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
In this chapter we shall confine ourselves almost entirely to the
statues of victors represented at rest, discussing those represented
in motion chiefly in the next. Most of the oldest statues at Olympia,
dating from a time when there were few variations in the sculptural
type, must have been represented at rest and in the schema of the
so-called “Apollos.” Ever since the discovery of the _Apollo of Thera_
in 1836 (Fig. 9), this _genre_ of sculpture, the most characteristic of
the early period, extending from the end of the seventh century B. C.
to the time of the gable groups of Aegina, has been carefully studied.
Though we now know that the type passed equally well for gods and
mortals,[818] we still keep the name, because of its familiarity and
for the sake of having a common designation. That this type actually
represented Olympic victors we have indubitable proof. Pausanias
mentions the stone victor statue of the pancratiast Arrhachion, dating
from the first half of the sixth century B. C., which stood in the
agora of his native town Phigalia. He describes it as archaic in pose,
with the feet close together and the arms hanging down the sides to
the hips—the typical “Apollo” schema.[819] Moreover, this very statue
has survived to our time (Fig. 79).[820] A study, therefore, of this
type of statue will give us an idea of how some of the early statues at
Olympia looked.
[Illustration: FIG. 9.—Statue of so-called _Apollo of Thera_. National
Museum, Athens.]
[Illustration: FIG. 10.—Statue of so-called _Apollo of Orchomenos_.
National Museum, Athens.]
[Illustration: FIG. 11.—Statue of so-called _Apollo_, from Mount Ptoion,
Bœotia. National Museum, Athens.]
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