HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 2ND CENTURY B.C.

Athletic competitions were held throughout the Greek world at numerous Panhellenic centers, including Olympia, Athens, Delphi, Nemea and Isthmia. The earliest were thought to have been held at Olympia in 776 B.C. The victors were frequently honored by their home cities through the dedication of an honorary statue, either of bronze or marble. Many such statues survive, some Greek originals, frequently attributed to major sculptors such as Lysippos or Praxiteles, and some Roman copies or interpretations. For a full figure of an athlete, thought to be a Roman copy based on a work by Lysippos, see the marble figure in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, no. 124 in J.J. Herrmann and C. Kondoleon, Games for the Gods, The Greek Athlete and the Olympic Spirit. For another marble that shares a similar incline of the head and the wearing of a victor's fillet, also thought to be a Roman copy of a Greek original, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, see no. 154 in Herrmann and Kondoleon, op. cit. The present head has a freshness and vitality that suggest it is a Hellenistic original of the 2nd century B.C. For a head of similar date, thought to be either Herakles or an athlete, see the marble in the British Museum, no. 364 in J. Boardman, "Herakles," in LIMC, vol. IV.