Stockton 1

The sculpture The Three Goddess is found in the east pediment of the Parthenon.

The Parthenon a temple dedicated after Athena the Greek goddess. The Parthenon got its name from one of the epithets of the goddess – Parthenos and depicts many important

Athenian myths including the contest between Athena and Poseidon and Athena’s birth.

All the sculpture relief’s in the Parthenon tell story’s about the people of Athens and there relationship with the Gods. Unfortunately the East Pediment in which the Three

Goddesses lye is in very poor shape. Due its poor shape the identification of the characters is hard to determine. They have been identified as many different things but the most accepted identification of the Three Goddesses is Hestia (goddess of home and hearth), Dione (mother of Aphrodite), and Aphrodite (goddess of sexual love).

Hestia the goddess of home and hearth is thought to be the seated Goddess on the far left. The myth goes that Hestia was the first born child of the titan Kronos and his wife Rhea. At birth Hestia was swallowed by her father along with her siblings. Zeus discovered this and forced Kronos to throw up Hestia and her five siblings. As a young woman the Gods Apollo and Poseidon fought for her hand in marriage Hetia refusing both of them asked Zeus if she could remain a virgin forever and that is how she came to be the goddess hearth.

Dione the earth goddess is though to be the daughter of Aphrodite. Dione is also thought to be the female version of Zeus. In Homers the Iliad Aphrodite goes to Dione’s side after she has been wounded in battle while protecting her son Aeneas. After the Iliad

Aphrodite is often reffered to as “Dionaea” and even sometimes “Dione” Besides this little is known about Dione the goddess and titan who is thought to be the goddess in the middle of this sculpture holding her daughter Aphrodite.