The Kroisos Kouros ( grc, κοῦρος) is a marble
kouros
kouros ( grc, κοῦρος, , plural kouroi) is the modern term given to free-standing Ancient Greek sculptures that depict nude male youths. They first appear in the Archaic period in Greece and are prominent in Attica and Boeotia, with a less ...
from
Anavyssos
Anavyssos ( el, Ανάβυσσος) is a town and a former municipality in East Attica, Greece located in the Athens Riviera. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Saronikos, of which it is a municipal unit. The mu ...
(Ανάβυσσος) in
Attica
Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Se ...
which functioned as a grave marker for a fallen young warrior named Kroisos ().
Overview
The free-standing sculpture strides forward with the "
archaic smile
The archaic smile was used by sculptors in Archaic Greece, especially in the second quarter of the 6th century BCE, possibly to suggest that their subject was alive and infused with a sense of well-being. One of the most famous examples of the ar ...
" playing slightly on his face. The sculpture is dated to the Late
Archaic Period c. 540–515 BC and stands 1.95 metres high.
It is now situated in the
National Archaeological Museum of Athens
The National Archaeological Museum ( el, Εθνικό Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο) in Athens houses some of the most important artifacts from a variety of archaeological locations around Greece from prehistory to late antiquity. It is ...
(inv. no. 3851) in Athens, Greece.
The sculptor of the kouros is uncertain and there is no secure record of the time and location of its discovery. It was identified in Paris in 1937 in the possession of the art dealer M. Roussos. An investigation was launched and reports showed that some years before it had been illegally unearthed from a burial mound in Anavissos in
Attica
Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Se ...
. It was sawn in various parts and sent to Paris for sale before it was returned to the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
The inscription on the base of the statue reads:
* ΣΤΕΘΙ : ΚΑΙ ΟΙΚΤΙΡΟΝ ΚΡΟΙΣΟ
* ΠΑΡΑ ΣΕΜΑ ΘΑΝΟΝΤΟΣ ΗΟΝ
* ΠΟΤ’ ΕΝΙ ΠΡΟΜΑΧΟΙΣ : ΟΛΕΣΕ
* ΘΟΡΟΣ : ΑΡΕΣ
"Stop and show pity beside the marker of Kroisos, dead, whom, when he was in the front ranks, raging
Ares
Ares (; grc, Ἄρης, ''Árēs'' ) is the Greek god of war and courage. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. The Greeks were ambivalent towards him. He embodies the physical valor necessary for success in war b ...
destroyed".
The Kroisos Kouros is central to two ongoing archeological debates: first, whether ''
kouroi
kouros ( grc, κοῦρος, , plural kouroi) is the modern term given to free-standing Ancient Greek sculptures that depict nude male youths. They first appear in the Archaic period in Greece and are prominent in Attica and Boeotia, with a less ...
'' represent specific young men or are generic representations of idealised archetypes, which may not actually resemble a specific individual commemorated, and thus represent a symbolic embodyiment of the ideal male warriors
promachoi (πρόμᾰχοι) who fought in the front line of battles; and second, the authenticity of the
Getty kouros
The Getty kouros is an over-life-sized statue in the form of a late archaic Greek kouros. The dolomitic marble sculpture was bought by the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California, in 1985 for ten million dollars and first exhibited there ...
, which bears a falsified
provenance
Provenance (from the French ''provenir'', 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art but is now used in similar senses i ...
and displays a suspicious similarity to the Kroisos kouros.
[Marion True. ''The Getty Kouros: Background on the Problem'', in ''The Getty Kouros Colloquium'', 1993, p. 13.]
References
Further reading
*
Nikolaos Kaltsas: ''Sculpture in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens'', The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles 2002, , p. 58–59.
External links
*
Anavyssos Kouros
6th-century BC Greek sculptures
National Archaeological Museum, Athens
Archaeological discoveries in Greece
Kouroi
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