as. It stood in the open air, and
nearly opposite the Colonnade at the entrance of the great flight of
marble steps that led from the plain to the summit of the Acropolis,
and was the first object to meet the eye on passing through the
gateway. It represented the goddess, armed, and in a warlike attitude,
from which it derived its name, Athena Promachos: Athena, the leader
of the battle. With its pedestal it stood about seventy feet high,
towering above the roof of the Parthenon, the gilded point of the
brazen spear held by the goddess flashing back the sun to the ships as
in approaching Athens they rounded the promontory of Sunium. We read
that the statue was still standing so late as 395 A.D., and it is said
that its towering height and threatening aspect caused a panic terror
in Alaric and his horde of barbarians when they climbed the Acropolis
to plunder its temple of its treasure.

But it was under the rule of Pericles that Phidias was to find at
Athens his richest employment. Pericles had determined, probably by
the advice of Phidias, to make the Acropolis the seat and centre of
the new and splendid city that was to arise under his administration.
The first great undertaking was the building of a temple to Athena
Parthenos, Athena the Virgin, a design believed to have been suggested
to Pericles by Phidias. The plans were intrusted to Ictinus, an
Athenian, one of the best architects of the day; but the general
control and superintendence of the work were given to Phidias. As the
building rose to completion, workmen in all branches of the arts
flocked to Athens from every part of Greece and were given full
employment by Phidias in the decoration and furnishing of the temple.

The taste of Phidias controlled the whole scheme of decoration applied
to the building, into which color entered, no doubt, to a much greater
extent than was formerly believed. Even after time and the destructive
hand of man have done their worst, there still remain sufficient
traces of color to prove that the sculpture, and the whole upper part
of the temple, were painted in bright but harmonious colors, and that
metal ornaments and accessories accented the whole scheme with
glittering points of light reflected from their shining surfaces.

The sculptures with which the Parthenon was adorned by Phidias, and
which were executed under his immediate superintendence, consisted of
two great groups that filled the eastern and western pediments; of