SECONDARY ATTRIBUTES OF VICTOR STATUES.
In course of time the sculptor was not content to represent victor statues merely as victors, but differentiated the various kinds of victors by special attributes.
Fig. 30.—Marble heads of two Hoplitodromoi, from Olympia. Museum of Olympia.
Hoplitodromoi.
Thus a hoplite victor would be represented with his usual weapons. Pausanias, in mentioning the statue at Olympia of the hoplite runner Damaretos of Heraia by the Argive sculptors Eutelidas and Chrysothemis, says that it “has not only a shield, as the armed runners still have, but also a helmet on his head and greaves on his legs.”[1203] He adds that the helmet and greaves were gradually abolished at Olympia and elsewhere. We have seen that the statue of Damaretos was set up at the beginning of the fifth century B. C., when his son Theopompos, the pentathlete, won his second victory, the monuments of the two being in common.[1204] Toward the middle of the fifth century the hoplite victor Mnaseas of Kyrene had a statue at Olympia, the work of Pythagoras of Rhegion, which represented him as an armed man.[1205] A Pythian victor, Telesikrates, of the fifth century B. C., had a statue at Delphi, which represented him with a helmet.[1206] We have actual remnants of two hoplite victor statues of the sixth century B. C., in the two bearded and helmeted life-size heads of Parian marble found at Olympia (Fig. [30], a, b = A; c, d = B).[1207] The younger of these heads (A), to which probably belong either an arm and the remnants of a shield attached with a ram and a representation of Phrixos upon it in relief,[1208] or a shield fragment with a siren’s wing upon it[1209] and the fragment of a shield edge[1210] and right foot of fine workmanship,[1211] I assigned long ago to the statue of the Thessalian hoplitodrome Phrikias of Pelinna, who won two victories in Ols. 68 and 69 ( = 508 and 504 B. C.).[1212] R. Foerster had referred this head to the statue of the hoplite runner Damaretos of Heraia, whose monument, in common with that of his son, the pentathlete Theopompos, was the work of the early Argive sculptors Chrysothemis and Eutelidas.[1213] But this fresh and vigorous head is not Peloponnesian, but shows strongly marked Attic traits in its round face, full cheeks, and soft lips, and in the rows of regularly wound locks of hair. The arm and foot similarly disclose Attic softness and grace. Because of its Attic character, Treu and Overbeck,[1214] in opposition to Foerster, ascribed it to the statue of the Elean hoplite victor Eperastos mentioned by Pausanias.[1215] Though the date of his victory is unknown, it certainly fell some time after Ol. 111 ( = 336 B. C.)—a date far too late for so archaic a sculpture. Furtwaengler[1216] referred this and the more archaic head B to the group of Phormis at Olympia, mentioned by Pausanias.[1217] However, Treu[1218] showed that there was no stylistic connection between the two heads. The slightly more archaic head B, badly injured from weathering, I have referred to the Achaian hoplitodrome Phanas of Pellene, who won Ol. 67 ( = 512 B. C.).[1219] In this carefully executed head the hair and beard are arranged in small locks and the archaic smile is prominent. While the younger head is Attic, this one is unmistakably Peloponnesian; and while the former comes from a statue represented at rest, the latter, because of the twist of the neck, seems to have come from one represented in violent motion. For this reason Wolters believed that it came from the statue of a warrior represented as thrown to the ground and defending himself.
The Myronic statue in the Palazzo Valentini, Rome, known as Diomedes,[1220] whose pose recalls the Diskobolos, may represent a hoplitodrome, because of its marked resemblance in attitude to the Tuebingen bronze to be discussed in the next chapter (Fig. [42]), and because of the helmet on its head.[1221]
Pentathletes.
Pentathletes were represented by attributes taken from three of the five contests—jumping, and throwing the diskos and the javelin. All these attributes appear in gymnasium scenes pictured on red-figured vases. Thus a kylix of the severe style in Munich[1222] gives us a general picture of the exercises of the gymnasium. On the walls hang diskoi in slings, strigils, leaping-weights, oil-flasks, sponges, and javelins. Archaic leaping-weights (ἁλτῆρες) appeared in the hands of the statue of the Elean Hysmon at Olympia by the Sikyonian sculptor Kleon.[1223] Similarly, a figure of Contest (Ἀγών) in the group set up there by Mikythos had weights.[1224] The offering of the people of Mende at Olympia very nearly deceived Pausanias into thinking it the statue of a pentathlete, because of its ancient halteres.[1225] This shows that these weights formed a regular attribute of pentathlete statues there. A relief from Sparta[1226] represents an athlete leaning on his spear and holding a pair of leaping-weights in his right hand. There is a bronze statue of such a victor in the Berlin Antiquarium.[1227] Halteres hang on a tree-trunk to the right of the statue of an athlete in the Pitti palace in Florence.[1228] The breast of a marble torso, less than life-size, of a boy statue found at Olympia, shows that the hands were stretched forward, and very possibly the objects which they held were leaping-weights.[1229]