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
Waldstein, on insufficient grounds, has argued that the so-called
_Strangford Apollo_ in the British Museum (Fig. 14)[1719] is a copy
of the statue at Olympia of the famous Thasian boxer and pancratiast
Theagenes by Glaukias. Its close observation of nature finds its
analogy in the statues of the Aeginetan pediment groups (see Figs. 20,
21). The statue of the boy boxer Athenaios of Ephesos, by an unknown
sculptor, was represented as lunging at his adversary, as we see from
the footmarks on the recovered base. The left foot was advanced and
turned outwards, while the right one touched the ground only with the
toes.[1720] Similarly the statue of the boxer Damoxenidas by Nikodamos
of Arkadia was represented as about to strike. On its recovered base
the left foot stood solidly upon the ground, while the right foot
was drawn back and touched the ground only with the toes—if we judge
rightly from the size of the missing part of the stone.[1721] The
statue of the Ionian boxer Epitherses by Pythokritos of Rhodes seems to
have had but one foot flat upon the ground, and consequently must have
been represented in motion, though we are not sure of the position of
the other, since one stone of the base is missing.[1722]
[Illustration: FIG. 58.—Statue known as _Pollux_. Louvre, Paris.]
The bronze plate from the base of the statue of the boy boxer
Philippos, an Azanian of Pellene, was found at Olympia and has
been referred to the end of the fourth or beginning of the third
century B. C.[1723] However, since Pausanias says that Myron made
the statue,[1724] various attempts have been made to reconcile the
discrepancy in dates. Our own solution is that the statue seen by
Pausanias did not represent Philippos at all, but some earlier unnamed
Arkadian boxer, who was contemporary with Myron.[1725] Years later
the Azanian boy Philippos won a victory at Olympia and attached the
recovered epigram to the old base, in which he implored Zeus to let
the ancient glory of Arkadia be revived in him, and also a newer one
in which he said that he had restored the statue of Myron.[1726]
Pausanias saw the newer one, but omitted to mention the older, which
was probably illegible from weathering. He therefore thought that the
original Myronian statue used by Philippos represented the latter
victor.[1727] The words on the affixed plate beginning ὧδε στὰς ὁ
Πελασγὸς ἐπ’ Ἀλφειῷ ποκα πύκτας κ. τ. λ., may refer to the position of
the boxer rather than to a portrait of the victor.[1728] We have long
ago hazarded the suggestion[1729] that the so-called _Pollux_ of the
Louvre (Fig. 58),[1730] whose body forms recall the _Marsyas_ and whose
head recalls the _Diskobolos_, may go back to the statue of the unnamed
Arkadian by Myron.[1731] But the uncertainty which we have found in a
former section[1732] in assigning this and kindred works to Myron or to
Pythagoras leaves it only a suggestion.
PANCRATIASTS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account