The Votive Statues of the Athenian Acropolis

During the period between Solon's reforms and the end of the Peloponnesian War, worshippers dedicated hundreds of statues to Athena on the Acropolis, Athens's primary sanctuary. Some of these statues were Archaic marble korai, works of the greatest significance for the study of Greek art; all are documents of Athenian history. This book brings together all of the evidence for statue dedications on the Acropolis in the sixth and fifth centuries BC, including inscribed statue bases that preserve information about the dedicators and the evidence for lost bronze sculptures. Placing the korai and other statues from the Acropolis within the original votive contexts, Katherine Keesling questions the standard interpretation of the korai as generic, anonymous votaries, while shedding light upon the origins and significance of Greek portraiture.

• Suggests that kore statues of the Acropolis are representative of Athena rather than generic, anonymous, female votaries
• Argues that portrait statues were uncommon in mainland Greek sanctuaries before the fourth century
• Makes large body of difficult, inaccessible archaeological and epigraphical evidence understandable and relates it to larger questions