The goddess Athena

From: the Acropolis, Athens, Greece
Date: about 438-432 BC

This marble carving is from the Parthenon, the huge temple for the goddess Athena, built on top of a hill in Athens called the Acropolis. In about 1800, Thomas Bruce, a British lord brought back many carvings from this temple and others on the hill, and sold them to the British Museum.

Every year on Athena’s birthday a piece of folded cloth was brought in a procession through the city and up the Acropolis. Here it was presented as a new robe to an ancient wooden statue of the goddess. In the main picture, a man with a beard - a priest - and a child hold the cloth between them. Can you see Athena seated on a stool? Another god is turning round to talk to her.