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
As for the first point, that the statuaries mentioned by Pausanias
appear only in Pliny’s catalogue of bronze founders, we must remember
that Pausanias himself says[2195] that he is making only a selection of
the victor monuments in the Altis, those of the more famous athletes.
Therefore, the 192 monuments (of 187 victors)[2196] which he does
mention must be only a fraction of the multitude of such monuments
which once stood at Olympia. Pliny, to be sure, says that it was the
custom for all victors to set up statues in the Altis;[2197] but this
refers only to the privilege, of which many victors could not or did
not avail themselves on account of poverty, early death, or for other
reasons.[2198] Still, the number of such dedications must have been
very great. Manifestly, therefore, we should not base an argument
on the number mentioned. There must, then, have been many other
artists employed at Olympia, some of whom may well have been workers
in marble. Besides, of the statuaries actually named by Pausanias,
many do not appear at all in Pliny’s work, and many of these may have
been sculptors exclusively in stone. Of the names found in Pliny,
six at least—Kalamis, Kanachos, Eutychides, Myron, Polykles, and
Timarchides—appear both in the list of bronze-workers and in that of
marble-sculptors.[2199] Similarly, in answer to the second argument
that the excavated bases show footprints of bronze statues, we must
admit that only a fraction of the bases which once supported statues in
the Altis have been recovered. Not one-fifth of the victors mentioned
by Pausanias are known to us through these bases.[2200]
The fact that actual remains of bronze statues have been excavated at
Olympia is matched by the fact that remnants of marble statues have
also been found; and it does not seem reasonable, in the light of the
evidence adduced by Treu, Furtwaengler, and others, to reject these
as fragments of actual victor statues. These fragments include the
following:[2201]
(_a_, _b_) The two life-size archaic helmeted heads (Fig. 30) which we
have ascribed to hoplite victors.[2202]
(_c_, _d_, _e_) Fragments of statues of boy victors: _c_ = trunk with
left upper leg, three-fifths life-size (Fig. 78);[2203] _d_ = breast,
one-half life-size;[2204]
_e_ = upper part of legs of a statue, two-thirds life-size.[2205]
Besides these Treu also adduces fragments of four different boy
statues, all of which are less than life-size.[2206]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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