Plaster cast of metope 3 which remains at its place on the Parthenon. A mounted Amazon gets ready to impale a young man with her spear. The man has fallen to the ground and is trapped between the legs of the Amazon’s horse. The episode occurs on the Areopagus where according to legend the Amazonomachy took place.

The fourteen metopes on the west side of the Parthenon depict the Amazonomachy, the struggle of Athenian youths and their king Theseus against the Amazons. The Amazons, a mythical tribe of women-warriors from the Black Sea, invaded Athens threatening even the Acropolis. The reason for the invasion was the kidnapping of their queen Antiope by Theseus.

The regular alternating subjects on the west metopes are either a mounted Amazon that defeats her enemy who has fallen on the ground, or two unmounted fighting opponents. All men are depicted naked whereas women are dressed. 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 west metopes. The damaged figures did not attract the attention of Thomas Bruce, lord of Elgin, who between 1801 and 1804 when Greece was under Ottoman occupation, detached big part of the Parthenon sculptures that ended up in the British Museum in London.

Today four of the west metopes are exhibited in the Acropolis Museum (nrs. 1, 2, 13, 14). They were removed from the monument in 2012 for their protection against air pollution and bad weather conditions. The remaining nine are still in their original position on the Parthenon as they cannot be taken off the monument for technical reasons. The Acropolis Museum displays their plaster copies with the exception of metope 6, a cast of which has not been made as its surface retains no trace of its relief decoration.