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
Here the lowered right hand holds a palm-branch, which is shown in low
relief against the right arm.[1202]
SECONDARY ATTRIBUTES OF VICTOR STATUES.
In course of time the sculptor was not content to represent victor
statues merely as victors, but differentiated the various kinds of
victors by special attributes.
HOPLITODROMOI.
[Illustration: FIG. 30.—Marble heads of two Hoplitodromoi, from
Olympia. Museum of Olympia.]
Thus a hoplite victor would be represented with his usual weapons.
Pausanias, in mentioning the statue at Olympia of the hoplite runner
Damaretos of Heraia by the Argive sculptors Eutelidas and Chrysothemis,
says that it “has not only a shield, as the armed runners still have,
but also a helmet on his head and greaves on his legs.”[1203] He adds
that the helmet and greaves were gradually abolished at Olympia and
elsewhere. We have seen that the statue of Damaretos was set up at the
beginning of the fifth century B. C., when his son Theopompos, the
pentathlete, won his second victory, the monuments of the two being in
common.[1204] Toward the middle of the fifth century the hoplite victor
Mnaseas of Kyrene had a statue at Olympia, the work of Pythagoras of
Rhegion, which represented him as an armed man.[1205] A Pythian victor,
Telesikrates, of the fifth century B. C., had a statue at Delphi, which
represented him with a helmet.[1206] We have actual remnants of two
hoplite victor statues of the sixth century B. C., in the two bearded
and helmeted life-size heads of Parian marble found at Olympia (Fig.
30, a, b = A; c, d = B).[1207] The younger of these heads (A), to which
probably belong either an arm and the remnants of a shield attached
with a ram and a representation of Phrixos upon it in relief,[1208] or
a shield fragment with a siren’s wing upon it[1209] and the fragment
of a shield edge[1210] and right foot of fine workmanship,[1211] I
assigned long ago to the statue of the Thessalian hoplitodrome Phrikias
of Pelinna, who won two victories in Ols. 68 and 69 (= 508 and 504 B.
C.).[1212] R. Foerster had referred this head to the statue of the
hoplite runner Damaretos of Heraia, whose monument, in common with
that of his son, the pentathlete Theopompos, was the work of the early
Argive sculptors Chrysothemis and Eutelidas.[1213] But this fresh and
vigorous head is not Peloponnesian, but shows strongly marked Attic
traits in its round face, full cheeks, and soft lips, and in the rows
of regularly wound locks of hair. The arm and foot similarly disclose
Attic softness and grace. Because of its Attic character, Treu and
Overbeck,[1214] in opposition to Foerster, ascribed it to the statue
of the Elean hoplite victor Eperastos mentioned by Pausanias.[1215]
Though the date of his victory is unknown, it certainly fell some
time after Ol. 111 (= 336 B. C.)—a date far too late for so archaic a
sculpture. Furtwaengler[1216] referred this and the more archaic head
B to the group of Phormis at Olympia, mentioned by Pausanias.[1217]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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