the excavation of the athenian agora twelfth season: 1947

182 HOMER A. THOMPSON
Various Athena types of the fifth century are faithfully reproduced in a number
of minor terracotta works of the Roman period in a way paralleled by the representation
of famous statues on Athenian coins of Imperial times. The most popular of
these revivals is the bust of Athena Promachos, armed with Corinthian helmet, spear
and aegis. She appears on a dozen or more lamps of the second and third centuries
found in the Agora as well as on other lamps of the same types from the Athenian
Kerameikos and from Corinth.71 One of the finest of these representations occurs
on a large lamp of the third century found in the Agora in 1939 (P1. 62, 3).72 Working
even in this nmodest medium and small scale the late craftsman has caught not a little
of the beauty of the original.
The Parthenos forms the subject of two closely related pieces which came to
light in the seasons of 1939 and 1947. One of these (P1. 62, 1) preserves the face
and the bowl of the helmet,73 the other (P1. 62, 2) gives us the shoulder and the whole
helmet.74 The sphinx in the middle and the pegasus on either side of the helmet conform
to the normal type; the lesser fauna that sometimes appear above the brow band
are here entirely omitted as on the Varvakeion statuette. The most interesting variant
occurs in the treatment of the cheek plate. which is decoratd with a striding male
figure cradling a club in his left arm; both the Aspasios gem and the Koul-Oba
medallion which show the cheek piece clearly have a griffin rampant.
Both the Parthenos pieces may be assigned on the basis of context and workmanship
to the third century A.D. That which preserves the face may come from an
extremely large lamp, more probably from a decorative medallion. The other fragment
is part of a mould for the making of a medallion in high relief.75 The beginning of an
inscription in the bounding zone is tantalizing: H AGHN[A H TTAPG ENOI?; but
we do not know whether the text was continuous or interrupted below as above.
Whatever the purpose of these two pieces, they are related to each other in a mechanical
way. Both evidently derive from the same original, but the inscribed piece is shown
to be the more rernote by the greater coarseness of its detail and by its smaller scale
(ca. 5/6 of the other).
A third Athena type is represented on a sadly brok-en fragment of a once magnificent
lamp, again of the third century (P1. 62, 4).76 The head of the goddess is entirely
Among the coinis one of the better parallels is the fine bronze piece illustrated in Rodenwaldt, Kunst
urn Augustus, p. 5, fig. 1.
71 See the general study by Pick, " Promachos des Pheidias," in Ath. Mitt., 56, 1931, pp. 59-74
and the additional comments by Pfuhl in Ath. Mitt., 57, 1932, pp. 151 ff.
72 L 3731. Diameter, 0.092 m. Pale buff clay, unglazed.
73 L 3703. Found in 1939. Maximum dimension, 0.084 m. Dark buff clay, unglazed.
74 T 2376. Found in 1947. Estimated diameter, ca. 0.24 m.
75 That the mould was used for lamp making is ruled out bv the absence of any trace of a handle
in the normal position above the head. The overall diameter, 0.24 m., is also excessive for a lamp.
76 L 4256. Overall diameter of lanmp, 0.185 m.; diameter of inner medallion, 0.1 12 m. Pale buff
clay, unglazed.