DOI article:
No. I: Pythagoras of Rhegion and the early athlete statues
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11444#0378
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APPENDIX.
343
chiefly known and praised for his athlete statues. And that this was his
strong point is evident from the simple fact that of his fourteen statues
which are mentioned by ancient authors, eight were of athletes, while of
the remaining six, two again, the winged Perseus1 and the contest between
Eteokles and Polyneikes2, were athletic in character. Only one female
figure is mentioned as by him, the Europa on the Bull3; here we do not
know enough to form any opinion. The remaining statues were pro-
bably all nude men.
It appears that he excelled in rendering the nude male form. How
excellent his work was and how highly it was appreciated becomes
evident not only from the fact that, as has before been quoted from
Pliny, he gained a victory over Myron with his statue of a pancratiast,
but from the praise which classical authors bestow upon him. If we
bear in mind how sober an author Pausanias was, and how sparing he is
with his praise, we can appreciate the weight of his remark on the statue
of the pugilist Euthymus by Pythagoras, 6e'as es ra /xuXio-Ta ai^ios; and
when we bear in mind that, a few lines after his high praise of the artist
Pythagoras with regard to his statue of the wrestler Leontiskos5 (d-rrtp rts
Kal dAXos aya#os rd h TrXaaTLK-qv), he simply says of Pheidias, Ivena. /ecu
rr/s es ra dyaXjxaTa tov $€i8tou <roc/>ias,—we can then see in what high
appreciation this artist was held.
But we know that he was not merely a clever follower of his masters,
but that he greatly contributed to the advancement of art, that he was
an innovator. So we learn from Pliny'1': Hie primus nemos ct venas
expressit capillumque diligentius. The primus and Trpwrov in such a
context are not always to be translated literally ' the first,' or ' the first
time,' but they mean that something has been done with full conscious-
ness, that it is a marked step in advance. The hair of our pugilist is
more carefully worked than in similar earlier or contemporary works,
e.g. the Aeginetans. Ncrvos really means sinews, and Pliny means that
he essentially advanced in the rendering of muscles and sinews. The
way in which the muscles and sinews are treated in the pugilist we are
dealing with is unprecedented in early art. Finally, I have already
mentioned the veins as peculiarly pronounced in all the four replicas of
this statue. They are no doubt exaggerated, and I have attributed this
1 Dio Chrysost. Oral. 37, 10.
2 Tatian, c. Grace. 54, p. 118 (ed. North).
3 Tatian, c. Grace. 53, p. 116; Varro, de Ling. Lat. v. 31; Cic. in Verr. iv.
60, 135.
4 vi. 6, 4.
6 VI. 4. 3- . 0 34. 59-
APPENDIX.
343
chiefly known and praised for his athlete statues. And that this was his
strong point is evident from the simple fact that of his fourteen statues
which are mentioned by ancient authors, eight were of athletes, while of
the remaining six, two again, the winged Perseus1 and the contest between
Eteokles and Polyneikes2, were athletic in character. Only one female
figure is mentioned as by him, the Europa on the Bull3; here we do not
know enough to form any opinion. The remaining statues were pro-
bably all nude men.
It appears that he excelled in rendering the nude male form. How
excellent his work was and how highly it was appreciated becomes
evident not only from the fact that, as has before been quoted from
Pliny, he gained a victory over Myron with his statue of a pancratiast,
but from the praise which classical authors bestow upon him. If we
bear in mind how sober an author Pausanias was, and how sparing he is
with his praise, we can appreciate the weight of his remark on the statue
of the pugilist Euthymus by Pythagoras, 6e'as es ra /xuXio-Ta ai^ios; and
when we bear in mind that, a few lines after his high praise of the artist
Pythagoras with regard to his statue of the wrestler Leontiskos5 (d-rrtp rts
Kal dAXos aya#os rd h TrXaaTLK-qv), he simply says of Pheidias, Ivena. /ecu
rr/s es ra dyaXjxaTa tov $€i8tou <roc/>ias,—we can then see in what high
appreciation this artist was held.
But we know that he was not merely a clever follower of his masters,
but that he greatly contributed to the advancement of art, that he was
an innovator. So we learn from Pliny'1': Hie primus nemos ct venas
expressit capillumque diligentius. The primus and Trpwrov in such a
context are not always to be translated literally ' the first,' or ' the first
time,' but they mean that something has been done with full conscious-
ness, that it is a marked step in advance. The hair of our pugilist is
more carefully worked than in similar earlier or contemporary works,
e.g. the Aeginetans. Ncrvos really means sinews, and Pliny means that
he essentially advanced in the rendering of muscles and sinews. The
way in which the muscles and sinews are treated in the pugilist we are
dealing with is unprecedented in early art. Finally, I have already
mentioned the veins as peculiarly pronounced in all the four replicas of
this statue. They are no doubt exaggerated, and I have attributed this
1 Dio Chrysost. Oral. 37, 10.
2 Tatian, c. Grace. 54, p. 118 (ed. North).
3 Tatian, c. Grace. 53, p. 116; Varro, de Ling. Lat. v. 31; Cic. in Verr. iv.
60, 135.
4 vi. 6, 4.
6 VI. 4. 3- . 0 34. 59-