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Pheidias
Phidias or Pheidias (; , ''Pheidias''; ) was an Ancient Greek sculptor, painter, and architect, active in the 5th century BC. His Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Phidias also designed the statues of the goddess Athena on the Athenian Acropolis, namely the ''Athena Parthenos'' inside the Parthenon, and the '' Athena Promachos'', a colossal bronze which stood between it and the Propylaea, a monumental gateway that served as the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens. Phidias was the son of Charmides of Athens. The ancients believed that his masters were Hegias and Ageladas. Plutarch discusses Phidias's friendship with the Greek statesman Pericles, recording that enemies of Pericles tried to attack him through Phidias – who was accused of stealing gold intended for the Parthenon's statue of Athena, and of impiously portraying himself and Pericles on the shield of the statue. The historical value of this account, as well as the legen ...
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Athena Promachos
The ''Athena Promachos'' (, "Athena who fights in the front line") was a colossal bronze statue of Athena sculpted by Pheidias, which stood between the Propylaea and the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens. Athena was the tutelary deity of Athens and the goddess of wisdom and warriors. Pheidias also sculpted two other figures of Athena on the Acropolis, the huge gold and ivory ("chryselephantine") cult image of ''Athena Parthenos'' in the Parthenon and the '' Lemnian Athena''. The designation ''Athena Promachos'' is not attested before a dedicatory inscription of the early fourth century CE; Pausanias (1.28.2) referred to it as "the great bronze Athena" on the Acropolis. History The ''Athena Promachos'' was one of the earliest recorded works by Pheidias and was originally a well-known and famous Athenian landmark. According to the Greek traveler and geographer, Pausanias, the top of Athena's helmet as well as the tip of her spear could be seen by sailors and anyone approa ...
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Statue Of Zeus At Olympia
The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was a giant seated figure, about tall, made by the Greek sculptor Phidias around 435 BC at the sanctuary of Olympia, Greece, and erected in the Temple of Zeus there. Zeus is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. The statue was a chryselephantine sculpture of ivory plates and gold panels on a wooden framework. Zeus sat on a painted cedarwood throne ornamented with ebony, ivory, gold, and precious stones. It was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The statue was lost and destroyed before the end of the 6th century AD, with conflicting accounts of the date and circumstances. Details of its form are known only from ancient Greek descriptions and representations on coins and art. History The statue of Zeus was commissioned by the Eleans, custodians of the Olympic Games, in the latter half of the fifth century BC for their newly constructed Temple of Zeus. Seeking to out ...
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Miltiades The Younger
Miltiades (; ; c. 550 – 489 BC), also known as Miltiades the Younger, was a Ancient Greece, Greek Classical Athens, Athenian Politician, statesman known mostly for his role in the Battle of Marathon, as well as for his downfall afterwards. He was the son of Cimon Coalemos, a renowned Ancient Olympic Games, Olympic Chariot racing, chariot-racer, and the father of Cimon, the noted Athenian statesman. Family Miltiades was a well-born Athenian, and was accounted a member of the Aeacidae, as well as a member of the prominent Philaidae, Philaid clan. He came of age during the tyranny of the Peisistratos, Peisistratids. His family was prominent, due in good part to their success with Ancient Olympic Games, Olympic chariot race, chariot-racing.Creasy (1880) Plutarch claimed that Cimon Coalemos, Cimon, Miltiades's father, was known as "Coalemos", meaning "simpleton", because he had a reputation for being rough around the edges, but whose three successive chariot-racing victories at ...
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Athena Parthenos
The statue of ''Athena Parthenos'' () was a monumental chryselephantine sculpture of the goddess Athena. Attributed to Phidias and dated to the mid-fifth century BCE, it was an offering from the city of Athens to Athena, its tutelary deity. The cella, naos of the Parthenon on the acropolis of Athens was designed exclusively to accommodate it. Many artists and craftsmen worked on the realization of the sculpture, which was probably built around a core of cypress wood, and then paneled with gold and ivory plates. At about 13 meters high, the statue reflected the established aesthetic Artistic canons of body proportions, canon of the severe style (Peplos, clothing) while adopting the innovations of the high classical (Contrapposto, leg position). She was helmeted and held a large round shield and spear, placed on the ground to her left, next to her sacred snake. Clothes, jewellery, accessories, and even the statue base were decorated, mainly with the snake and gorgon Motif (visual ...
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Athena
Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretism, syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of various cities across Greece, particularly the city of Athens, from which she most likely received her name. The Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens is dedicated to her. Her major symbols include Owl of Athena, owls, olive trees, snakes, and the Gorgoneion. In art, she is generally depicted wearing a helmet and holding a spear. From her origin as an Aegean tutelary deity, palace goddess, Athena was closely associated with the city. She was known as ''Polias'' and ''Poliouchos'' (both derived from ''polis'', meaning "city-state"), and her temples were usually located atop the fortified acropolis in the central part of the city. The Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis is dedicated to her, along with numero ...
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Plataea
Plataea (; , ''Plátaia'') was an ancient Greek city-state situated in Boeotia near the frontier with Attica at the foot of Mt. Cithaeron, between the mountain and the river Asopus, which divided its territory from that of Thebes. Its inhabitants were known as the ''Plataeans'' (; ''Plataiaí'', ). It was the location of the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC, in which an alliance of Greek city-states defeated the Persians. Plataea was destroyed and rebuilt several times during the Classical period of ancient Greece. The modern Greek town of Plataies is adjacent to its ruins. Early history Plataea was settled during the Bronze Age. (It was mentioned in Homer in the ''Iliad'' as among the other Boeotian cities).  Local tradition, as related by the geographer Pausanias, was that its people were "sprung from the soil" (autochthonous, or indigenous).  Its name is that of the daughter of an ancient king, Asopus, for whom the nearby river is named. According to the ancient ...
