FRAGMENT FROM DELOS.
130.Fragment of a foot of a colossal statue of Apollo, together with a part of the plinth in the same block. The fragment consists of parts of the four greater toes of the left foot. The plinth has dowel holes at each side.
Naxian marble (?). Length of great toe, 1 foot 2 inches; height of plinth, 2 feet 1 inch. This fragment was found by W. Kennard at Delos, in 1818. Stuart, 2nd edit., III., p. 127; IV., section on Delos, pl. 4, fig. 2. It is no doubt a part of a colossal statue which was dedicated by the Naxians to Apollo at Delos, and of which the base and other parts still remain in situ. The base is inscribed on one side, Νάξιοι Ἀπόλλωνι, and on another side in archaic letters, Ταϝυτοῦ λίθου εἰμ' ἀνδρίας καὶ τὸ σφέλας: "I am of the same stone both statue and base." It is supposed that this is "the great statue of the Naxians" at Delos, which, it is said, was overturned by the fall of a brazen palm-tree dedicated by Nicias (Plutarch, Nicias, 3).
The first modern traveller who saw the statue was Bondelmonte (a.d. 1416), who found it prostrate, and says that he made an unsuccessful attempt to set it up (Liber Insularum Archipelagi, Sinner's edit., p. 92). In 1447 Cyriac of Ancona sketched the base with one foot still in position (Bull. dell' Inst., 1861, p. 182). When visited by Spon and Wheler in 1675, the head, hands and feet were lost, but the torso appears to have been nearly complete (Wheler, Journey, p. 56). In 1700 Tournefort only found the lower part of the body, and the thighs (Eng. ed. of 1741, vol. I., pl. facing p. 303). The parts seen by Tournefort remain at Delos, and have been described by several travellers. Welcker, Alte Denkmaeler, I., p. 400; Michaelis, Annali dell' Inst., 1864, p. 253; Furtwaengler, Arch. Zeit., 1882, p. 329. For the base and inscription, see Blouet, Exp. de Morée, III., pl. 3, figs. 3, 4 Bull. de Corr. Hellénique, III., p. 2.
CASTS FROM SELINUS.
The following sculptures, Nos. 135-139, were excavated at Selinus in 1823 by the architects William Harris and Samuel Angell. They are divided into two series, derived from different temples.
Selinus, a colony of Megara, in the south-west of Sicily, was founded about 628 b.c. The temple (commonly known as C), from which the sculptures, Nos. 135-137, were obtained, is the oldest temple on the Acropolis, and it is therefore probable that its construction was begun not long after the foundation of the city. The earlier sculptures are therefore assigned to the beginning of the sixth century b.c.
The second series, Nos. 138-139, were obtained from the temple commonly known as F. This is the third or youngest temple in the group shown by architectural evidence to be the oldest. An exact date cannot be assigned, but the sculptures probably belong to the close of the sixth century. The originals, which are made of a coarse limestone, are preserved in the Museum at Palermo.