DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.796#0126
ioo THE ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS
No garment is completely covered with paint, but the main
surfaces of the statue are left white showing the natural
texture of the marble, the beautiful tint of which is set off
by the effect of the coloring. In some cases the arms had
bracelets of bronze, in others the bracelets were carved in
marble, and the ears were ornamented with pendants or earrings.
In a few of these statues the eyes were set in, the eye-balls
being made of quartz or crystal. On the heads of several of
these statues were found bronze spikes (in one instance well
preserved), rising from the top. Cavvadias surmises with
good reason that this was designed to carry a disk or flat
hat as a shade or projection for these finely colored statues.-
This would be similar to the flat-shaped hat found on many
of the Tanagra figures. Possibly it is this covering that is
referred to as /j.rjvla-Ko? by Aristophanes, who, in his Birds
(i 114) lets the chorus say:
" But, if you reject us, then let each a little shed
Forge, like lunes o'er statues, as a shelter for his head,
Lest, without it when you walk in clean and white attire,
All the birds their vengeance take by covering you with mire."
Translation by PROFESSOR KENNEDY.
From this it would be inferred that these statues stood
originally not in the interior of a temple but in some open
precinct. Judging from the locality in which most of them
were found and from their possible relation to the worship of
the Athena Polias we venture to conjecture that they stood in
a court west of the Erechtheum, possibly the same as that in
which the Arrephoroi played ball (see p. 2 1 8 below and Paus.
i- 27, 3)-
Another interesting find of sculpture connected with the
Acropolis is a statue of a seated Athena which was found at
the base of the Acropolis on the north side just below the
Erechtheum. Now Pausanias (i. 26, 4) speaks of seeing an
image of Athena by Endoeus just before he makes mention of
the Erechtheum, which was dedicated, according to the inscrip-
tion upon its base, by Callias, one of the opponents of
Pisistratus. This image referred to by Pausanias has con-
jecturally been identified with the statue that has been found.
It represents the goddess seated, clad in a long tunic, the
No garment is completely covered with paint, but the main
surfaces of the statue are left white showing the natural
texture of the marble, the beautiful tint of which is set off
by the effect of the coloring. In some cases the arms had
bracelets of bronze, in others the bracelets were carved in
marble, and the ears were ornamented with pendants or earrings.
In a few of these statues the eyes were set in, the eye-balls
being made of quartz or crystal. On the heads of several of
these statues were found bronze spikes (in one instance well
preserved), rising from the top. Cavvadias surmises with
good reason that this was designed to carry a disk or flat
hat as a shade or projection for these finely colored statues.-
This would be similar to the flat-shaped hat found on many
of the Tanagra figures. Possibly it is this covering that is
referred to as /j.rjvla-Ko? by Aristophanes, who, in his Birds
(i 114) lets the chorus say:
" But, if you reject us, then let each a little shed
Forge, like lunes o'er statues, as a shelter for his head,
Lest, without it when you walk in clean and white attire,
All the birds their vengeance take by covering you with mire."
Translation by PROFESSOR KENNEDY.
From this it would be inferred that these statues stood
originally not in the interior of a temple but in some open
precinct. Judging from the locality in which most of them
were found and from their possible relation to the worship of
the Athena Polias we venture to conjecture that they stood in
a court west of the Erechtheum, possibly the same as that in
which the Arrephoroi played ball (see p. 2 1 8 below and Paus.
i- 27, 3)-
Another interesting find of sculpture connected with the
Acropolis is a statue of a seated Athena which was found at
the base of the Acropolis on the north side just below the
Erechtheum. Now Pausanias (i. 26, 4) speaks of seeing an
image of Athena by Endoeus just before he makes mention of
the Erechtheum, which was dedicated, according to the inscrip-
tion upon its base, by Callias, one of the opponents of
Pisistratus. This image referred to by Pausanias has con-
jecturally been identified with the statue that has been found.
It represents the goddess seated, clad in a long tunic, the