Photorealistic golden statue of Athena, holding Nike and spear, with shield and serpent, in a classical Greek temple.

The Athena Parthenos was created around 447 BCE in the Athens Acropolis during the classical period of Ancient Greek. It was a beautiful chryselephantine statue, her skin was sculpted from ivory and her dress and armor were covered in gold. The gold on the Athena Parthenos alone cost more than the entire construction of the Parthenon, and she was also said to have many beautiful gems and jewels decorating her body The statue was exactly 30 Greek cubits tall which is a little under 40 US feet. It also had an exact 5 to 1 ratio with the Nike, a greek goddess of victory, that she held in her hand Pausanias accounts: “The statue of Athena is standing, with a tunic reaching to the feet, and on her breast the head of Medusa is working in ivory. She holds a Nike about four cubits high, and in the other hand a spear; at her feet is placed a shield and near the spear is a serpent”(Pausanias 1.24.7). Pliny accounts: “I shall mention her shield, on the convex border of which he engraved a Battle of the Amazons, and on the hollow side Combats of Gods and Giants; and her sandals, on which he depicted Combats of Lapiths and Centaurs” (Pliny the Elder 36.18) Plutarch accounts: “When [Pheidias] wrought the battle of the Amazons on the shield of the goddess, he carved out a figure that suggested himself as a bald old man lifting on high a stone with both hands, and also inserted a very fine likeness of Pericles fighting with an Amazon” (Plutarch 31.4). See more