MARBLE STATUE: Parthenon EAST PEDIMENT

Marble statue from the East pediment of the Parthenon. The East pediment showed the miraculous birth of the goddess Athena from the head of her father Zeus. Many of the figures from the central scene are now fragmentary or entirely lost.

This figure was carved as an isolated horse’s head. Its ears are flattened back, its jaw gapes, it has flared nostrils and bulging eyes. A portion of the lower jaw and the inner side of the top of the head were cut away. There are dowel holes where the metal bridle was attached. On the crest of the mane are eleven smaller holes, in which some metallic ornaments must have been inserted.

This is the head of one of the horses that drew the chariot of the moon goddess Selene or Nyx, goddess of the night. Two other horses and Selene’s torso are in the Acropolis Museum, Athens. In the corners of this pediment, the exact time of day was set by the chariot of Helios, rising at dawn, and the chariot of Selene, sinking beneath the horizon.