σαλώμη

Athena Giustiniani

“Pallas Athene, the glorious goddess, bright-eyed, inventive, unbending of heart, pure virgin, saviour of cities, courageous, Tritogeneia.”

Athena Giustiniani or Giustiniani Minerva is an Antonine Roman marble copy of a Greek sculpture of Pallas Athena, of the late 5th-early 4th century BCE.

This statue was believed to be not just a work of art but a holy cult object. It was said that in the mid eighteenth century Roman boys kissed her hand before going to school, a tradition supposedly continued in the next century by British tourists.

(Peterhof Lower Gardens, St Petersburg.)

Athena Lemnia

The Lemnian Athena was a classical Greek statue of the goddess Athena. According to geographer Pausanias the original bronze cast was created by the sculptor Phidias circa 450–440 BCE.

Athena wears an unusual, cross-slung aegis decorated with the Gorgon’s head. She is bare-headed, without a shield, holding her helmet out in her extended right hand, and with her left grasping her spear near the top of the shaft.

(Pushkin Museum, Moscow.)

Statue of Athena

Statue of Athena wearing a Corinthian helmet, the aegis and Gorgoneion, AD 180-190.

(Liebieghaus Museum, Frankfurt.)

The Triumphal Dance to Pallas Athena

Athena is often called Pallas, or Pallas Athene. This name comes from a childhood friend she had, a nymph, who she accidentally killed when they were having a mock battle. Athena was distraught and carried her friend’s name with her forever more. The name, Pallas, means Maiden.

She is holding a shield in her left hand and wearing a traditional ancient Greek garment called a Peplos.

(Place de Varsovie, Paris.)

Head of Athena

Colossal head of the goddess Athena. From the Augustan period (27 BC – 14 AD), probably a copy of the statue of Athena by the sculptor Eubulides.

The head was probably inlaid in an acrolithic statue. The helmet, made separately, probably also of marble, was attached at the top of the head, to the projection with notches. Found in the Kerameikos, Athens.

(National Archaeological Museum of Athens.)

Head and Torso of Athena

Marble, Roman. 1st–2nd century A.D.

The goddess Athena is rendered as a beautiful young woman. The lining of her helmet—which was pushed up on the top of her head—appears above her hair. The protective aegis (goatskin) with the Gorgon’s head in the center is reduced to a kind of collar that permits the torso and garment to be articulated.

The original Greek work was probably executed in bronze.

(Metropolitan Museum of Art.)

Bust of Athena

Bust of the Athena Giustiniani, Roman Imperial, circa 2nd Century AD after a Greek original of the late 5th/early 4th Century BC.

Athena Velletri

The Athena Velletri is likely a Roman copy of the 1st century CE after a lost Greek bronze original, 430 BC by Kresilas.

Executed in the Classical style, this statue depicts the goddess standing upright and looking down at the viewer.

- Louvre Museum, Paris.

Bust of Athena

Ancient Rome, early 2nd century.

Athena is represented in full armour: with the aegis on her breast, a spear in her right hand and a Corinthian helmet on her head. The helmet is crowned by the figure of a sphinx with the lion’s head and embellished with a relief depicting rams’ heads with horns.

- Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.

“There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”

Works by artist Sara Shakeel.