The statue of Athena in the Parthenon (Athena Parthenos) stood on a base two metres in height and was some ten metres tall. The goddess wore a long dress and a Medusa-head breastplate. On her helmet was a sphinx flanked by griffins. She held the goddess of victory in her left hand, and a gold-tipped spear in her right. Her sandals were adorned with the battle between the lapiths and centaurs, while her shield depicted the struggle between the Athenians and the Amazons on the outside, and that of the gods and the giants on the inside.
Pheidias first built a wooden framework, and then covered it with gold plate and thin leaves of ivory. According to Thucydides, over one thousand kilogrammes of pure gold was used, while the unplated parts of the body (face, hands and feet) were made of ivory. Jewels were inserted for the pupils of the goddess' eyes. It was, in itself, a civic treasury, since the plates of gold and ivory and the jewels could be removed if required in an emergency.
It seems certain that this statue was never intended to inspire religious piety. It was consciously executed as a work of art, and as a demonstration of the military, political and economic power of the city.
Its creation was not unaccompanied by scandal. Pheidias was accused of using less gold on the statue than he had been allocated, and of appropriating some of it for himself. The indignant artist promptly had all the gold plating removed and then weighed to establish his innocence. But then it was discovered that he had unobtrusively included portraits of himself and his patron, Pericles, on Athena's shield; an act considered by many at the time to be sacrilege. According to tradition, he languished in jail for this offence until he died.
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