Olympic Victor Monuments and Greek Athletic Art

by Walter Woodburn Hyde

[883] The best example is in Naples, the group being known, and probably correctly, since Winckelmann’s day, as Orestes and Elektra: B. B., no. 306; Kekulé, Gruppe d. Menelaos, Pl. II, 1; Bulle, 141 (height 1.44 meters); Collignon, II, pp. 662, fig. 347; Gardner, Hbk., p. 557, fig. 151; Clarac, V, 836, 2093; Reinach, Rép., I, 506.4. A sketch of the Naples Orestes and the Ligourió bronze, showing their great resemblance, is given by Furtwaengler, 50stes Berl. Winckelmannsprogr., p. 137. A replica of the female figure is cited by Michaelis as in Marbury Hall, England: p. 503, no. 6; cf. Conze, Beitraege zur Gesch. d. gr. Pl.², p. 25, n. 3.

[884] E. g., the so-called group of Orestes and Pylades in the Louvre: von Mach, 323; Collignon, II, p. 663, fig. 348; Reinach, Rép., I, 161, 2 (= Mercury and Vulcan).

[885] Kalkmann, 53stes Berl. Winckelmannsprogr., 1893, pp. 77 f., thought that the Stephanos figure went back to an original by Pythagoras, the rival of Myron, which Furtwaengler, Mp., p. 49, rightly characterizes as “wide of the mark”; Pfuhl, p. 2197, Bulle, and others regard its ascription to the school of Hagelaïdas as probable, even if not capable of proof. Furtwaengler, 50stes Berl. Winckelmannsprogr., p. 152, believes it was vermutlich ein Werk des Meisters (i. e., Hagelaïdas) selbst: on pp. 146–7 he pronounces the life-size marble torso of a statue of a nude man found in a wall over the ruins of the Palaistra at Olympia (Treu, A. Z., XXXVIII, 1880, p. 45)—because of its resemblance in pose to that of the Ligourió statuette—a Roman school copy of an original bronze victor statue going back to Hagelaïdas.

[886] E. g., the marble group formerly in the Boncompagni-Ludovisi collection, now in the Museo delle Terme, Rome: Helbig, Fuehrer, II, 1314; Guide, 887; B. B., no. 309; von Mach, 322; Baum., II, p. 1193, fig. 1393; Springer-Michaelis, p. 454, fig. 834; Kekulé, Die Gruppe d. Menelaos, Pl. I; Schreiber, Bildw. d. Villa Ludovisi, p. 89, no. 69; Collignon, II, p. 665, fig. 349; F. W., 1560; Reinach, Rép., I, 506, 6.

[887] V, 10.8.

[888] Pliny, H. N., XXXIV, 72, and XXXVI, 16.

[889] See Brunn, pp. 236–7 and 244–5.

[890] Loeschke (Dorpaterprogr., 1887, p. 7, on the basis of an early suggestion of Furtwaengler in A. M., III, 1878, p. 194) and J. Six (J. H. S., X, 1889, pp. 109 f.), assumed two sculptors of the name of Alkamenes, ascribing the gable statues and that of Hera at Phaleron (mentioned by P., I, 1.5) to the elder one. Furtwaengler later retracted the theory of two artists and assumed but one (Mp., p. 90, n. 3; Mw., p. 122 and n. 6). Koepp has shown that the Hera is of no use in dating, since the story of Pausanias that the temple of Hera was destroyed by the Persians is an invention (Jb., V, 1890, p. 277). The idea of an elder Alkamenes based on the inscription on a herm recently found in Pergamon (A. A., 1904, fig. on p. 76) has also been refuted by Winter (A. M., XXIX, 1904, pp. 208–211, and Pls. XVIII-XXI), who has shown that the inscription and statue do not go so far back.

[891] See Baum., pp. 1104 KK.

[892] P. 243.