statue; pediment

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Object Type: statue; pediment
Museum number: 1816,0610.405
Title: Series: The Parthenon Sculptures
Description: Marble statue from the East pediment of the Parthenon (East pediment K). The East pediment showed the miraculous birth of the goddess Athena from the head of her father Zeus. Many of the figures from the central scene are now fragmentary or entirely lost. Female figure K sits on a rock, covered with a himation. She is on the point of turning around or perhaps rising and tucks her right foot in to lever herself up. She sits higher than her neighbour and wears sandals with thick soles, a chiton with sleeves and overfall, and a himation, covering her legs and back. Her chiton slips off the right shoulder. The head and both arms are missing. Together with East Pediment L and M, they are perhaps, from left to right, Hestia, Dione, and her daughter Aphrodite. However, there is another suggestion for the two figures on the right.
Producer name: Designed by: Pheidias
Cultures/periods: Classical Greek
Production date: 438BC-432BC
Findspot: Excavated/Findspot: Parthenon
Materials: marble
Bibliographic references: Sculpture / Catalogue of Greek Sculpture in the British Museum (303.K); Smith 1892 / A Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum (pp.113-115); Smith 1910 / The sculptures of the Parthenon (p.13, pl.5); Brommer 1963 / Die Skulpturen der Parthenon-Giebel (pp.17-18, pl.45-47, 50-51); Palagia 1993 / The pediments of the Parthenon (pp.21, 61, fig.42-44); Choremi-Spetsieri 2004 / The Sculptures of the Parthenon: Acropolis, British Museum, Louvre (pp.127, 131, fig.93)
Location: On display (G18)
Exhibition history: 2018, 26 Apr-29 Jul,The British Museum, Rodin and the art of ancient Greece.
Subjects: classical deity
Associated names: Representation of: Hestia/Vesta (perhaps); Representation of: Leto/Latona (perhaps)
Acquisition name: Purchased from: Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin
Acquisition date: 1816
Department: Greek and Roman
Registration number: 1816,0610.405
Conservation: Treatment: Apr 2018

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