Statue of Hermes, from Andros. National Museum, Athens.
Not only dead men, however, were heroized in this manner. It was not an uncommon practice in later Greece for living men, especially princes, to have their statues assimilated to types of gods and heroes, a practice which was very common in imperial Rome.[625] Thus many of the Hellenistic princes were pleased to have their statues assimilated to those of the heroic Alexander. One of the best examples of this process is furnished by the original
Fig. 5.—Bronze Portrait-statue of a Hellenistic Prince. Museo delle Terme, Rome. bronze portrait statue of such a prince, which was unearthed in Rome in 1884 and is now in the Museo delle Terme there (Fig. [5]).[626] It has been identified as the portrait of several kings of Macedon and elsewhere,[627] but the similarity of the head of the statue to heads portrayed on Macedonian coins is only superficial.[628] All that we can say is that this beautiful work, representing the prince in the heroic guise of a nude athlete of about thirty years, belongs to the third century B. C., the epoch following Lysippos. The sculptor, wishing to combine the ideal with the real, appears to have copied the motive directly from a bronze statue by Lysippos, which represented Alexander leaning with his left hand high on a staff.[629] The pose also recalls that of the third-century B. C. statue of Poseidon found on Melos and now in Athens.[630] The free leg, body, and head modeling correspond so nearly with the Apoxyomenos (Pl. [28]) that it was at first called a work of Lysippos, but its lack of repose[631] shows that it must be a continuation of the work of that sculptor by some pupil, who wished to outdo his master in both form and expression.
Before discussing the subject of the assimilation of victor statues to types of god and hero, we must make it clear that often, for certain reasons, statues of athletes were later converted into those of gods, and vice versa. Such examples of metamorphosing statues have nothing to do with the process of assimilation under discussion. A few examples will make this clear. An archaic bronze statuette from Naxos,[632] reproducing the type of the Philesian Apollo of Kanachos, since it has the same position of hands as in the original, as we see it later reproduced on coins of Miletos and in other copies,[633] holds an aryballos in the right hand instead of a fawn. As it is absurd to represent Apollo with the bow in one hand and an oil-flask in the other, it seems clear that in this statuette the copyist has converted a well-known Apollo into an athlete by addition of an athletic attribute. Famous statues were put to many different uses by later copyists. Thus Furtwaengler has shown that the statue of the boy boxer Kyniskos by Polykleitos at Olympia,[634] which represented the athlete crowning himself, was modified to represent various deities, heroes, etc. Thus a copy from Eleusis of the fourth century B. C., because of its provenience and the soft lines of the face, suggests a divinity, perhaps Triptolemos.[635] A copy of the same type in the Villa Albani (no. 222) has an antique piece of a boar’s head on the nearby tree-stump and, consequently, may represent Adonis or Meleager. A torso in the Museo Torlonia (no. 22) represents Dionysos, another in the Museo delle Terme has a mantle and caduceus and so represents Hermes, while on coins of Commodus the same figure, with the lion’s skin and club, represents Herakles.[636] No ancient statue was used more extensively as a model for other types than the famous Doryphoros of Polykleitos. Furtwaengler[637] has collected a long list of later conversions of this work into statues both marble and bronze, statuettes, reliefs, etc., representing Pan, Ares, Hermes, and in one case an ordinary mortal.[638] Other examples of the conversion of statues will be given in our treatment of assimilation.
Athlete Statues Assimilated to Types of Hermes.
Hermes was one of the principal ἐναγώνιοι or ἀγώνιοι θεοί, i. e., gods who presided over contests, or who were overseers of gymnasia and palæstræ, or were teachers of gymnastics (γυμνάσται).[639] Greek writers often mention these athletic gods. Thus Aischylos[640] often uses the term, not in the sense of ἀγοραῖοι θεοί, “the great assembled gods,” (ἀγὼν = ἀγορά),[641] but in the sense of gods who presided over contests.[642] This is evident from the fact that Zeus, Apollo, Poseidon, and Hermes are the gods especially mentioned by Aischylos in this sense, and the first three correspond with the Olympian and Nemean games (Zeus), the Pythian (Apollo), and the Isthmian (Poseidon), while Hermes is concerned in them all. Thus the epithet ἀγώνιοι, in the Agamemnon of Aischylos refers to Zeus,[643] Apollo,[644] and Hermes.[645] If the word referred to the twelve greater gods, as some have thought, other deities more important than Hermes would have been included. Elsewhere the word ἀγώνιος always refers to contests.[646] Hermes was worshipped at Athens and elsewhere as a god of contests.[647] The agonistic character of this god is shown by the fact that statues and altars were erected to him all over Greece.[648] He was sometimes coupled with Herakles as the protector of contests,[649] and the images of the two often stood in gymnasia.[650] A fragmentary votive relief of the second century A. D. is inscribed with a dedication to both by a certain Horarios, victor in torch-racing.[651] Athenian ephebes made offerings to Hermes,[652] and to Hermes and Herakles in common, after their training was over. Thus Dorykleides of Thera, a victor in boxing and the pankration at unknown games, dedicated a thank-offering to the two.[653] Hermes was early the god of youthful life and sports, especially those of the palæstra. He is said to have founded wrestling[654] and inaugurated the sports of the palæstra.[655] Pausanias mentions a Gymnasion of Hermes at Athens[656] and an altar of Hermes ἐναγώνιος together with one of Opportunity (Καιρός) at the entrance to the Stadion at Olympia.[657] He says that the people of Pheneus in Arkadia held games in his honor called the Hermaia,[658] and he records the defeat of the god by Apollo in running.[659] With such an athletic record there is little wonder that the Greek sculptor would often take his ideal of Hermes from the god of the palæstra and gymnasium, representing him as an athletic youth harmoniously developed by gymnastic exercises. It was but natural that a victor at Olympia or elsewhere should wish to have his statue—which rarely could be a portrait—conform with that athletic type.
PLATE 6
