Title: Ares Borghese type
Context: From Athens, Agora
Summary: Statue of a standing youthful warrior, perhaps Ares
Object Function: Cult?
Sculptor: Literary attestation to Alkamenes
Material: Bronze?
Sculpture Type: Free-standing statue
Category: Original/copies
Placement: Other sculpture in the round
Style: High Classical
Technique: In-the-round
Original or Copy: Original (lost)
Date: ca. 420 BC - ca. 400 BC
Scale: Over life-size
Region: Attica
Period: High Classical

Subject Description:

As restored from copies, this statue depicted a youthful male figure, probably Ares, nude except for his helmet, standing in a relaxed pose, with his right foot advanced.

Condition: Lost

Associated Building: Athens, Temple of Ares

Other Notes:

Conze originally suggested that the original statue may have been the cult statue of Ares, sculpted by Alkamenes, from the Temple of Ares in the Agora at Athens, noted by Pausanias (Paus. 1.8.4). Hartswick, however, has recently proposed that the type was a Roman original created through Augustan propaganda for the sake of casting Augustus' heir and grandson, Gaius, as the 'New Ares.'

Sources Used: K.J. Hartswick in Moon 1995, 169-70, figs. 9.18-19

Other Bibliography: Hartswick 1990; Conze 1869, 9 n. 2; see also bibliographies for copies.