Parthenon Sculptures (Elgin Marbles)

Carved under the direction of Phidias for the Parthenon, the temple to Athena crowning the Athenian Acropolis, these figures filled its pediments and frieze. The reclining goddesses of the east pediment show the high-classical ideal at its peak: wet drapery clings and pools as if soaked, revealing the living body beneath, though the heads are long lost. Lord Elgin removed the marbles around 1801, and Greece has pressed for their return ever since. The benchmark against which later Western sculpture measured itself.