By: Taylor Clark
Dating back to the mid to late first century BC, this large marble sculpture depicts “Athena Promachos”, or as the epithet suggests “Athena who fights in front”. Phidias’ “Athena Parthenos”, created during the fifth century BC for the Athenian Temple, inspired this particular sculpture.
There are a plethora of myths about Athena, especially when it comes to her cunning and wisdom. An example is the myth of “Arachne and the Weaving Contest”, which teaches the lesson of hubris, or disrespect and arrogance shown towards the Gods, while also giving a backstory to a natural phenomenon of the spider. Arachne was a young and beautiful girl who had the gifted skill of weaving. Yet she was so incredibly arrogant that she believed no one in the entire world could weave as well as she did, including the goddess Athena. Out of this conceit, Arachne then challenged Athena to a weaving contest. As Athena weaved her contest with Poseidon, Arachne disrespectfully weaved the Gods in an immoral light during their “amorous conquests” of deceived goddesses and mortal women. Athena, now jealous of Arachne’s skill, ripped up her tapestry, and as Arachne tried to take her own life by hanging herself, Athena cursed her into a spider, which continuously weaves and hangs itself. This myth is an example of hubris and wise punishment on the part of Athena, as Arachne’s fate was thematically connected to her wrongdoings.
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