<P> The Nashville Athena Parthenos is made of a composite of gypsum cement and ground fiberglass . The head of Athena was assembled over an aluminum armature, and the lower part was made in steel . The four ten - inch H beams rest on a concrete structure that extends through the Parthenon floor and basement down to bedrock, to support the great weight of the statue . LeQuire made each of the 180 cast gypsum panels used to create the statue light enough to be lifted by one person and attached to the steel armature . </P> <P> Nashville's Athena stands 41 ft 10 in (502 inches (12.8 m)) tall, making her the largest piece of indoor sculpture in the Western World . It stood in Nashville's Parthenon as a plain, white statue for twelve years . In 2002, Parthenon volunteers gilded Athena under the supervision of master gilder Lou Reed . The gilding project took less than four months and makes the modern statue appear that much more like the way that Phidias' Athena Parthenos would have appeared during its time . The 23.75 - karat gold leaf on Nashville's Athena Parthenos weighs a total of 8.5 pounds (3.9 kg) and is one - third the thickness of tissue paper . The modern extravagance of gilding such a large statue pales in comparison to the lavish spending of the Greeks . </P>

What two materials were used to make the statue of athena