Inventory number
Ακρ. 20013
Artist
Pheidias' workshop
Category
Architectural sculpture
Period
Classical Period
Date
445-440 BC
Dimensions
Height: 1.347 m
Length: 1.345 m
Material
Marble from Penteli
Location
Parthenon Gallery
On metope 14 god Helios (Sun) emerges from the ocean driving his four-horse chariot. The sea is indicated by the fish that jump between the chariot wheels as well as the aquatic bird under the horses' feet. The indirect participation of Helios and his sisters, Selene (Moon) and Eos (Dawn), in the Gigantomachy was pivotal for the outcome of the fight. Under Zeus' orders the three astral deities delayed their cycle so that Zeus could find first the magical herb that Gaia was also looking in order to make her children invulnerable. The presence of Helios on the last metope implies that Zeus has found the herb, and the annihilation of the Giants has already begun.
The fourteen metopes decorating the east side of the Parthenon represent the Gigantomachy, the battle between the Olympian gods and the Giants, in which goddess Athena played a leading role.
Each metope on the east side depicts two figures, apart from metopes 4 and 11 that include three figures, and metopes 5, 7, 10 and 14 that show one figure and a chariot. The severe damage of the metopes' surface has made the secure identification of the figures very difficult. The figures are recognised with the help of mythological, literary and iconographic sources. The damages were provoked mainly by intentional hammering perhaps during the conversion of the Parthenon into a Christian church.
The bombardment of the Parthenon by Francesco Morosini in 1687 did not affect the east metopes and their bad condition prevented their removal by Thomas Bruce, lord of Elgin. Between 1801 and 1804 when Greece was under Ottoman occupation, lord of Elgin forcibly detached a big part of the sculptural decoration of the Parthenon which ended up in the British Museum in London. Today all of the east metopes are in the Acropolis Museum. They were removed from the monument between 1987 and 1989 for their protection against air pollution and bad weather conditions.
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