Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Praxithea.
The gallery
The Peplos Scene (East Frieze, Block V of the Parthenon)
Workshop of Phidias, c. 447–433 BC
Carved in low relief at the very center of the Parthenon's east frieze, above the temple's main door, this marble block shows five figures: a bearded man and a child handling a folded cloth, and a woman turning toward two girls who balance stools on their heads. Long read as priests handling Athena's peplos, the scene was reinterpreted by Joan Connelly as Athens' foundation myth — King Erechtheus preparing his youngest daughter for sacrifice while Queen Praxithea, the standing woman, receives the burial garments her elder daughters carry. Under this reading the central female figure is Praxithea herself, the mother who, in Euripides' lost Erechtheus, consented to give a daughter's life to save the city. Now in the British Museum, London (Elgin Collection).
Weavers (Ergastinai) of the East Frieze of the Parthenon, Block VII
Workshop of Phidias, c. 445–435 BC
A marble block from the same central east frieze of the Parthenon, retaining traces of ancient pigment, showing draped women (the ergastinai, weavers of the sacred robe) approaching a group of officials at the head of the Panathenaic procession. As part of the continuous scene that culminates in the so-called peplos block, this section belongs to the procession in which the family of Erechtheus and Queen Praxithea stand at the focal point of the frieze — the ceremonial gathering that the Connelly interpretation links to Athens' founding sacrifice. Now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (Ma 738 / MR 825).