Colossus at the Crossroads
Reexamining a Hellenistic Cult Statue of Herakles from Kleonai
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4542584 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Richard Levitan (0009-0008-0385-4913, University of California, Berkeley), Rebecca Levitan, Evan I Levine (0000-0002-2379-9965, Norfolk Academy), Evan Levine, Hüseyin Çınar Öztürk, Denitsa Nenova (0000-0003-3138-1689, Swedish Institute at Athens) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 127 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 241-262 |
| Publication date | 2023-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Journal of Archaeology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-9114 • E-ISSN: 1939-828X |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/723399 |
| OpenAlex | W4324139506 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 31 |
The small, second-century BCE temple of Herakles at Kleonai has long been a landmark in the southern Corinthia, visited by early travelers in Greece and thoroughly studied and published. Less attention, however, has been paid to the in situ fragmentary colossal cult statue of Herakles, and questions concerning its date, artist, and sculptural “type” remain unresolved. The fragmentary nature, colossal scale, and significant context of the fragment have made these interrelated issues difficult to study using traditional means of documentation. This article presents a novel reexamination of the cult statue in its architectural and archaeological contexts, employing methods drawn from both traditional sculptural study and recent innovations in digital object documentation. In September 2020, the authors undertook a complete restudy of the Kleonai torso, collecting detailed measurements and photographs. This data set was used to create a scaled 3D photogrammetric model that illuminates previously undocumented traces of facture and offers new evidence for the display context of the complete statue. These results resituate this fragmentary sculpture as one of the most notable examples of a Hellenistic sculptural type, the Herakles Epitrapezios, popular across the Graeco-Roman Mediterranean.1
Ancient history · Apollo · Archaeology · Art · Colossus computer · Context (archaeology) · Cult · Documentation · Osiris · Sculpture · Statue · Visual arts · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Archaeological Research and Protection · Classical Antiquity Studies · Computer Science · History
Myth and Territory in the Spartan Mediterranean
Roman Villas in Central Italy
The Ancient Art of Emulation
The Early Hellenistic Peloponnese
Das Herakles-Heiligtum von Kleonai
Itinerary of the Morea
The Life of Statues of Gods in the Greek World
Decoration and Display in Rome's Imperial Thermae
Kleonai, the Corinth–Argos Road, and the “Axis of History”
Ut Sculptura Poesis
Héraclès, héros voyageur et civilisateur
Facing the Gods
Art and Royalty in Sparta of the 3rd Century B.C
Sondages à Lykosoura et date de Damophon
The agency of Greek and Roman statues
The Oxford Handbook of Heracles
Ancient Greek Religion
Personal Styles in Greek Sculpture
Divine Images and Human Imaginations in Ancient Greece and Rome
Thesaurus cultus et rituum antiquorum (ThesCRA)
Art As Plunder
Heracles Alexikakos Reviewed
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |