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Ten years later (438 b.c.) the work was finished. When the second statue of Athena was unveiled the goddess was found to be no longer the warlike maiden who, spear in hand, led those who bore her name to victory. Phidias’ colossal figure, some forty feet high, portrayed the virgin in her robes of triumph, with the symbol of victory in her hand. From her shoulders hung the ægis wherewith her father Zeus had destroyed his foes, from the centre of which the dreaded gorgon’s head stared out. The face, arms and feet of the goddess were of ivory, the dress being decorated with gold. This statue of Athena Parthenos has been lost to the world since the coming of Christianity to Athens about 430 a.d., but the accounts of classical travellers and some rude reproductions enable us to reconstruct the masterpiece of Phidias, at least in imagination.

The Parthenon itself was built from the golden-hued marble of Pentelicus, quarried from the mines near Athens. Its architecture was of the simple yet stately Doric order. The principal chamber of the temple—the cella—in which the statue of Athena Parthenos stood, was surrounded by a colonnade of Doric pillars. The metopes, or square panels above the colonnade, were filled with groups sculptured in high relief, the outside of the cella being decorated with a frieze in low relief. In judging this it is important to remember that these reliefs stood forty feet above the floor of the colonnade. Colour was added to increase their effect, while the bridles and other appointments of the horses were of metal. The triangular pediments above the porticos were filled with two great groups sculptured in the round.