B a r e - h e a d e d
A t h e n a
The Goddess stands holding her helmet out in her right hand, and with her left grasping her spear near the top. She wears a chiton, a himation draped in the 'Ionic' fashion and passing over the left shoulder, the aegis, earring, bracelets. The fringed head-band is set in front with leaves, perhaps of gold. The gorgoneion shows tongue but no teeth. The Providence painter has other bare-headed Athenas, but none in this attitude, standing bare-headed with the helmet in one hand and the spear in the other. This conception of the Goddess, however, is frequent in the late archaic and early classic periods, and culminates, as is well known, in a masterpiece of sculpture, the Dresden-Bologna Athena, the Lemnia Athena, it may be, of Pheidias. Lekythos from Thebes, Attic Red Figure. Height 0.408 m
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