 |
|||
 |
|||
|
|||
14A010
This sizeable and very rare bronze statuette represents the river god Achelous, the divine personification of a river in northwestern Greece. This figure was made to be free-standing, as indicated by the flat, smooth bottoms of the hooves. The statuette was solid-cast and has a dark green patina, with yellowish earth adhering to the grooves and incised forms of the figure. Although the human and animal forms are well articulated, they are not yet represented in a truly naturalistic way. The single mass of the beard, its patterned locks, the large eyes with heavy upper lids framed with architectonic eyebrows, and the ab-sence of the so-called archaic smile suggest that this artifact is late archaic (500-480 B.C.) or, more likely, an archaizing work of the early classical period (480-450 B.C.). According to myth Achelous had the special ability to assume different forms, such as a serpent, a bull or a man with a bull's head. In contrast to the literary sources, artistic representations of Achelous often show him as a bull with a human head, bull's ears and horns. Such depictions can be found in a variety of media in Greek, Etruscan and Roman art, where they may represent local rivers. Although there are no known life-size statues of Achelous, there are a number of small heads or figurines of him in bronze, usually used to ornament bronze vessels, especially as handle decorations. In Greek myth Achelous was one of the many suitors of the fair maiden Deianira. Also seeking her hand was the hero Heracles, who challenged the human-headed Achelous to a wrestling contest for the right to wed Deianira. When Heracles was at the point of defeating Achelous, the river god changed himself first into a serpent and then into a bull, but he was nevertheless overcome. During the match Heracles broke off one of Achelous' horns. The naiads, divine spirits of the springs, streams and fountains, took the horn and filled it with fruit, thus creating the first cornucopia or horn of plenty, whose contents, miraculously, never had to be replenished. For comparison,
see the tetradrachms of the Sicilian city of Gela, G.K. Jenkins,
The Coinage of Gela (Berlin, 1970); a terracotta head of Achelous
that served as a roof ornament (LIMC I, pp. 20-21, no. 124*); and
a mid-5th century bronze ornamental figurine for a helmet from Orvieto,
now in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, (LIMC I, pp. 26-27,
no. 240*). |
|||
|
|||
|
|||
Catalogue XIV Coins | Greek | Judaean | Roman | Byzantine | Text | Antiquities | Early Empires | Egyptian | Greek | Roman | Crusades | Text | | Home | Coins | Antiquities | Catalogue | About Antiqua | Contact | Copyright ©2006 Antiqua, Inc. |
 |
|
 |