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What is the Athena statue in the Parthenon made of?

What is the Athena statue in the Parthenon made of?

gold and ivory
Phidias completed the Lemnian Athena between 451-448 BCE. The massive chryselephantine cult statue, Athena Parthenos, was made out of gold and ivory and measured 12 meters in height.

What Stone is the Acropolis made of?

Pentelic marble
With the launch of Pericles’ building program in the 440s BC, Pentelic marble became the primary material of the Acropolis’ new buildings, as well as of buildings in the surrounding area and of many sculpted votive offerings and other statues.

What happened to the statue of Athena at the Acropolis?

Niketas Choniates documented a riot taking place in the Forum of Constantine in Constantinople in 1203 CE where a large, bronze, statue of Athena was destroyed by a “drunken crowd” which is now thought to have been the Athena Promachos.

Where did the marble for the Acropolis come from?

The main building material was Pentelic marble quarried from the flanks of Mt. Pentelikon, located about 10 mi/ 16 km from Athens. (The old Parthenon, the one destroyed by the Persians while it was partway through construction was the first temple to use this kind of marble.)

Where is the Athena statue in the Parthenon?

The statue was installed in the main room of the Parthenon to the east. Behind her and on her sides, Doric columns supported the roof and offered her the setting of a canopy.

Why was the statue of Athena built?

The sculptor was already famous for his colossal bronze statue of Athena Promachos which stood on the acropolis and was reportedly visible from Cape Sounion, and he was commissioned by Pericles to create a statue worthy of the greatest city in Greece and its patron deity.

What stone is marble?

Marble is a metamorphic rock, which is a rock that has been physically and chemically transformed over time due to intense heat and pressure. Marble begins life as limestone, which is a soft stone made primarily of calcite.

What happened to the original statue of Athena?

The cult statue, begun in 447 BCE and dedicated in 438 BCE, would remain the great city’s symbol for a thousand years until, in Late Antiquity, it disappeared from the historical record, possibly taken to Constantinople and there later destroyed.

Where is the golden statue of Athena?

Among the most famous ancient copies are the Lenormant Athena and therefore the Athena of Varvakeion preserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, the Minerva with the necklace of the Louvre Museum or a Roman copy signed Antiochos preserved at the Palazzo Altemps (Roman National Museum).

Why did the Greek use marble?

The Greeks and Romans chose marble for their structures due its beauty. However, the process of mining marble was quite lengthy. Hammers and wedges were used to release marble from the earth. It was then pulled from its source with the help of pulleys, winches, levers, and wooden beams.

Where is the statue of Athena from the Acropolis?

Credit: A monumental statue of Athena Parthenos, created of gilded ivory, once stood in the center of the magnificent temple of the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens.