• r2-12-10
    Amazon or Artemis upper torso, back. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
  • r2-12-20
    Amazon or Artemis upper torso, front. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)

Amazon or Artemis Upper Torso

Date
5th-4th C. BC?, Late Lydian (Persian)?
Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
S59.010
Material
Marble, Stone
Object Type
Sculpture
Sculpture Type
Human Figure, Mythological Figure, Draped Woman
Site
Sardis
Sector
HoB
Trench
HoB
Locus
HoB House of Bronzes Room 14
B-Grid Coordinates
E20 / S80 *100.62 - 100.00
Findspot
HoB, area 14, in fill.
Description

The r. arm was raised, l. extended sideways in fighting posture. The head was turned to proper l. The himation with overfold goes diagonally across the back and ties over the upper l. shoulder. Three short locks fall on the back of the r. shoulder with possibly the rim of a helmet (?) over them. One long flat tress on the l. shoulder is seen from the top. Only some traces of folds are preserved on the front.

The work has been called an Amazon, but according to E.B. Harrison (personal communication Feb. 1972) it is Artemis shooting her bow, and of the 4th. C. because of torsion, perhaps with archaistic touches (hair); compare the “Amazonian figure” (shooting Artemis?) from the Syn (Cat. 188 Fig. 338); or is it a helmeted fighting Athena after all?

The piece is probably 510-460 B.C., late archaic or very early classical. The locks are as in the reliefs of the Athenian treasury in Delphi, hence possibly late 6th to 5th C. B.C.

Condition

Powdery marble or near-marble.

Back of upper body and part of l. upper arm preserved but front chiseled off. Head and most of neck broken off; arms and lower body below waist gone. Only traces of folds preserved in front.

Dimensions
P.H. 0.125; W. including stump of r. arm 0.16.
Comments
Cf. for costume also Acropolis Nike, ca. 490 B.C., G.M.A. Richter, A Handbook of Greek Art, fig. 100; D. von Bothmer, Amazons in Greek Art, 150, no. 38, pl. 72:2. For locks, see la Coste-Messelière, Delphes, 325-326, pls. 130, 131, 136 (Theseus).
See Also
Bibliography
Author
GMAH