The Endoios Athena: Athena Seated

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On the Acropolis of Athens, there are a large number of votive images dedicated to Athena the city goddess in various medium, including marble, terracotta, bronze, relief and vase painting. Among these votive images of Athena, most of them are represented in a standing pose, either frontally facing the viewers or showing her profile (e.g. the bronze Athena Promachos (figure 1)); some of them are captured in the middle of an action (e.g. Athena in Gigantomachy on the pediment of the Parthenon (fg. 2)). However, the so-called Endoios Athena is a statue of Athena represented in a seated position. Although the seated position is not rare in reliefs, such as Athena on the East frieze (fg. 3) and on the metopes of the Parthenon (fg. 3), the so-called Endoios Athena is the only seated marble statue of Athena on the Acropolis in the history. (Mylonopoulos, The Acropolis of Athens in the 6th and 5th Century BCE, Lecture Notes at Columbia University, March 31)
Found on the N. slope of the Acropolis below the Erechtheion in 1821, the so-called Endoios Athena statue is made of Island marble and is usually dated around 530-20 BCE. (Catalogue, Acropolis Museum) Due to the long exposure to open air and the destruction of wars, Athena’s head, her lower arms and the font of her left foot are completely lost, whereas much of the incision of decorative pattern on her kolpos, her right foot, left side of chair and most of the edge of the heavy base are weathered or damaged. Despite these damages, based on the gorgoneion on her breast and her aegis, we can safely identify her as Athena. we can still observe four bundles of pearl-like or “zig-zag incised” hair on each shoulder, following the curve of the goddess’s breast.
The shoulders are broad ...

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...ltiple kinds of transformation on one statue. After all, Art History is a history about transformation, and how to merge different transformations into a novel category and style.

Works Cited

1. Pausanias and James George Frazer. Description of Greece. vol. (3 vols. available) History and Geography. London: Macmillan, 1898. E-copy.
2. Keesling, Catherine M., The Votive Statues of the Athenian Acropolis, Cambridge: The University Press, 2003. Print.
3. Kroll, John H. The Ancient Image of Athena Polias. Hesperia SupplementsStudies in Athenian Architecture, Sculpture and Topography, Vol. 20: pp. 65 – 76 + 203. 1982. E-journal.
4. Mylonopoulos, Joannis. Divine Images and Human Imaginations in Ancient Greece and Rome. Boston: Leidon. 2010. pp. 1-20. E-copy.
5. Akropolēs, Mouseio. Catalogue of the Acropolis Museum. Cambridge: The University press, 1912-21. Print.

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