DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.803#0144
• THE PARTHENON. 137
ivory^ The robe or vestment of Minerva he consi-
ders to have been entirely of gold *, as well as the
helmet, the segis, and the drapery and wings of the
smaller .figure of "Victory in the left hand. He is in
part corroborated in this notion by the words of Plu-
tarch, in his Life of Pericles. This statue, according
to the best authorities, was placed in the temple in the
second year of the Sath Olympiad, B. c. 439. Thu-
cydides made the gold upon this statue amount to
forty talents ; Philoehorus, who lived in the 130th
Olympiad, to forty-four talents; Ephorus, copied by
Diodorus Siculus, says fifty talents.
The statue of the goddess measured twenty-six
cubits, or thirty-nine feet seven inches in height. The
figure of Vfctory was six feet high t- According to
Pliny, beside the accompaniments mentioned by Pau-
sanias, there was a sphinx of brass beneath Minerva's
spear; upon the convex side of the shield, which was
placed upon the ground, was a representation of
fte battle of the Greeks and Amazons |, and on
fc concave side the contest of the gods and giants.
On the sandals was embossed the favourite subject
?f the battle of the Centaurs and Lapithse. In the
* See also the '. Restitution de la Minerve du Parthenon,' in
"•Quatremere de Quincy's Monuments et Ouvrages d'Art an-
•iques restitugs. 4to. Par. 1829, torn. i. p. 81.
t Plate xxv. of the Dilettanti volume, represents a statue of
Minerva belonging to Thomas Hope, Esq., believed to be one of the
numerous copies of that which Phidias wrought in ivory and gold
w the Temple of the Parthenon. It was found in 1797 at Ostia,
'bout thirty feet below the surface, lying prostrate at the foot of its
own niche, among the ruins of a magnificent building on the
■""uth of the Tiber. Another, exactly similar, but less entire,
stood in the gallery of the Villa Albani, which had been so much
celebrated and admired by writers on ancient art, and was so
highly esteemed by the directors of the National Gallery at Paris,
oat they reserved it when the government restored the rest of
^ Albani collection to the prince.
+ See also Pausan. Attic, c, xvii.
ivory^ The robe or vestment of Minerva he consi-
ders to have been entirely of gold *, as well as the
helmet, the segis, and the drapery and wings of the
smaller .figure of "Victory in the left hand. He is in
part corroborated in this notion by the words of Plu-
tarch, in his Life of Pericles. This statue, according
to the best authorities, was placed in the temple in the
second year of the Sath Olympiad, B. c. 439. Thu-
cydides made the gold upon this statue amount to
forty talents ; Philoehorus, who lived in the 130th
Olympiad, to forty-four talents; Ephorus, copied by
Diodorus Siculus, says fifty talents.
The statue of the goddess measured twenty-six
cubits, or thirty-nine feet seven inches in height. The
figure of Vfctory was six feet high t- According to
Pliny, beside the accompaniments mentioned by Pau-
sanias, there was a sphinx of brass beneath Minerva's
spear; upon the convex side of the shield, which was
placed upon the ground, was a representation of
fte battle of the Greeks and Amazons |, and on
fc concave side the contest of the gods and giants.
On the sandals was embossed the favourite subject
?f the battle of the Centaurs and Lapithse. In the
* See also the '. Restitution de la Minerve du Parthenon,' in
"•Quatremere de Quincy's Monuments et Ouvrages d'Art an-
•iques restitugs. 4to. Par. 1829, torn. i. p. 81.
t Plate xxv. of the Dilettanti volume, represents a statue of
Minerva belonging to Thomas Hope, Esq., believed to be one of the
numerous copies of that which Phidias wrought in ivory and gold
w the Temple of the Parthenon. It was found in 1797 at Ostia,
'bout thirty feet below the surface, lying prostrate at the foot of its
own niche, among the ruins of a magnificent building on the
■""uth of the Tiber. Another, exactly similar, but less entire,
stood in the gallery of the Villa Albani, which had been so much
celebrated and admired by writers on ancient art, and was so
highly esteemed by the directors of the National Gallery at Paris,
oat they reserved it when the government restored the rest of
^ Albani collection to the prince.
+ See also Pausan. Attic, c, xvii.