Description
Plaster cast of a marble statue of Athena, completed circa 1st-2nd century CE. Original housed in the Louvre. Roman copy of a 5th century BCE Greek sculpture.
Publication Date
1978
Type of Artwork
Statue
Time Period/Geographical Region
Ancient Greece
Height (cm/in)
238.76 cm / 94 in
Width (cm/in)
88.9 cm / 35 in
Depth (cm/in)
58.42 cm / 23 in
Disciplines
Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity | Sculpture
Recommended Citation
Morehead State University. Camden-Carroll Library., "Athena (Minerve Au Collier)" (1978). Metropolitan Museum of Art Cast Collection. 22.
https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/metropolitan_art_collection/22
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Comments
Athena, goddess of wisdom and war, daughter of Zeus, was the protector goddess of the Greek city state of Athens. When the Parthenon was completed on the Athenian acropolis in the 5th century BCE, a large statue of Athena, some 12 meters in height, was erected inside the temple. Made by the sculptor Phidias, ancient descriptions of the cult statue describe a chryselephantine sculpture, a wooden core covered with gold and ivory. The original statue was destroyed at some point, probably looted for its precious gold and ivory inlay. However, the Romans began to make scale copies of the Athena Parthenos statue; we know of at least 69 Roman copies in reduced scale. The cast of Athena in the Morehead State University collection is one of its centerpieces, and was produced from a Roman copy in the Athena Parthenos style, now at the Louvre Museum in Paris. The goddess wears a wide collar with an image of the Gorgon Medusa. Because of this collar, she is also known as "Minerve au Collier." She is armed with a lance, and her left arm, now missing, would have held a shield.