Classical Sculpture from the Athenian Agora, Part 3: The Pediments, Metopes, and Akroteria of the Temple of Ares (Temple of Athena Pallenis)

by Andrew Stewart, Erin Lawrence, Rebecca Levitan, and Kelsey Turbeville

Hesperia, Volume 90, Issue 3
Page(s): 533-604
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.90.3.0533
Year: 2021
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ABSTRACT:

This article discusses 22 marble sculptures from the Agora excavations of 1890-1891 and 1931 to the present. It attributes them to the Temple of Ares (originally the Temple of Athena Pallenis at Pallene) on the basis of their scales, findspots, subject matter, technique, and styles. Both pediments featured Athena, and on the east a young hero, probably Theseus. The metopes showed Theseus’s victory over the Pallantids (east) and an Amazonomachy (west). The akroteria comprised a descending wingless female, possibly Hebe, and two Nereids riding dolphins (east), and two Nikai flanking a central female figure, perhaps Iris (west). A coda announces a final, concluding article that will seek to draw together the preceding three in a series.