Statue of Athena (Velletri type)
Roman copy of a Greek original; 2nd century A.D., after an original of the 5th century B.C.
Marble, 102 in. (259 cm) high
Gift of deLancey Kountze, B.A. 1899
1928.385.2
This colossal, now-headless female figure is likely a Roman copy of a fifth-century B.C. Greek cult image. Some scholars have identified it as a copy in marble of a celebrated bronze statue of Athena sculpted by Alkamenes for the Temple of Hephaistos in Athens. Wearing the typical chiton (tunic) beneath a himation (mantle), she stands with her weight resting on her straightened left leg, while she bends her right knee. By comparison with another alleged Roman copy of the same Greek statue—the famous Velletri Athena in the Louvre—the Yale Athena can be reconstructed with a helmeted head, a raised right arm holding a spear, and a left arm held out in front of her body at waist level, with a phiale, or offering dish, in hand.
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