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
A statue in Athens, which was found in 1888 in the Roman ruins at
the Olympieion, may represent a boy victor pouring a libation (Fig.
26).[1088] It is a poor Roman copy, dry and lifeless, of a bronze
original of the middle of the fifth century B. C.[1089] In this
statue Mayer has seen the motive, and probably the copy, of the
_Splanchnoptes_ (Roaster of Entrails) by the sculptor Styphax (or
Styppax) of Cyprus, which, according to Pliny,[1090] represented
Perikles’ slave “roasting entrails and blowing hard on the fire, to
kindle it, till his cheeks swell.” He thinks that the position of the
broken arms and a comparison of the figure with similar ones on vases
make the identification possible. Von Salis concurs in his restoration
and interpretation and publishes a small statuette in Athens from
Dodona,[1091] which has a similar pose, and holds a three-pronged
fork in the left hand, which he believes should be restored in the
statue. Although statue and statuette have much in common (_e. g._, the
position of the breast and shoulders, the treatment of the hair, etc.),
which shows that both may be copies of one original, the conception
of the two is somewhat different. The statue from Athens represents
a boy standing busily engaged at the altar; the statuette represents
one standing at rest merely looking on, the fork not being held in
position for use.[1092] In any case the face of the Athens statue
can not correspond with Pliny’s description—_ignemque oris pleni
spiritu accendens_. Quite a different explanation of the statue is
possible—one which Mayer thought improbable. The right arm—broken above
the wrist—was raised to the height of the shoulder and may have held an
object in the hand; the left arm—broken off below the shoulder—seems
to have been held close to the body and appears to have corresponded
in movement with the other. The boy, therefore, may have held a cup in
the right hand and a branch or a victor fillet in the left. Thus it may
merely be another example of a boy victor pouring a libation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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