Manon Champier

History thesis

Defended on June 30, 2018
 
Inventing Athena : an antic goddess’s reception in official imagery and public authorities’s pictures in the French 19th century (1789-1914) under the supervision of Corine Bonnet, Adeline Grand-Clément & Patrick Cabanel.

Abstract

Athena’s reception in official imagery and pictures of power in the French 19th century shows the public authority’s legitimization processes, using the antic heritage. The period studied by this research (1789-1914) bears the marks of a precarious politic context, with unstable regimes and aims to highlight the distinctive characteristics and constants of these mechanisms.

Archeological and historical researches of the 19th century build a more complete portrait of Athena, giving more importance to her iconography, and progressively distinguishing her from the Roman goddess, Minerva. Great warrior goddess, gifted with mètis, patroness of heroes, arts and crafts in Antiquity, Athena becomes, in a post-polytheism context, the allegory of Wisdom, the representative of Greece and its heritage, the protector of all intellectual and artistic activities and the guide of French rulers.

She is used in imagery of military and cultural administrations, but also in power’s protection in general, and all its manifestations to the public, such as law’s field. Figure of legitimization, she can also embody power, regularly personifying high entities like France, Motherland or the Republic, being in competition with the allegory of Liberty, with the Phrygian hat.

Publication