Ethnicity and Representation 361Sack of Troy (32 metopes)Centauromachy (32 metopes)Gigantomachy (14 metopes)Amazonomachy (14 metopes)Athena-Poseidon ContestPanathenaic Procession (frieze)Panathenaic Procession (frieze)Procession (frieze)Procession (frieze)
Birth of AthenaAthena ParthenosNFigure 24.4 The plan and sculptural program of the Parthenon, 447–432 (after A. Stewart).
Redrawn from Fred S. Kleiner,Gardner’s Art through the Ages, 13th ed. © 2010 Wadsworth.
Reproduced by permission of Cengage Learning, Inc.
Probably no Greco-Persian opposition metaphor is more frequently cited than the
Parthenon sculptural program, the metopes in particular (see Figure 24.4; Stewart 1990:
150–60, Figures 317–71). The Parthenon’s metopes wrapped the building in mytholog-
ical conflict, from the Amazonomachy at west to theIlioupersis(Sack of Troy) at north,
the Gigantomachy at east, and the Centauromachy at south. All of those themes but the
sack of Troy were repeated on the shield and sandals of theParthenos. Altogether, they
are read as an allegory of the Persian Wars in which Hellenicsophrosyne(temperance)
triumphed over barbarianhybris(pride).
While the Parthenon program works on many levels, it is not a Panhellenic monument.
The birth and contest of Athena appear on the west and east pediments; the Panathenaic
procession fills the Ionic frieze; and Athenian themes are emphasized throughout by way
of the goddess herself, the hometown hero Theseus, and the use of the Delian League’s
treasury to fund the project. It tells a story simultaneously congratulatory and aspira-
tional, and, above all else, particular to Athens and Athenians. Moreover, the mood,
while certainly triumphant and emphatic about victory (as the many Nikai throughout
remind us), is not lacking in sobriety. Every scene of gods and myth shows or suggests
struggle,agon.
The highly damagedIlioupersisof the north metopes is, however, worth reconsider-
ation. According to Gloria Ferrari Pinney (2000, following Schefold and Jung 1989),
theIlioupersisis frequently misread because of our tendency to see the entire monu-
ment in terms of ideological conflict (as Castriota 1992: 96–101, 165–74). Only two
episodes are reasonably clear in the extremely damaged metopes. They are identified as
the meeting of Menelaos and Helen (nos. 24–25; cf. Shapiro 2010, Figure 6) and the
family of Aineias fleeing the ruined city (no. 28; Brommer 1967: 39–70, 210–21, pls.
85–144). The remaining central metopes probably showed the city’s destruction unfold-
ing, including the murders of Priam and Astyanax on the altar of Zeus Herkeios, the rape
of Kassandra at the statue of Athena, and possibly the sacrifice of Polyxena to the ghost