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Secondary sourceDocument1903

Strangford Shield with a Statuette

1903

A 1903 scholarly plate showing a fragmentary marble shield with a central face, reproduced from a book about the Parthenon. It illustrates a copy of the shield of the Athena Parthenos, made in Pericles' era.

A scholarly illustration of a copy of the shield of the Athena Parthenos, the statue made in Pericles' era for the Parthenon he championed.

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Plate XIV from a book, Athene Parthenos, with four photographs of marble works. Bottom center is a fragmentary marble shield with a central face and carved figures, mounted on a plinth with a printed label. Three standing statues surround it.
Unknown author, plate XIV, Athene Parthenos, 1903, in William St Clair, Who Saved the Parthenon? (Open Book Publishers, 2022). Public domain.

About this source

What it is

This is Plate XIV from a 1903 book, Athene Parthenos, a printed illustration with four photographs of marble works. At the bottom centre is a fragmentary marble shield with a central face and carved figures, mounted on a plinth with a printed label, flanked by three standing statues. The curator's note describes it as a copy of the shield of Pericles' Athena Parthenos. The image comes from William St Clair's modern book Who Saved the Parthenon? (Open Book Publishers, 2022), which republishes it as public domain. The creator is not named in the record.

Why it matters

The Athena Parthenos was a huge gold-and-ivory statue of the goddess made for the Parthenon in Pericles' Athens. Its original is lost, so scholars study copies and fragments like this one to reconstruct its appearance. The plate shows how early scholars used photographs of surviving marbles to study ancient art, and how the Parthenon's story was pieced together long after Pericles' time.

Look closer

  • What details of the shield and its figures can you make out, and which parts are missing?
  • Why would an 1903 scholar publish photographs of copies rather than the lost original?
  • What does this illustration leave out about the people who built and used the Parthenon?

This document is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Pericles on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Primary source

Parthenon

447-432 BCE

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Secondary source

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Kresilas · Roman copy, from a Greek original near Pericles' lifetime

Facsimile page of Greek manuscript handwriting in minuscule script, nine lines of dark ink on white, headed 'Facsimile No. 57', with a transcription and caption 'Thucydides.—Tenth Century' below.Book

Primary source

History of the Peloponnesian War

Thucydides · 5th century BCE

Book

Secondary source

Life of Pericles

Plutarch

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