Olympic Victor Monuments and Greek Athletic ArtHyde, Walter Woodburn
History
Olympic Victor Monuments and Greek Athletic Art
Hyde, Walter Woodburn
Olympics; Sculpture, Greek; Sports -- Greece
the body, we see in this relief, with its fine modeling, a suggestion
of the form beneath the folds of the garment, and so, perhaps,
only another example of an Attic master rebelling against alien
influence.[990]
At Olympia we have no names of Athenian sculptors prior to the Persian
war period. Kalamis helped Onatas with the monument of King Hiero
already mentioned. Mikon made a statue of a pancratiast, Kallias of
Athens, who won in Ol. 77 (= 472 B. C.).[991] The great Myron, of whom
we shall speak at length in the next chapter, made five statues of
victors, which were erected between Ols. 77 and 84 (= 472 and 444 B.
C.).[992] Only four later Athenian artists are mentioned: Silanion of
the fourth century, who made statues for three victors, whose victories
ranged from Ols. 102 to 114 (= 372 to 324 B. C.);[993] Polykles the
Elder, who made the statue of the boy pancratiast Amyntas of Eresos,
who won in Ol. (?) 146 (= 196 B. C.);[994] Timarchides and Timokles,
the sons of Polykles, who in common made the statue of the boxer
Agesarchos of Tritaia in Achaia, who won in Ol. (?) 143 (= 208 B.
C.)[995]
GENERAL MOTIVES OF STATUES AT REST.
The victor represented as standing at rest was often characterized
by general motives, such as praying, anointing or scraping himself,
offering libations, and the like. We shall now consider such motives in
detail.
ADORATION AND PRAYER.
Prayer was a common motive represented in votive monuments. Pliny
mentions many such works by Greek sculptors.[996] The custom of
raising the arms in prayer is found all through Greek literature,
from Homer down.[997] Pausanias says that the people of Akragas made
an offering in the form of bronze statues of boys placed on the walls
of the Altis, προτείνοντάς τε τὰς δεξιὰς καὶ εἰκασμένους εὐχομένοις
τῷ θεῷ, these statues being the work of Kalamis.[998] In the Athenian
Asklepieion there were many τύποι καταμακτοὶ πρὸς πινακίῳ, among which
were representations of men and women in the praying attitude.[999]
The motive was used at Olympia in victor statues, representing the
victor as raising the hand in prayer to invoke victory.[1000] The
statue of the wrestler Milo, already discussed at length, shows that
this motive was employed at Olympia in the improved “Apollo” type in
the second half of the sixth century B. C.[1001] From the next century
we may cite the statue of the Spartan chariot victor Anaxandros, which
was represented as “praying to the god,”[1002] and the statues of the
Rhodian boxers Diagoras and Akousilaos, as we learn from a scholion on
Pindar,[1003] which is based on a fragment of Aristotle[1004] and on
one of Apollas.[1005] Of the statue of Diagoras it says: τὴν δεξιὰν
ἀνατείνων χεῖρα, τὴν δὲ ἀριστερὰν εἰς ἑαυτὸν ἐπικλίνων; of that of
Akousilaos: τῇ μὲν ἀριστερᾷ ἱμάντα ἔχων πυκτινόν, τὴν δὲ δεξιὰν
ὡς πρὸς προσευχὴν ἀνατείνων.[1006] The bronze statue from Athens, now
in the Antiquarium, Berlin,[1007] which represents a nude boy with the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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