Athena Promachos

[3] According to the Greek traveler and geographer, Pausanias, the top of Athena's helmet as well as the tip of her spear could be seen by sailors and anyone approaching Athens from Attica, at Sounion.

[1] For a long time there was speculation if the Athena Promachos even existed, however most scholars now agree that it did as there is proof from Roman coins that depict it.

[6] Surviving accounts for the creation process for the sculpture cover nine years, but the dates are not identifiable, because the names of officials are missing.

[3] Athena Promachos stood overlooking her city for approximately 1000 years, until shortly after 465 CE,[9] when the sculpture was transported to Constantinople (capital of the Eastern Roman Empire) as a trophy in the "Oval Forum", which became the last bastion and safe haven for many surviving Greek bronze sculptures under the protection of the Eastern Empire's Imperial court.

[3] Of surviving models thought to represent the type, the two outstanding ones are the Athena Elgin, a small bronze statuette in the Metropolitan Museum of Art,[10] who bears an owl in her outstretched hand (as among some coin types), and the Athena Medici torso in the Musée du Louvre,[11] of which there are a number of replicas.

[3] A 'molding pit' from the fifth century BCE was found near the south side of the Acropolis and it is thought that the statue was made in a nearby workshop.

Niketas gives a vivid description of the Athena Parthenos: The goddess wore an ankle-length garment tightly belted at the waist and over it an aegis, complete with gorgoneion.

Around ten years later, the Athena Promachos appears on coins issued by Ptolemy in Alexandria before taking the title of king around 315 BCE.