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
We shall discuss a few examples of this process of assimilation to
types of Herakles. Our ascription of the head from Olympia mentioned
by Homolle, which was found in the ruins of the Gymnasion, to the
statue of the Akarnanian pancratiast Philandridas by Lysippos[787]
(Frontispiece and Fig. 69) will be discussed in a later chapter.[788]
The swollen ears and hair-fillet might pass for hero or mortal, for
in deciding whether a given head represents Herakles or a victor,
the ears are not the deciding criterion, since many heroes had the
“pancratiast” swollen ear, as we shall see later. A good example of
assimilation is seen in the beautiful little marble head of a man,
found in Athens and now in the Glyptothek Ny-Carlsberg in Copenhagen,
dating from the early Hellenistic age.[789] As traces of color remain
in the hair, some have thought that this head came from the reliefs
on the “Alexander” sarcophagus from Sidon, belonging to the body of
a headless youth represented there. Though the marble (Pentelic)
and the dimensions would fit, it would be the only head on the
sarcophagus with a band in the hair, and so the question can not be
definitely decided.[790] The head was at first called a Herakles,
though Furtwaengler rightly saw in it an ideal representation of an
athlete, even if the ears are not swollen. A bronze head of a youth
from Herculaneum, now in Naples, is evidently a part of the statue
of a victor or of Herakles.[791] A Polykleitan ephebe head-type,
with rolled fillet around the hair and swollen ears, represented by
replicas in Naples, in Rome, and elsewhere, may represent a boxer in
the guise of the hero.[792] In the Roman copy of the group of Herakles
and Telephos in the Museo Chiaramonti of the Vatican, Herakles, still
the god, wears a fillet.[793] Similarly, a colossal head of mediocre
workmanship in the Sala dei Busti of the Vatican represents the hero
with a fillet,[794] while another head in the Capitoline Museum, with
fillet and swollen ears, seems to represent Herakles as a victorious
athlete.[795] Many other heads in various museums, which are commonly
called heads of Herakles, may represent athletes in the heroic guise. A
good example is the Parian marble terminal bust of the fourth century
B. C., representing a young Herakles wreathed with poplar, now in the
British Museum (Fig. 31).[796] In this head the ears are bruised.
It seems to have been copied from some well-known statue of Lysippan
or Skopaic tendencies. Another head in the British Museum shows the
beardless hero, his hair encircled by a diadem, and his ears broken
and crushed.[797] This almost certainly comes from a victor statue.
Many bronze statuettes in the British Museum may be interpreted either
as Herakles or as victors.[798] A bronze from Corfu represents a nude
Herakles or an athlete, with the left foot advanced and the left hand
extended. The objects held in both hands are lost, but the challenging
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