Apelleas

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Apelleas ( ancient Greek Ἀπελλέας ) was a Greek sculptor who worked at the beginning of the 4th century BC. Was active.

Apelleas was part of a family of artists from Megara , in addition to his, both the sculpting activities of his father Callicles and that of his grandfather Theokosmos are attested. Pliny the Elder reports in his Naturalis historia that Apelleas made statues of philosophers and women. Pausanias describes two groups of statues that were donated to Olympia by the daughter of the Spartan king Archidamos II and the first Olympic champion Kyniska . The first statue showed a four-horse racing car with horses, the charioteer and Kyniska himself and is explicitly named by Pausanias as the work of Apelleas. The second was horse statues as a votive offering to Zeus , which were placed in the pronaos of the temple of Zeus . Pausanias does not mention the name of the sculptor.

The bases of both groups of statues were found during excavations. The base of the first is a round base of black limestone found in the northern part of the Prytaneion . There is an inscription on it highlighting a woman's first victory as a participant in the Olympic Games :

Σπάρτας μὲν [βασιλῆες ἐμοὶ]
πατέρες καὶ ἀδελφοί, ἅ [ρματι δ 'ὠκυπόδων ἵππων]
νικῶσα Κυνίσκα εἰκόνα τάνδ 'ἔστασε · μόν [αν]
δ 'ἐμέ φαμι γυναικῶν Ἑλλάδος ἐκ πάσας τόνδε λαβε̑ν στέφανο [ν].
Sparta's kings were fathers and brothers to me,
but to carriage I won with storming horses,
Kyniska, I'll put this picture here, and it has the wreath of the women
From all of Hellas before me none, I praise, have received.

The second base, found in the pronaos of the Temple of Zeus , is square and made of white marble with an irregular structure. There is no inscription on it, but the signature of Apelleas. It is believed that this base is the Kyniska votive offering mentioned by Pausanias.

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Pliny, Naturalis historia 34, 86.
  2. ^ Pausanias 6: 1, 6.
  3. ^ Pausanias 5:12 , 5.
  4. ^ Wilhelm Dittenberger , Karl Purgold : The inscriptions of Olympia. Asher, Berlin 1896, pp. 278-279 , no.160 .
  5. ^ Wilhelm Dittenberger, Karl Purgold: The inscriptions of Olympia. Asher, Berlin 1896, pp. 49-50 , no.634.
personal data
SURNAME Apelleas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ἀπελλέας
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century BC BC or 4th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 4th century BC BC or 3rd century BC Chr.