Inventory number
Ακρ. 581
Artist
Attic workshop
Category
Sculpture
Period
Archaic Period
Date
490-480 BC
Dimensions
Height: 0.665 m
Length: 0.655 m
Width: 0.085 m
Material
Marble from Paros
Location
Archaic Acropolis Gallery
Votive relief reassembled from fragments and restored. It was found east of the Parthenon in 1883.
The relief depicts Athena receiving a family of five rendered in smaller scale. Athena wears a chiton, a himation which passes obliquely under her arm, large earrings and an Attic-type helmet with a once painted crest. With her right hand she holds her dress while with the left she lifts it up. Two boys, perhaps twins, walk toward her, leading a female boar for the sacrifice. Their father is following them, then their sister and lastly their mother who might be carrying in her raised arms an offering for the goddess. The mother is dressed in a chiton and a cloak draped over her shoulders. The way her chiton curves around her abdomen might suggest that she was pregnant.
Most likely, this relief depicts a family offering a sacrifice to Athena Phratria, protectress of local kin groups, during the Apaturia.
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