Marble head of a heroized athlete in the type of Heracles
Marble beardless head belonging to a statue of a victor, possibly in the pankration or wrestling. The idealistic facial features point to the schools of the famous sculptors Skopas or Lysippos. The figure is possibly a heroized athlete depicted with the characteristics of Heracles, an exemplar of fighting spirit, strength and determination. Indeed, the Olympic victor acquired almost mythical dimensions and was compared to glorious heroes. It is not a coincidence that, from this time onwards, the Olympic ideal was oriented towards the systematic pursuit of increasingly higher goals. This is evident in the gaze of the sculpture, which unveils energy in harmony with a passionate spirit.
- Ephorate of Antiquities of Ilia
- Museum of the History of the Olympic Games of Antiquity, inv. n. Λ 99
- Ca 340 BC
- Η. 0.27 m. W. of face 0.127 m.
- Pentelic marble
- Provenance: Olympia, recovered east of the Palaestra, near the Gymnasion
Bibliography
- Antonacopoulou, E. P. (2008). Engaged Leadership: Living the Myth and Embodying the Legend of the Olympian Athlete, στο Monika Kostera, Organizational Olympians: heroes and heroines of organizational myths, pp. 30-39, esp. 35-36, Chippenham and Eastbourne.
- Lenk, H. (1982). Tasks of the Philosophy of Sport: Between Publicity and Anthropology. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, 9(1), pp. 94–106, esp. 96-98.
- Segrave, J. O. (2019). Citius, Altius, Fortius. Pierre de Coubertin and the emergence of the serialized modern Olympic games in the late-nineteenth-century. Nineteenth-Century Contexts: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Vol. 42(1), pp. 33–50.
- Treu, G. (1897). Die Bildwerke von Olympia in Stein und Thon, Οlympia III, pp. 208, fig.
- 237, pl. LIV, 3-4.
- Χατζή, Γ. (2008). Το Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο Ολυμπίας, σσ. 180, Αθήνα: Κοινωφελές Ίδρυμα Ιωάννη Σ. Λάτση. Διαθέσιμο και ηλεκτρονικά. Ανακτήθηκε, 12 Ιουλίου, 2022 από: https://www.latsis-foundation.org/content/elib/book_15/olympia_gr.pdf
