Hypnos (British Museum No. 267)
The Bronze Head of Hypnos , exhibited in the British Museum with bronze catalog number 267 (Inv.GR 1868.6-6.9), is an ancient bronze sculpture . It depicts Hypnos , the mythological deity of sleep and father of dreams . It is a Roman copy from the 1st – 2nd centuries. Century of a late classical work, the original of which is attributed to the school of Praxiteles or Skopas and dates from about 350 BC. Is dated.
The approx. 21 cm high head was found in Civitella d'Arno near Perugia and was purchased in 1866. The rest of the body is missing. The head also shows some damage. The head is tilted forward. God's lips are slightly parted. A wide head bandage ( Tänie ) holds the wavy hair together, which is combed on both sides with a center parting and tied in a bun at the back. Wings can be seen on either side of the head, which the poet Homer described as the wings of a night swallow. Only the beginning of one of the wings is left.
Although Hypnos was often depicted in Greek vase painting, sculptures depicting him are very rare.
literature
- Henry Beauchamp Walters : British Museum. Select bronzes, Greek, Roman, and Etruscan, in the Departments of Antiquities. London 1915, plate 14 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
Web links
- Head of Hypnos on the pages of the British Museum
- University of Cambridge, Faculty of Classics: Hypnos, bronze head
- University of Saskatchewan. Museum of Antiquities: Head of Hypnos
Individual evidence
- ↑ Homer: Ilias XIV, 289-291: "Above he sat [that is, sleep], hidden in the thick fir branches, / Like the whistling bird of the night in the mountains, called by the gods / blacksmith bird and hawk of the night by men." (Translation by Johann Heinrich Voß )