Birth of Athena (detail). Athena and Zeus.Reconstruction of the east pediment of the Parthenon accor

Birth of Athena (detail). Athena and Zeus.

Reconstruction of the east pediment of the Parthenon according to drawing by Karl Schwerzek (1896). 

Athena has just emerged from Zeus’s skull fully armed and equipped. She is looking at him. The King of the Gods is looking back at her amazed and surprised. Nike is intending to put a wreath on the head of a newborn goddess. On the right, Hephaestus can be seen holding an axe with which he split Zeus’s skull.

ACROPOLIS MUSEUM, ATHENS, GREECE