ABSTRACT
During the fifth century, Athens emerged as the foremost political, economic and cultural power of the Greek world. In such a climate, its goddess flourished, with her major site of worship, the Akropolis summit, transformed into one of the wonders of the Greek world and her image joined with the political progress of the city. We will examine various of the statues and buildings constructed in her honour that testify to her power both as an image and as the tutelary deity of the city. Above all, we will consider the Parthenon, perhaps the greatest of all Greek temples. In tracing Athena’s connections with Athens in the fifth century, we will be able to do something rarely possible in the study of any Greek god, namely to trace in some detail the role of cultural and historical factors in shaping their representations.
