Daochos Monument, Agias, upper torso and head, from left
Daochos Monument, Agias, frontal view
Daochos Monument, Agias, upper torso and head, from right
Daochos Monument, Agias, from left
Daochos Monument, Agias, from far left
Daochos Monument, Agias, upper torso and head, three-quarter view from rig...
| Collection: | Delphi Archaeological Museum |
| Title: | Agias |
| Context: | From Delphi |
| Findspot: | Excavated at Delphi |
| Summary: | Standing nude male |
| Object Function: | Votive |
| Sculptor: | Copy after Lysippos |
| Material: | Marble |
| Sculpture Type: | Multi-figure group |
| Category: | Statuary group |
| Style: | Late Classical |
| Technique: | In-the-round |
| Original or Copy: | Original |
| Date: | 336 BC - 332 BC |
| Dimensions: | H 2.00 m |
| Scale: | Over life-size |
| Region: | Phocis |
| Period: | Late Classical |
| In Group: | Delphi, Daochos Monument |
Subject Description:
Agias stands nude, shown as an athletic victor. He had won prizes in all the major games, as the epigram below his statue attests. His sport was the pankration, i.e. boxing and wrestling. Here he faces forward, both feet planted firmly on the ground. Although his right leg is straight and his left leg slightly bent, the distinction between weight-bearing and free is not pronounced. He appears to shift back and forth between the two with a kind of restlessness, rather than standing at ease. His arms also are not relaxed, but are held slightly away from the body. His right hip is thrust out slightly in response to the full extension of that leg, but the overall impression is one of verticality. The torso, arms, legs and neck are powerfully built, but the body does not appear heavy. Rather a lean, relatively tall figure is suggested, the impression aided by the smallness and erectness of the head. This is how Pliny (NH 34.61ff.) describes the figures of Lysippos, who developed this canon in order to achieve precisely this effect. The head is turned slightly toward the proper left. The small eyes sunk deep into the head, large nose and firmly set mouth give the impression of an individual personality, yet the gaze into space removes the figure from this world in some sense. The back of the head is set off by a fillet, beyond which the curly, closely cropped hair springs out with a life of its own.
Agias was the great grandfather of Daochos II, who dedicated the monument at Delphi. The victories of Agias were probably won in the decade prior to 480 BC. The style of this statue places it squarely in the 4th century. Thus while the image is a portrait, it is clearly an idealized one, made long after Agias had died. A statue base found in Pharsalos, the hometown of Agias and his great grandson Daochos, carries an inscription in part nearly identical to the Agias epigram at Delphi. It appears that the Delphi inscription was excerpted from that at Pharsalos. At the end of the Pharsalos inscription is the name of Lysippos. Since the Delphi Agias embodies so many characteristics of the Lysippian style, it seems probable that it, like the inscription, copies an original set up in Pharsalos. The original statue is likely to have been in bronze. The monument in Delphi was erected between the years 337/6 and 333/2. The Pharsalos statue must be earlier, though perhaps only by a few years. In all probability it too was commissioned by Daochos, who had close ties with Alexander, an important patron of Lysippos.
For a fuller explication of the monument at Delphi and its relation to the base at Pharsalos (now lost), see the entry:
Condition: Intact
Condition Description:
Missing: right arm from elbow, left hand, both knees, both ankles. The tip of the nose is slightly battered. Surface very well preserved.
Material Description:
Parian marble
Inscription:
On the front face of the base, below the statue:
"You are the first from the Thessalian land to be victorious in the Pankration at the Olympic games, Hagias son of Aknonios, from Pharsalos, (having been victorious) five times at Nemea, three times in the Pythian games, (and) five times at the Isthmos; and no one yet has dragged the trophies from your hands." (
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Other Bibliography: