Varvakeion Athena

200–250 CE

Marble with traces of paint, about 1 m high · National Archaeological Museum, Athens

A small Roman copy of the most famous statue in Athens, Pheidias’s gold-and-ivory Athena Parthenos, which stood about 12 m high inside the Parthenon. The original is lost, so copies like this are the best evidence of how it looked.

Found in Athens near the Varvakeion, in the ruins of a Roman house.
Traces of paint stood in for the gold and ivory of the original.
Its details match the ancient description by Pausanias: Victory in one hand, a shield at her feet and a serpent beside it.
Cambridge’s cast collection describes such statuettes as souvenirs of the famous original.

Athena (Roman Minerva) is goddess of wisdom, crafts and strategic war, born fully armed from Zeus’s head. Athens, her city, built the Parthenon in her honour.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · CC0