Athena Promachos

The statue of Athena Promachos, the " front-line combatants ," was a colossal bronze statue from the hand of the sculptor Phidias. She stood between the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens, the Propylaea, the Erechtheum and thus left the procession route to the Parthenon. Athena was the patron goddess of Athens, several of their statues were on the Acropolis, including two other works of Phidias: the Athena Parthenos in the Parthenon and the Athena Lemnia. The name Athena Promachos is occupied for the first time in the 4th century AD. Even Pausanias called simply the great bronze Athena on the Acropolis.

History

The Athena Promachos is one of the earliest surviving works of Phidias and was placed in front of probably 450 BC, financed from the spoils of the battle of Marathon, but possibly only from the spoils of the battle of the Eurymedon 469 BCE speak this purpose billing records for a monumental bronze statue, which cover a period of nine years and due epigraphic features can be dated BC in the period before 450. Parts of the marble and 5.50 × 5.60 meter statue base are preserved. Following a description of the Byzantine period, which refers in all probability to the statue, so it was a little over 9 feet high. The bronze sculpture showed Athena standing, leaning against her leg shield, a spear in his right hand. Designs of the imperial period, which certainly reflect the Athena Promachos of Phidias, no impression can give the appearance of the statue, only the pre-stretched right arm is to erkennen.Die statue was so high that the tip of her spear and the crest of the lake from one to could see the amount of cape Sounion.

About nine centuries the effigy stood on the Acropolis until 465 AD, was taken to Constantinople Opel. In 1203 it was destroyed by angry Christians, because it was believed they would besieging Crusaders attract. Among the various Roman copies that are associated with the statue, apply the Elgin Athena at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the torso of Athena Medici in the Louvre, with its various replicas, as the closest traditions.

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