Seated Woman, Hestia?

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Plaster cast of a young woman’s figure, usually identified with Hestia. The original sculpture is exhibited in the British Museum in London, after it was removed by Thomas Bruce, lord of Elgin, who between 1801 and 1804 when Greece was still under Ottoman rule forcibly detached from the pediment most of the sculptures that he found in their original places. The goddess, sitting on an outcrop, is slightly turning her torso towards the pediment’s centre where the scene of Athena's birth takes place. Her right leg prominently bends backwards, while the left is projecting diagonally to the front thus creating the illusion that she is turning or caught while trying to stand up. She is clad in a chiton with sleeves that slips from her right shoulder, himation that wraps around her and covers her legs and sandals with high soles. Her head and arms are missing. The two Parthenon pediments are adorned with about fifty oversized statues. The sculptures perfectly worked even on their unseen sides present scenes from the myths of the goddess Athena. The east pediment portrayed the miraculous birth of Athena from the head of her father Zeus. The scene takes place on Mt Olympus in the presence of the other gods who watch standing, sitting or half-reclining. The pediments' corners contained the chariots of Helios (Sun), which emerges from the sea, and Selene (Moon), which sinks in the ocean waves, indicating thus that the goddess' birth takes place at dawn. The centre of the scene was occupied by the statues of Zeus and Athena. Due to the misadventures suffered by the monument over the following centuries, many of the temple's sculptures have been destroyed; some survive in mutilated form, while others are represented only by small fragments.