bavarikon4UDescription
The sculptural decorations of the Temple of Aphaia straddle the boundary between two stylistic phases of Greek art: the western pediment is still late Archaic in style, while the eastern pediment dates from the early Classical period. Nowhere else is this radical shift in the history of ancient art so clearly documented as here. This makes the Aeginetan temple one of the most important monuments of Greek art.
The late Archaic west pediment depicts the battle of Troy, which Homer describes in his epic poem, The Iliad. The archaeologists recognised the connection between the pediment figures and the local myth; after all, the two greatest heroes on the Greek side, Achilles and Ajax, came from the Aeginetan royal family. Local patriotism was therefore likely the driving force behind the choice of subject for the pediment sculptures.
The pediment sculptures from the Temple of Aphaia were discovered in April 1811 by a group of German and English explorers. A year later, on 1 November 1812, they were purchased at auction by Martin von Wagner on the island of Zakynthos for the Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig (1786-1868, who reigned as King Ludwig I of Bavaria from 1825). They have been in the Glyptothek museum in Munich since 1827.