The Antikythera Ephebe , registered as Bronze statue of a youth in the museum collections, is a Greek bronze statue of a young man of languorous grace that was found in 1900 by sponge-divers in the area of the ancient Antikythera shipwreck off the island of Antikythera , Greece . It was the first of the series of Greek bronze sculptures that the Aegean and Mediterranean yielded up in the twentieth century which have fundamentally altered the modern view of ancient Greek sculpture . The wreck site, which is dated about 70–60 BC, also yielded the Antikythera mechanism (an astronomical calculating device), a characterful head of a Stoic philosopher, and a hoard of coins. The coins included a disproportionate quantity of Pergamene cistophoric tetradrachms and Ephesian coins, leading scholars to surmise that it had begun its journey on the Ionian coast , perhaps at Ephesus; none of its recovered cargo has been identified as from mainland Greece.
21-399: The Ephebe , which measures 1.96 meters, slightly over lifesize, was retrieved in numerous fragments. Its first restoration was revised in the 1950s, under the direction of Christos Karouzos, changing the focus of the eyes, the configuration of the abdomen, the connection between the torso and the right upper thigh and the position of the right arm; the re-restoration is universally considered
42-505: A male adolescent in Ancient Greece . The term was particularly used to denote one who was doing military training and preparing to become an adult. From about 335 BC, ephebes from Athens (aged between 18–20) underwent two years of military training under supervision, during which time they were exempt from civic duties and deprived of most civic rights. During the 3rd century BC, ephebic service ceased to be compulsory and its time
63-411: A rage and dropped the mountain (now Mt. Lykabettos ). Once again, Herse and Aglaurus went insane and threw themselves to their deaths from a cliff. Another legend represents Aglaurus in a totally different light. Athens was at one time involved in a long and protracted war, and an oracle declared that the war would cease if someone would sacrifice himself for the good of his country. Agraulos (as she
84-476: A success. The Ephebe does not correspond to any familiar iconographic model, and there are no known copies of the type. He held a spherical object in his right hand, and possibly may have represented Paris presenting the Apple of Discord to Aphrodite ; however, since Paris is consistently depicted cloaked and with the distinctive Phrygian cap , other scholars have suggested a beardless, youthful Heracles with
105-464: Is one of the most brilliant products of Peloponnesian bronze sculpture; the individuality and character it displays have encouraged speculation on its possible sculptor. It is, perhaps, the work of the famous sculptor Euphranor , trained in the Polyclitan tradition, who did make a sculpture of Paris, according to Pliny : By Euphranor is an Alexander [Paris]. This work is specially admired, because
126-536: Is spelled in this version) came forward and threw herself off the Acropolis. The Athenians, in gratitude for this, built her a temple on the Acropolis, in which it subsequently became customary for the young Athenians, on receiving their first suit of armor , to take an oath that they would always defend their country to the last. According to Ovid , Mercury loved Herse but her jealous sister, whom Ovid calls Aglauros, stood between them, barring Mercury's entry into
147-567: Is the collection to which the object belongs or belonged, or the site on which it was found (e.g. the Agrigento Ephebe ). [REDACTED] Media related to Ephebes at Wikimedia Commons [REDACTED] The dictionary definition of ephebos at Wiktionary Aglaurus, daughter of Cecrops In Greek mythology , Aglaurus ( / ə ˈ ɡ l ɔː r ə s / ; Ancient Greek : Ἄγλαυρος means 'dewfall' ) or Agraulus ( / ə ˈ ɡ r ɔː l ə s / ; Ἄγραυλος means 'rustic one' )
168-620: The Apple of the Hesperides . It has also been suggested that the youth is a depiction of Perseus holding the head of the slain Gorgon . It could also be the God Apollo , a "Learned" Hermes holding a caduceus and declaiming, an athlete holding some sort of prize (a spherical lekythion ), or a sphere, a wreathe, a phiale, or an apple. The statue could even be the funerary statue of a young man. The statue, dated to around 340–330 BC,
189-428: The college of ephebi was a miniature city, which possessed an archon , strategos , herald and other officials, after the model of the city of Athens. In Ancient Greek sculpture , an ephebe is a sculptural type depicting a nude ephebos ( Archaic examples of the type are also often known as the kouros type, or kouroi in the plural). This typological name often occurs in the form "the X Ephebe ", where X
210-483: The eye can detect in it at once the judge of the goddesses, the lover of Helen , and yet the slayer of Achilles . The Antikythera Youth is conserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens . Ephebos#Sculpture Ephebos ( Greek : ἔφηβος ; pl. epheboi , Greek : ἔφηβοι ), latinized as ephebus (pl. ephebi) and anglicised as ephebe (pl. ephebes), is a term for
