Pergamon Altar Hekate

A detail featuring the Goddess Hekate of the massive Pergamon altar built to honor the God Zeus in the ancient city of pergamon in Asia Minor. The altar was transplanted to Berlin, Germany where it can be viewed today in the Pergamon Museum off the Unter der Linden.

The structure is 35.64 meters wide and 33.4 meters deep; the front stairway alone is almost 20 meters wide. The base is decorated with a frieze in high relief showing the battle between the Giants and the Olympian gods known as the Gigantomachy. There is a second, smaller and less well preserved high relief frieze on the inner court walls which surround the actual fire altar on the upper level of the structure at the top of the stairs. It depicts, in a series of consecutive scenes, events from the life of Telephus, legendary founder of the city of Pergamon and son of the hero Heracles and Auge, a daughter of the Tegean king Aleus.