AthenaANCIENT_Pergamum

AthenaANCIENT_Pergamum

Artic.edu
Staatliche Museen Berlin
khanacademy.org
OGCMA s.v. "Athena"

The Gigantomachy Frieze surrounding the base of the Great Altar of Zeus from Pergamum, erected by the Attalid king Eumenes II in the 170s BCE. The altar and frieze are housed in Berlin at the eponymous Pergamonmuseum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz.

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Athena is grappling among the Olympians against the Gigantes (Giants) as they emerge from their mother Gaia (Earth). Athena is recognizable by her standard iconographic details, the aegis, the shield. This masterpiece of Pergamene relief art will be under restoration until 2024.

High-relief marble frieze depicting a dramatic battle between gods and giants, with winged figures and struggling bodies

Eumenes II's sculptural program features the great Altar of Zeus, where the family descent from Telephus is celebrated internally. Eumenes' father, Attalus I built much of his public persona around the cult of Athena herself. Here on this altar frieze, Athena is just one of the dynamic Olympians civilizing the universe.

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.