231-639: The field; the Greek city states ( poleis ) mainly depended (like the Roman Republic ) on its militia of citizens for defense. In the time of Aristotle (384–322 BC), Athens engraved the names of the enrolled ephebi on a bronze pillar (formerly on wooden tablets) in front of the council-chamber . After admission to the college, the ephebus took the oath of allegiance (as recorded in histories by Pollux and Stobaeus —but not in Aristotle) in
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#1732776080577252-482: The frontiers, and on occasion took an active part in war. During these two years they remained free from taxation, and were generally not allowed to appear in the law courts as plaintiffs or defendants. The ephebi took part in some of the most important Athenian festivals. Thus during the Eleusinian Mysteries they were sent to fetch the sacred objects from Eleusis and to escort the image of Iacchus on
273-481: The house and refusing to move. Mercury was outraged at her presumption and turned her to stone. It is in reference to this myth that Dante places her on the second terrace of Purgatory , alongside Cain , to serve as God's reins against jealousy. One of the Attic demes ( Agraule ) derived its name from this heroine, and a festival and mysteries were celebrated at Athens in honor of her. According to Porphyry , she
294-524: The infant caused them both to go insane and they threw themselves off the Acropolis , or, according to Hyginus , into the sea. An alternative version of the same story is that, while Athena was away bringing a limestone mountain from the Pallene peninsula to use in the Acropolis, the sisters, minus Pandrosus again, opened the box. A crow witnessed the opening and flew away to tell Athena, who fell into
315-427: The sacred way. They also performed police duty at the meetings of the ecclesia . After the end of the 4th century BC, the institution underwent a radical change. Enrolment ceased to be obligatory, lasted only for a year, and the limit of age was dispensed with. Inscriptions attest a continually decreasing number of ephebi, and with the admission of foreigners the college lost its representative national character. This
336-477: The story, as told by the Bibliotheca , Hephaestus attempted to rape Athena but was unsuccessful. His semen fell on the ground, impregnating Gaia . Gaia did not want the infant Erichthonius , so she gave the baby to the goddess Athena . Athena gave the baby in a box to three women — Aglaurus and her two sisters — and warned them to never open it. Nonetheless, Aglaurus and Herse opened the box. The sight of
357-500: The temple of Aglaurus and was sent to Munichia or Acte as a member of the garrison . At the end of the first year of training the ephebi were reviewed; if their performance was satisfactory, the state provided each with a spear and a shield, which, together with the chlamys (cloak) and petasos (broad-brimmed hat), made up their equipment. In their second year they were transferred to other garrisons in Attica , patrolled
378-468: Was also worshiped in Cyprus , where human sacrifices were offered to her down to a very late time. Mythographers believe Aglaurus to have an origin distinct from that of her sisters, due in part to the fact that she had her own sanctuary near the Acropolis , and unlike her sister Pandrosus, was more associated with young men or soldiers ( epheboi ) than with infants. She was particularly associated with
399-599: Was an Athenian princess. Aglaurus was the daughter of King Cecrops and another Aglaurus , daughter of King Actaeus . She was the sister of Herse , Pandrosus and possibly, Erysichthon . Aglaurus had two offspring by two different gods, Alcippe (with Ares ) and Ceryx (with Hermes ). There were numerous versions of her myth. The earliest writer to mention her is Euripides in his play Ion , lines 22–23 and 484–485. In Moses Hadas and John Mclean's 1960 Bantam Classics translation they have Euripides say: Later, speaking of "a haunt of Pan ": In another version of
420-623: Was mainly due to the weakening of the military spirit and to the progress of intellectual culture. The military element was no longer all-important, and the ephebia became a sort of university for well-to-do young men of good family, whose social position has been compared with that of the Athenian "knights" of earlier times. The institution lasted till the end of the 3rd century AD. In the Hellenistic and Roman periods, foreigners, including Romans, began to be admitted as ephebes. At this period
441-573: Was reduced to one year. By the 1st century BC, the ephebia became an institution reserved for wealthy individuals and, besides military training, it also included philosophic and literary studies. Though the word ephebos (from epi "upon" + hebe "youth", "early manhood" ) can simply refer to the adolescent age of young men of training age, its main use is for the members, exclusively from that age group, of an official institution ( ephebia ) that saw to building them into citizens, but especially to training them as soldiers, sometimes already sent into
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