lower back, may have been associated with the bolstering of the sculpture into the tympanum of the pediment.
The boy is portrayed between Aglauros and Herse, two of his sisters. With his right leg bent while stretching his left, he leans towards his seated sister (Ακρ. 1028) resting his right hand on her knee. He extends his other hand to his left where his other sister (Ακρ. 9331) is depicted. Her long garment possibly snarled up between the boy’s legs and thus part of it can be seen on the inner side of his thigh.
The statue may have fallen off from the pediment in 1687 during the bombardment of the Parthenon by the Venetians under Francesco Morosini. This is the reason that it was not taken by Thomas Bruce, lord of Elgin, who was in Greece between 1801-1804, when the country was under Ottoman rule, and forcibly detached most of the sculptures of the pediment still in their original position.
The west pediment of the Parthenon portrays the dispute between Athena and Poseidon regarding who would become the divine protector of Athens. The contest was held on the Acropolis in the presence of the city’s mythical kings Kekrops and Erechtheus and other local heroes, who as judges decided the outcome in favour of Athena, preferring her gift, the olive tree, to the salty water offered by Poseidon. The centre of the scene is occupied by the two protagonists and their chariots whereas the pediments' corners contain the personifications of two rivers that flowed in ancient Athens, Ilissos and Kephissos. Due to the misadventures suffered by the monument over the following centuries many sculptures have been lost, some survive in mutilated form whereas others are represented only in small fragments.
The two Parthenon pediments are adorned with about fifty oversized statues. The sculptures, perfectly worked even on their unseen, rear sides, present scenes from the myths of the goddess Athena.
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