Hackers placed a giant statue of the Greek goddess Athena in MIT's Killian Court on 5/18/09, the first day of Final Exams.
Hackers placed a giant statue of the Greek goddess Athena in MIT's Killian Court on 5/18/09, the first day of Final Exams. This picture shows two other hacks, as well: the Apollo 11 Lunar Lander put atop the Great Dome in honor of 40th anniversary of the moon landings, and a change in color of the Dome's lights to red. The Athena statue stood atop a large pedestal and carried a shield inscribed with MIT's "Mens et Manus" logo. Athena is the goddess of knowledge, wisdom, heroic endeavor, and strategic warfare, as well as the name of MIT's campus-wide computing system. (No sacrifices to the statue were observed by the photographer at the time the photos were taken, but then again the exam period was just beginning.) This is not the first time the goddess has been associated with Killian Court -- the original architect of MIT's Cambridge campus, William Welles Bosworth, included in the plans a 50-foot tall statue of Athena that would be the centerpiece of the Court. The statue was cut from the construction plans due to an Institute budget crunch in 1913.
Size: 3460px × 2667px
Location: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
Photo credit: © ES Tech Hacks and Pranks Archive / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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