Pallas Athena - Vienna, Austria
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N 48° 12.476 E 016° 21.565
33U E 600997 N 5340304
Statue of Greek Goddess of Wisdom, Warfare, Divine intelligence, Architecture and Crafts as dominant statue of fountain located in front of the building of Austrian Parliament in Vienna.
Waymark Code: WMF97H
Location: Wien, Austria
Date Posted: 09/13/2012
Views: 27
The Pallas-Athena Fountain (Pallas-Athene-Brunnen) is situated in front of the building of Austrian Parliament on Ringstrasse. It was erected between 1893 and 1902. The 4 meters (13 ft) high figure of Pallas Athene with gilded helmet and armed with a lance is the work of the sculptor Carl Kundmann with the help of Josef Tautenhayn, and Hugo Haerdlt, based on the plans by Baron von Hansen. Athena is dressed in armor with a gilded helmet, her left hand carries a spear, her right carries Nike, Greek's Goddess of Victory.
Athena was the great Olympian goddess of wisdom, war, the defence of towns, heroic endeavour, weaving, pottery and other crafts. She was depicted crowned with a crested helm, armed with shield and spear, and wearing the snake-trimmed aigis cloak wrapped around her breast and arm, adorned with the monstrous head of the Gorgon.
The more famous myths featuring the goddess Athene include:
- Her birth from the head of Zeus, fully-grown and arrayed in arms;
- Her contest with Poseidon for dominion of Athens in which she produced the first olive tree and he the first horse;
- The War of the Giants in which she buried Enkelados beneath Mount Etna and made her aigis from the skin of Pallas;
- The attempted rape of the goddess by Hephaistos, who spilled his seed upon the earth and produced Erikhthonios, who she then adopted as her own;
- The assisting of Perseus in his quest to slay the Gorgon and the Argonauts in their quest for the Golden Fleece;
- The assisting of Herakles with his twelve labours;
- The weaving contest with Arakhne who was transformed by the goddess into a spider;
- The blinding of Teiresias for viewing her naked in the bath;
- The Judgement of Paris in which she competed with Hera and Aphrodite for the prize of the golden apple;
- The Trojan War where she sided with the Greeks in battle, but attacked their ships with a storm when they failed to punish Oilean Ajax for violating her Trojan shrine.
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