Athena2.0010_Nashville

Athena2.0010_Nashville

Tennessee Encyclopedia
The Tennessean
OGCMA s.v. "Athena"

Alan LeQuire, 42-foot high replica of Phidias' Athena Parthenos, 1990, inside the Nashville Parthenon

Athena has turned her helmet's temple-guards up, because she has successfully defended the City, and she offers winged Victory (Nike) in her left hand. Ericthonius, the serpentine forebear of Athens' original kings, takes safe refuge behind her shield.

The original was removed from the Parthenon in antiquity and destroyed for its precious materials. Replicas survive (see Varvakeion Athena) and Pausanias, an ancient traveler, described in quite precise detail what he saw in Athens (Paus. 1.24.5-7).

A collage showing the full-sized replica of the Athena Parthenos statue and the Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee.

This work of art defies easy categorization. It is a replica of an ancient work; however, the decision to erect it has fascinating modern implications.

The Nashville Parthenon was erected in the Centennial Park opposite Vanderbilt University in a celebration of Tennessee's centennial of statehood. Soon weathered, the whole was reconstructed out of more lasting building materials, every measurement inside and out intended to replicate precisely the original by Ictinus and Callicrates (with chryselephantine cult idol created by Phidias).

Nashville was regarded as the Athens of the South, and the presence of the Parthenon replica (along with Athena's glorious manifestation) provides now the finishing touch.

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University.
The present resource contains information assembled for The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1400 – 1990’s, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), and it is used with express permission from Oxford University Press.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.