Olympic Victor Monuments and Greek Athletic Art

by Walter Woodburn Hyde

[2240] E. g., in the statue of Ra-nefer.

[2241] E. g., in the statue of the Sheik-el-Beled.

[2242] High-placed ears are common to many archaic Greek works other than the “Apollos.” They persist even in some of the figures on the Parthenon frieze.

[2243] On these common characteristics, see Richardson, p. 39; cf. H. N. Fowler, History of Sculpture, 1916, pp. 59–60; etc.

[2244] Pottier, op. cit., p. 414, assumes a religious reason for the left foot being advanced in both types. For another, natural explanation, see Homolle, de antiquiss. Dianae Simul., p. 95, quoted by Collignon, I, p. 118, n. 3.

[2245] The Greeks first copied the type in statuettes: e. g., alabaster figurines from Naukratis: W. Flinders Petrie, Naukratis², 1888, I, Pls. 1, 3, 4; G. Kieseritzky, Jb., VII, 1892, Pl. VI (with head, three views); ibid. p. 189 (figure in Boston). Pottier, op. cit., p. 409, cites two alabaster examples from Egypt (probably from Naukratis) which are nude, and on Pl. XVII, he reproduces four terra-cotta draped figurines in the Louvre, of Phœnician manufacture, similar to Egyptian works. The nudity of the “Apollos” marks the distinction between Greek and barbarian art.

[2246] Brunn, in his Kunst bei Homer, 1868, quoted by Gardner, Hbk., p. 47, showed by a very true analogy the way in which the Greek artist became an imitator. The Greeks borrowed their alphabet from Phœnicia, but wrote Greek and not Phœnician with it; just so the Greek artist borrowed the alphabet of art from Egypt, but with it wrote his own language of art.

[2247] Gesch. des Materialismus,³ I, p. 127 (quoted by F. W., on p. 12).

[2248] This is the view of K. Kouroniotis, who carefully examined them. I quote his words incorporated in Dr. Svoronos’ letter to me of Dec. 29, 1911: τὰ γράμματα ἐπὶ τοῦ κορμοῦ, νομίζω ὅτι δὲ ἔχουσι καμμίαν σημασίαν, ἴσως δὲ μάλιστα εἶνε τὰ χαράγματα νέου τινός.

The inscriptions on the great majority of victor monuments found at Olympia were engraved upon the horizontal upper face of the base in front of the feet—at least down to the fourth century B. C.: see Inschr. v. Ol., p. 235. Dittenberger and Purgold have referred two inscribed convex bronze fragments found in the Altis to the flanks of victor statues set up in imperial times: ibid., nos. 234–5.