in turn, dictated the width of the facade—eight columns at a time
when six columns were the norm.
Athena was fully armed with shield, spear, and helmet, and she
held Nike (the winged female personification of Victory) in her ex-
tended right hand. No one doubts that this Nike referred to the victory
of 479BCE. The memory of the Persian sack of the Acropolis was still
vivid, and the Athenians were intensely conscious that by driving back
the Persians, they were saving their civilization from the eastern “bar-
barians” who had committed atrocities at Miletos. In fact, the Athena
Parthenos had multiple allusions to the Persian defeat. On the thick
soles of Athena’s sandals was a representation of a centauromachy.
The exterior of her shield was emblazoned with high reliefs depict-
ing the battle of Greeks and Amazons (Amazonomachy), in which
Theseus drove the Amazons out of Athens. And Phidias painted a gi-
gantomachy on the shield’s interior. Each of these mythological con-
tests was a metaphor for the triumph of order over chaos, of civiliza-
tion over barbarism, and of Athens over Persia.PARTHENON: METOPES Phidias took up these same themes
again in the Parthenon’s Doric metopes (FIG. 5-45). The best-preserved
metopes—although the paint on these and all the other Parthenon
marbles long ago disappeared—are those of the south side, which de-
picted the battle of Lapiths and centaurs, a combat in which Theseus of
Athens played a major role. On one extraordinary slab (FIG. 5-47), a
triumphant centaur rises up on its hind legs, exulting over the crum-
pled body of the Greek it has defeated. The relief is so high that parts
are fully in the round. Some have broken off. The sculptor knew how to
distinguish the vibrant, powerful form of the living beast from the life-
less corpse on the ground. In other metopes the Greeks have the upper
5-46Phidias,Athena Parthenos,in the cella of the Parthenon,
Acropolis, Athens, Greece, ca. 438 bce.Model of the lost
chryselephantine statue. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.
Inside the cella of the Parthenon was Phidias’s 38-foot-tall gold-and-
ivory statue of Athena Parthenos (the Virgin), fully armed and holding
Nike (Victory) in her extended right hand.5-47Lapith versus centaur, metope from the south side of the
Parthenon, Acropolis, Athens, Greece, ca. 447–438 bce.Marble,
4 8 high. British Museum, London.
The Parthenon’s centauromachy metopes allude to the Greek defeat
of the Persians. The sculptor of this metope knew how to distinguish
the vibrant living centaur from the lifeless Greek corpse.128 Chapter 5 ANCIENT GREECEtall and slender Ionic columns as sole supports for the superstructure.
And whereas the temple’s exterior had a canonical Doric frieze, the in-
ner frieze that ran around the top of the cella wall was Ionic. Perhaps
this fusion of Doric and Ionic elements reflects the Athenians’ belief
that the Ionians of the Aegean Islands and Asia Minor were descended
from Athenian settlers and were therefore their kin. Or it may be Peri-
cles’ and Iktinos’s way of suggesting that Athens was the leader ofall
the Greeks. In any case, a mix of Doric and Ionic features characterizes
the fifth-centuryBCEbuildings of the Acropolis as a whole.
ATHENA PARTHENOS The costly decision to incorporate
two sculptured friezes in the Parthenon’s design is symptomatic.
This Pentelic-marble temple was more lavishly adorned than any
Greek temple before it, Doric or Ionic. Every one of the 92 Doric
metopes was decorated with relief sculpture. So, too, was every inch
of the 524-foot-long Ionic frieze. The two pediments were filled with
dozens of larger-than-life-size statues. And inside was the most
expensive item of all—Phidias’s gold-and-ivory (chryselephantine)
statue ofAthena Parthenos,the Virgin. Art historians know a great
deal about Phidias’s lost statue from descriptions by Greek and Latin
authors and from Roman copies. A model (FIG. 5-46) gives a good
idea of its appearance and setting. Athena stood 38 feet tall, and to a
large extent the Parthenon was designed around her. To accommo-
date the statue’s huge size, the cella had to be wider than usual. This,10 ft.
1 ft.