tour 8 of 21
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Figure of Iris from the west pediment of the Parthenon
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This marble figure of Iris, goddess of the rainbow, was carved
around 438-432 BC. It is from the west pediment, or gable, of the
Parthenon, a temple on the flat-topped rock known as the Acropolis
in Athens, Greece. The Parthenon was built between the years 447
and 432 BC to house a forty-foot high gold and ivory statue of the
goddess Athena. The building was richly decorated with marble
statues and friezes showing scenes from Athenian mythology. Each
end of the building had a pediment - a triangular gable above the
columns, just below the pitched roof, where a group of statues was
placed. The west pediment told the story of the contest between
Athena and the sea god Poseidon for supremacy over the city of
Athens. Poseidon was accompanied by a divine messenger, Iris.
Only the torso and part of the legs remain of this creamy-white
marble statue of Iris. From knees to shoulders it measures 135
centimetres - just over life-size. Iris would originally have been
winged, but these wings have been lost. Her head and arms are also
missing, leaving just the ragged broken stump of her bare right
shoulder. Her legs are broken off just below the knees, but what
remains is a dynamic striding pose, as if the goddess has been
caught speeding through the air. Her torso is clothed in a
knee-length tunic, gathered at the waist. Originally her waist
would have been circled by a bronze girdle, but this, too, has
disappeared.
The sculptor has carved the drapery of the tunic from the marble
with consummate skill. Ripples of filmy fabric are pressed close to
Iris's body by the force of the air as she flies, outlining the
curves of her breasts, belly and thighs. The fabric streams from
left to right as if the wind is rushing through it, fluttering at
the hem of her garment. Between her thighs, a triangular section of
the tunic has broken away and has been repaired by smooth, pale
beige plaster, a striking contrast to the illusion of movement of
the material around it.
When the sculpture was originally set in place on the pediment,
the back would never have been seen. Despite this, it has been
carved with almost as much care as the front. The meticulously
carved drapery flows from right to left, and the bodice of the
tunic is caught by a binding between her shoulder blades. A
wedge-shaped hole in her left shoulder, some 12 centimetres long,
is the socket where her left wing, made of bronze, would have been
set. Below her buttocks the painstaking carving stops and a rough
chunk of marble perhaps shows where the statue would have been
attached to the pediment.
You may be interested to know that a model of the Parthenon is
available to touch in the Parthenon Galleries. The model explains
the location of all the architectural sculpture, including the
pediment where the sculpture of Iris was originally displayed.