Lissa Bragg

A361: Archaeology of Athens

October 12, 2015
The Temple of Athena Nike

The Temple of Athena Nike/Nike Parapet

The Temple of Athena Nike is a tetrastyle, amphiprostyle, Ionic

building.
The cult of Athena Nike dates to the Bronze Age
It is the earliest fully Ionic structure on the Acropolis
A relatively small temple at 23 feet (7 m) high, 27 feet (8.2 m)
long, 18 feet (5.6 m) wide, and 13 feet (4 m) column height.
The ratio of height to diameter of the columns is 7:1, diverting
from the normal Ionic ratio of 9:1 or 10:1
The cella (5m x 5m) housed a cult statue of Athena Nike
The temple sits on a classical bastion, which is built on top of a
older Mycenaean bastion
A marble parapet, decorated with sculptures of Nike and Athena,
was built around the temple after its completion to protect

visitors from falling off the hill. Holes in the top of the marble
slabs suggest that there was a metal railing above it.
A 25.94 m frieze ran along the four sides of the Cella. The east
frieze depicts an assembly of Gods, the north a battle involving
Greeks and horses, the south a battle between Athenians and
Persians, the west a battle between Greeks.
Very little remains of the pedimental sculpture, but it is believed
that the Gigantomachy (a battle between Gods and giants)
decorated the east side, and the Amazonomachy (a battle
between the Greeks and the Amazons) the west.
An altar of Athena Nike was built outside the temple to the east,
only the foundations survive today

South frieze

Recent History:

The temple fell out of use in 392 AD, when pagan ritual was
banned by Emperor Theodosios.
While fortifying the Acropolis hill, the Franks (1205-1458)
destroyed the altar of Athena Nike.
In the 16th century the Turks used the temple as a powder
magazine. The cella floor was removed and the area inside the
foundations was dug out.
In 1687 the temple was pulled down and the stone was used by
the Turks to build fortifications against Venetian attack.
In 1835, after the liberation of Greece, the fortification was
deconstructed and nearly all of the temple was found and
restored.
In 1880 Richard Bohn partially excavated the interior of the
bastion to establish relative dates of the Propylaia and the
Athena Nike temple.
In 1923 Gabriel Welter discovered an altar and a stone base
under the classical level of the bastion.
In 1934 Nikolaos Balanos, and later Anastasios Orlandos, began
supervising the restoration, and subsequent excavation, on the
temple and the bastion.
o Notable finds are: a naskos (small-scale temple),
terracotta figurines set in a stone repository, the altar and
stone base previously noted by Welter, and a fragment of

another alter inscribed Altar of Athena Nike, Erected by

Patrokles dated to around the mid-6th century.

Dates, Construction, and Controversy:

Balanoss report of the first thorough excavation is very
minimal and rarely mentions chronology, stratigraphy, or
pottery.
Welter published an additional independent report, but at
times contradicts the official account.
Additionally, records on the excavations fail to cite written
sources.
Data worked and reworked, theories argued and opposed,
with little agreement on the most basic of findings, and with
little sense of real progress results in a fair amount of
controversy around the dates and phases of construction of
the Athena Nike.
Earliest evidence for cult activity is the inscribed alter
fragment around 566 B.C.
Persian invasion destroyed a wooden Archaic temple, likely
the one the inscribed alter fragment is from
The poros naiskos and altar were built, it is up to debate
exactly when and why
The Athena Nike temple is included in the Periklean building
project
The Nike Temple Decree is a written record that hires a
priestess of Athena Nike and commissions Kallikrates to build
a door, a temple, and a alter.
Scholars have traditionally linked Kallikrates with the classical
temple, however it as also been argued that Kallikrates is
instead responsible for the nakos temple. If the decree dates
to the early 440s, than Kallikrates would be responsible for
the naiskos temple. If it dates to the 420, Kallikrates should
be credited for the classical building.
A new statue of Athena Nike is dedicated to the temple in 425
BC

Plan of Sanctuary of Athena Nike, First Classical Phase (440s?) Mark, I.

Drawing of monument and the basement area with concrete slab of

the restoration between 1935-40

Bibliography:
Gill, David, The decision to Build the Temple of Athena Nike (IG I3
35), Historia 50: 257-278

Mark, Ira. S. 1993. The Sanctuary of Athena Nike in Athens:

Architectural stages and chronology. Hesperia
Supplement 26. Princeton, NJ: American School of
Classical Studies at Athens, Princeton Office.
Schultz, P. 2009. The north frieze of the Temple of Athena Nike. In Art
in Athens during the Peloponnesian War. Edited by O.
Palagia, 128167. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press
Travlos, John. Pictorial Dictionary.1971: 148-157.
Hurwit, Jeffrey. 1999. The Athenian Acropolis: History, Mythology, and
Archaeology from the Neolithic Era to the Present. 160-161