ArtofACOdyssey 7: The Great Bronze Athena

Rounding out our launch week extravaganza, we’re finishing strong on DAY 7 of #ArtofACOdyssey with the Great Bronze Athena.

 

Great Bronze Athena, Acropolis of Athens. Screenshot from Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (Ubisoft 2018).

Approaching Athens from Sounion. Screenshot from Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (Ubisoft 2018).
 

 

Obviously, such a gigantic statue is not extant but we do know a few things for sure. Pausanias (1.28.2) tells us that you could see the tip of the spear and crest of the helmet when you rounded Sounion which, I am happy to confirm, you can also do in AC Odyssey.


 

 
 
It was made by Phidias, who also made the colossal chryselephantine statues of Zeus at Olympia and Athena Parthenos. The statue was referred to as Phidias’ Athena Promachos in the 4th c. CE and kept that name for a while – Athena ‘first to the fight.’

 

 

“Promachos” is also applied to the genre of striding Athena representations with raised shield and spear. The misnomer influenced generations of scholarly thought on the Acropolis, as can be seen in Leo von Klenze’s painting of 1846. However, thanks to a series of 3rd c. CE coins minted in Attica that show the Acropolis, we know that she was standing stationary with an object in her outstretched right hand – likely an owl, but possibly a Nike figure. Some smaller bronze figures replicate the pose.

Obviously, the Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Athena is different. What they’ve done here is modeled the body for the Athena Parthenos and more or less copied it for the Great Athena, as you can see here. They changed the ivory and gold to bronze, switched the right arm and removed the snake, but the body, aegis, and helmet are the same. I think that the aegis would have been similar between the two but as for the helmet, the Parthenos is so specific it’s hard to say.

 


Comparisons between the Great Bronze Athena and the Athena Parthenos. Screenshots from Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (Ubisoft 2018).   
 

While I can’t speak to the reasons for the change (I suspect it had something to do with deadlines), what I am most pleased about is that Ubisoft Quebec really got the monumentality right. When you’re approaching Athens or wandering the Acropolis, they have a presence.

Interior of the Parthenon, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (Ubisoft 2018).
 

 That presence is something I’ve never been able to communicate to my students properly, but I hope with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey my future classes will get some idea of the awe-inspiring, iconic quality they brought to ancient Athens. Then, of course, we’ll pick apart the iconography and have a good discussion on creative choices in classical reception works. 🙂

 

View of the Acropolis, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (Ubisoft 2018).


 This was originally posted on Twitter, October 14 2018.

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