Athena Parthenos

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Athena Parthenos, literally “Athena the Virgin”, is a lost massive chryselephantine (gold and ivory) sculpture of the Greek goddess Athena, made by Phidias and his assistants and housed in the Parthenon in Athens. Despite the dynamic architectural characteristics of the Parthenon, the statue of Athena was designed to be the focal point. Its epithetwas an essential character of the goddess herself. A number of replicas and works inspired by it, both ancient and modern, have been made. This is one such replica in a much smaller scale, dating to the second quarter of the 2nd century AD. It was the most renowned cult image of Athens,  considered one of the greatest achievements of the most acclaimed sculptor of ancient Greece. Phidias began his work around 447 BC. Lachares removed the gold sheets in 296 BC to pay his troops, and the bronze replacements for them were probably gilded thereafter; it was damaged by a fire about 165 BC but repaired. An account mentions it in Constantinople in the 10th century.