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Goddess Athena Statue
Price: $1480
Height 56 inches (4 ft, 8 in)
Weight 517 lbs
Estimated shipping weight 767 lbs
Athena , or Pallas Athena, in Greek religion
and mythology, one of the most important Olympian deities. According
to myth, after Zeus seduced Metis he learned that any son she bore
would overthrow him, so he swallowed her alive. Later Hephaestus
split Zeus' skull with an ax, and out sprang Athena, fully armed.
Athena was a deity of diverse functions and attributes.
Her most conspicuous role was perhaps that of a
goddess of war, the female counterpart of Ares. However, she was
also a goddess of peace, noted for her compassion and generosity.
Like Minerva, with whom the Romans identified her, she was a patron
of the arts and crafts, especially spinning and weaving. In later
times she was important as a goddess of wisdom. Athena was also a
guardian of cities, notably Athens, where the Parthenon was erected
as her temple. In a contest with Poseidon concerning dominion over
Attica, Athena made an olive tree grow on the Acropolis while
Poseidon caused a saltwater stream to gush from the Acropolis. The
other Olympians, asked to judge the contest, decided in favor of
Athena. Her statue, the Palladium, was supposed to protect the city
that possessed it. It was said that because she accidentally killed
Pallas she set the name Pallas before her own. Although a virgin
goddess, she was concerned with fertility, and at Athens and Elis
her worship was notably maternal. Athena is represented in art as a
stately figure, armored, and wielding the aegis. Her most important
festival was the Panathenaea, which was celebrated annually at
Athens. It included athletic and musical contests, poetic
recitations, and sacrifices. At the end of the festivities a grand
procession carried a richly embroidered peplos to the Acropolis as a
present to Athena.
Cast from Carrara marble in Italy. |