The Bronze Athena at Byzantium
1. A Bronze statue of Athena, armed, stood in the Forum of Constantine at Constantinople. This fact is witnessed by three well-known passages:(a) Arethas, bishop of Caesareia (ninth to tenth centuries), commenting on a passage of Aristeides, wrote: ‘I believe this (i.e., the Pheidian χαλκῆ Ἀθηνᾶ of Aristeides, Κατὰ τῶν Ἐξορχουμένων, p. 408) is the one set up in the Forum of Constantine, at the porch of the council-chamber, or senate, as they call it now; facing it, on the right-hand side of the porch as you go in, is Thetis, the ⟨mother⟩ of Achilles, with a crown of crabs. The common folk of to-day call the Athena “Earth” and Thetis “Sea”, being misled by the marine monsters on her head.’ (Cf. Kougeas in Laographia IV, 1913, 240, 241.)(b) Cedrenus (eleventh to twelfth centuries), after a note on the senate on the north side of the Forum, continues: ‘On the open square of the Forum stand two statues; to the west, that of Athena of Lindus, wearing a helmet and the monstrous Gorgon's head and snakes entwined about her neck (for so the ancients used to represent her image); and to the east, Amphitrite, with crabs' claws on her temples, which was also brought from Rhodes.’ (Cedrenus, ed. Bonn., I, p. 565; cf. Kougeas, loc. cit. sup.)