Speculation has been busy in attempting to connect other statues that have been preserved to us with the name of Phidias.  The most probable case that has yet been made out concerns two closely similar marble figures in Dresden, one of which is shown in Fig. 119.  The head of this statue is missing, but its place has been supplied by a cast of a head in Bologna (Fig. 120), which has been proved to be another copy from the same original.  This proof, about which there seems to be no room for question, is due to Professor Furtwangler, [Footnote:  “Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture” pages 4 ff.] who argues further that the statue as thus restored is a faithful copy of the Lemnian Athena of Phidias, a bronze work which stood on the Athenian Acropolis.  The proof of this depends upon (1) the resemblance in the standing position and in the drapery of this figure to the Athena of the Parthenon, and (2) the fact that Phidias is known to have made a statue of Athena (thought to be the Lemnian Athena) without a helmet on the head—­ an exceptional, though not wholly unique, representation in sculpture in the round.

If this demonstration be thought insufficient, there cannot, at all events, be much doubt that we have here the copy of an original of about the middle of the fifth century.  The style is severely simple, as we ought to expect of a religious work of that period.  The virginal face, conceived and wrought with ineffable refinement, is as far removed from sensual charm as from the ecstasy of a Madonna.  The goddess does not reveal herself as one who can be “touched with a feeling of our infirmities”; but by the power of her pure, passionless beauty she sways our minds and hearts.

The supreme architectural achievement of the Periclean age was the Parthenon, which crowned the Athenian Acropolis.  It appears to have been begun in 447, and was roofed over and perhaps substantially finished by 438.  Its sculptures were more extensive than those of any other Greek temple, comprising two pediment-groups, the whole set of metopes of the exterior frieze, ninety-two in number, and a continuous frieze of bas-relief, 522 feet 10 inches in total length, surrounding the cella and its vestibules (cf.  Fig. 56).  After serving its original purpose for nearly a thousand years, the building was converted into a Christian church and then, in the fifteenth century, into a Mohammedan mosque.  In 1687 Athens was besieged by the forces of Venice.  The Parthenon was used by the Turks as a powder-magazine, and was consequently made the target for the enemy’s shells.  The result was an explosion, which converted the building into a ruin.  Of the sculptures which escaped from this catastrophe, many small pieces were carried off at the time or subsequently, while other pieces were used as building stone or thrown into the lime-kiln.  Most of those which remained down to the beginning of this century were acquired by Lord Elgin, acting under a permission from the Turkish government (1801-3), and in 1816 were bought for the British Museum.  The rest are in Athens, either in their original positions on the building, or in the Acropolis Museum.