Helmeted Head of Athena in the Princeton University Art Museum, August 2009

Helmeted head of Athena
ca. 50 A.D.

Roman

Julio-Claudian

White marble, coarse-grained and highly crystalline

h. 32.4 cm., w. 19.2, d. 21.3 cm. (12 3/4 x 7 9/16 x 8 3/8 in.) (preserved)

Gift of Mrs. M. E. L. Joline in 1914

Object Number: y178

Text from: artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/collections/ancient/search/

Athena, virgin goddess of war, wisdom, and the liberal arts, was the patron deity of Athens. She is identified by the helmet she wears pushed up on top of her head; the rolling flaps emerging from beneath her helmet are part of a Persian cap, an allusion to Athens' leadership in the Persian Wars. The head is from a Roman copy of an original Greek work of the late fifth or early fourth centuries BC, known as the Ince-Blundell Type, after a fully-preserved version in Ince Hall, England.

Text from the Princeton University Art Museum label.