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Parthenon
The Parthenon (; ; ) is a former Ancient Greek temple, temple on the Acropolis of Athens, Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the Greek gods, goddess Athena. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of classical Art in Ancient Greece, Greek art, and the Parthenon is considered an enduring symbol of Ancient Greece, democracy, and western culture, Western civilization. The Parthenon was built in the 5th century BC in thanksgiving for the Greek victory over the Achaemenid Empire, Persian invaders during the Greco-Persian Wars. Like most Greek temples, the Parthenon also served as the city treasury. Construction started in 447 BC when the Delian League was at the peak of its power. It was completed in 438 BC; work on the artwork and decorations continued until 432 BC. For a time, it served as the treasury of the Delian League, which later became the Athenian Empire. In the final decade of the 6th century AD, the Parthenon was converted into ...
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Varvakeion Athena
The Varvakeion Athena is a Roman-era statue of Athena Parthenos now part of the collection of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. It is generally considered to be the most faithful reproduction of the chryselephantine statue made by Phidias and his assistants, which once stood in the Parthenon. It is dated to 200–250 AD. Description The statue is tall, approximately one twelfth the estimated height of the original. It is carved of pentelic marble and bears traces of red and yellow paint. Athena is dressed in a peplos belted with a zone in the form of two snakes; over this she wears the aegis, decorated with snakes and with the gorgoneion in the center. She wears an Attic helmet with the cheek guards upturned; it has three crests, the center sporting a sphinx and those on the sides a pegasus. Her left hand rests on the rim of a shield which also bears the gorgoneion; the shield rests against the ''oikouros ophis'' (guardian snake) identified with Erichthonios, the city ...
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Pellene
Pellene (; ; ) was a city and polis (city-state) of ancient Achaea, the most easterly of the twelve Achaean cities (the Achaean League). Its territory bordered upon that of Sicyon on the east and upon that of Aegeira on the west. Pellene was situated 60 stadia from the sea, upon a strongly fortified hill, the summit of which rose into an inaccessible peak, dividing the city into two parts. Its port was at Aristonautae. Mythology and proto-history Its name was derived by the inhabitants themselves from the giant Pallas, and by the Argives from the Argive Pellen, a son of Phorbas. Pellene was a city of great antiquity. It is mentioned in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships in the ''Iliad''; and according to a tradition, preserved by Thucydides, the inhabitants of Scione in the peninsula of Pallene in Macedonia professed to be descended from the Achaean Pallenians, who were driven on the Macedonian coast, on their return from Troy. History At the commencement of the Peloponnesian ...
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Hegias Of Athens
Hegias or Hegesias of Athens () was a famous sculptor of Athens, a member of the Late Archaic school of the generation before Pheidias. No surviving work can be securely identified as his, though Pliny mentions a ''Pyrrhus Supported by Pallas Athena''.Smith points out that Pliny mistook Pyrrhus son of Achilles, the hero, with Pyrrhus the king. Pausanias (8.42.4 and 8.42.10) mentions Hegias as the contemporary of Onatas and of Agelatus of Argos. Lucian of Samosata mentions Hegesias, in common with Kritios and Nesiotes, as belonging to the Archaic school, whose productions were constrained, harsh, stiff and rigid, though accurate in the outline. Quintilian says of Hegesias and Callon that their works were harsh and resembled the Etruscan style. (Smith). Pliny's Natural History The ''Natural History'' () is a Latin work by Pliny the Elder. The largest single work to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day, the ''Natural History'' compiles information gleaned fro ...
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1868 Lawrence Alma-Tadema - Phidias Showing The Frieze Of The Parthenon To His Friends
Events January * January 2 – British Expedition to Abyssinia: Robert Napier leads an expedition to free captive British officials and missionaries. * January 3 – The 15-year-old Mutsuhito, Emperor Meiji of Japan, declares the ''Meiji Restoration'', his own restoration to full power, under the influence of supporters from the Chōshū and Satsuma Domains, and against the supporters of the Tokugawa shogunate, triggering the Boshin War. * January 5 – Paraguayan War: Brazilian Army commander Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, Duke of Caxias, enters Asunción, Paraguay's capital. Some days later he declares the war is over. Nevertheless, Francisco Solano López, Paraguay's president, prepares guerrillas to fight in the countryside. * January 7 – The Arkansas constitutional convention meets in Little Rock. * January 9 – Penal transportation from Britain to Australia ends, with arrival of the convict ship ''Hougoumont'' in Western Australia, after an 89- ...
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Greek Mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories concern the ancient Greek religion's view of the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, nature of the world; the lives and activities of List of Greek deities, deities, Greek hero cult, heroes, and List of Greek mythological creatures, mythological creatures; and the origins and significance of the ancient Greeks' cult (religious practice), cult and ritual practices. Modern scholars study the myths to shed light on the religious and political institutions of ancient Greece, and to better understand the nature of mythmaking itself. The Greek myths were initially propagated in an oral tradition, oral-poetic tradition most likely by Minoan civilization, Minoan and Mycenaean Greece, Mycenaean singers starting in the 18th century&n ...
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