Athena of Eretria

The Athena of Eretria is made of Parian marble and dates from around 510/500 BC. Dated representation of the Greek goddess Athena .

This torso fragment of an upright Athena statue was found around 1900 in Eretria on Evia and is in the local museum (Inv. No. 5). It belonged to a group of gables of a temple of Apollo , built around 510 BC. It was built around 20 years later by the Persians on their campaign against the Greeks.

The Athena statue stood in the middle of the pediment, which represented the battle of the Amazons against the heroes Heracles and Theseus . A large Gorgoneion , a terrible Medusa head, is depicted on Athene's chest . It is one of the weapons of Athena, who wears this head on her divine goat skin and which was supposed to terrify her enemies.

The gable decoration with its very Attic picture theme could have been a gift from the Athenians. Because Eretria supported Athens in some conflicts, granted exile to the overthrown Attic tyrants and helped them regain their power. (See also History of Eretria .)

Web links

• Statue in the Arachne archaeological database
• Page with picture of the torso fragment at dkimages.com (accessed January 30, 2008)
• Page with a detailed picture of the Medusa head on the torso fragment at ancient-greece.org (accessed on January 30, 2008)