The Parthenon hosts Symposia through the year. Each symposium is an opportunity to gain knowledge of the ancient civilizations that underpin our own, the Parthenon, and contemporary fine art.

Two organizations provide the funding for these lectures: The Conservancy for the Parthenon and Centennial Park and the Archaeological Institute of America. All lectures areFREE to the community and generally take place at the Parthenon at 6 PM followed by a reception.

Upcoming Symposia

Goddess In Progress: Athena Parthenos In Nashville

Date: Thursday, February 20

Time: 6 PM

Location: Parthenon (2500 West End Ave, Nashville, TN 37203)

Details: Noted sculptor Alan Lequire will discuss the process and artistic choices made in crafting a modern version of the famed statue of Athena once housed in the Parthenon.

Lecturer Bio: Alan LeQuire’s task was to reconstruct the Athena Parthenos statue for Nashville’s full-scale replica of the Parthenon, and to recreate a lost work by the fifth-century Greek sculptor Pheidias, whose original Athena Parthenos was known only from description and from miniature copies which LeQuire’s own research proved to be inaccurate.

LeQuire’s Athena, at forty-two feet tall, is the largest indoor statue in the United States; she supports a life-sized figure of Nike in the palm of her right hand. The unveiling of this work in 1990 made LeQuire a celebrated and controversial figure throughout Tennessee and attracted favorable notice from classical scholars, archaeologists and art critics nationwide, with articles in Art News and the New York Times Magazine.