THE VARVAKEION STATUETTE

Roman copy after Phidias' Athena Parthenos National Museum, Athens This is an inadequate Roman miniature of Phidias's immense and extravagantly rich statue of the goddess Athena. The cost of building the Parthenon, the propylaea and other buildings on the Acropolis was 2,012 talents. The statue of Athena alone cost 700 talents. About fifty feet tall, she was made out of ivory and gold. The statue was dedicated in 438 B.C.