Literature

The attribute of the helmet allows us to identify this head as a representation of Athena, or Minerva in the Roman pantheon, the goddess of wisdom, victory, and strategy. Due to her close association with warfare, Athena/Minerva was generally depicted helmeted and bearing a spear. This example shows the goddess wearing a distinctive Attic-style helmet decorated with a diadem-like frontlet ending in ear volutes. A now missing crest would have been set into the drilled holes on the crown of her head. Minerva was widely worshipped by the Romans throughout the empire, and was celebrated in the calendar over five days during the Quinquatrus, between 19-23 March.

For another example of Athena/Minerva wearing the Attic helmet, cf. B. Ashmole, A Catalogue of the Ancient Marbles at Ince Blundell Hall, 1929, p. 77, no. 204, pl. 9, now in the National Museums Liverpool acc. no. 59.148.204. Also see the head of Athena from Philippi, now in the National Archaeological Museum, Sofia, Bulgaria. For further discussion and examples, see LIMC, Athena/Minerva, 1981, no. 65 ff.