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
Before discussing the subject of the assimilation of victor statues
to types of god and hero, we must make it clear that often, for
certain reasons, statues of athletes were later converted into those
of gods, and _vice versa_. Such examples of metamorphosing statues
have nothing to do with the process of assimilation under discussion.
A few examples will make this clear. An archaic bronze statuette from
Naxos,[632] reproducing the type of the _Philesian Apollo_ of Kanachos,
since it has the same position of hands as in the original, as we see
it later reproduced on coins of Miletos and in other copies,[633]
holds an aryballos in the right hand instead of a fawn. As it is
absurd to represent Apollo with the bow in one hand and an oil-flask
in the other, it seems clear that in this statuette the copyist has
converted a well-known Apollo into an athlete by addition of an
athletic attribute. Famous statues were put to many different uses by
later copyists. Thus Furtwaengler has shown that the statue of the boy
boxer Kyniskos by Polykleitos at Olympia,[634] which represented the
athlete crowning himself, was modified to represent various deities,
heroes, etc. Thus a copy from Eleusis of the fourth century B. C.,
because of its provenience and the soft lines of the face, suggests
a divinity, perhaps Triptolemos.[635] A copy of the same type in
the Villa Albani (no. 222) has an antique piece of a boar’s head on
the nearby tree-stump and, consequently, may represent Adonis or
Meleager. A torso in the Museo Torlonia (no. 22) represents Dionysos,
another in the Museo delle Terme has a mantle and caduceus and so
represents Hermes, while on coins of Commodus the same figure, with
the lion’s skin and club, represents Herakles.[636] No ancient statue
was used more extensively as a model for other types than the famous
_Doryphoros_ of Polykleitos. Furtwaengler[637] has collected a long
list of later conversions of this work into statues both marble and
bronze, statuettes, reliefs, etc., representing Pan, Ares, Hermes, and
in one case an ordinary mortal.[638] Other examples of the conversion
of statues will be given in our treatment of assimilation.
ATHLETE STATUES ASSIMILATED TO TYPES OF HERMES.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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