Myron

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This article is about the sculptor. For the author, see Myron of Priene. For the book, see Myron (novel).

Minotaur, from a fountain in Athens, reflecting Myron's lost group of Theseus and the Minotaur (National Archeological Museum, Athens)

Myron of Eleutherae (Greek Μύρων) was a sculptor from the mid-fifth century BCE.^[1] He was born in Eleutherae on the borders of Boeotia and Attica. Perhaps Ageladas of Argos was his teacher.

He worked almost exclusively in bronze:^[2] and though he made some statues of gods and heroes, his fame rested principally upon his representations of athletes, in which he made a revolution, according to commentators in Antiquity, by introducing greater boldness of pose and a more perfect rhythm.

His most famous works according to Pliny^[3] were a heifer, Ladas the runner, who fell dead at the moment of victory in 476 BCE^[4], a Hercules taken to the shrine dedicated by Pompey the Great at the Circus Maximus and Discobolus, an Apollo for Ephesus, "which Antony the triumvir took from the Ephesians, but the deified Augustus restored it again after being warned in a dream," and a discus thrower. The heifer seems to have earned its fame mainly by serving as a peg on which to hang epigrams,^[5] which tell us nothing about the pose of the animal. Of the Ladas there is no known copy. A description by Lucian^[6] conclusively identifies as Myron's the Discobolus or "Discus-Thrower", of which several copies exist, of which the best is in the Palazzo Massimi alle Terme, Rome. Strabo also registers stray comments on Myron, especially a large group at Samos; several surviving heads were identified as copies of Myron's Samian Athena by C.K. Jenkins in 1926.</ref>C.K. Jenkins, "The Reinstatement of Myron" The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 49 No. 283 (October 1926), pp. 182-192.</ref> The Early Imperial Roman writers consistently rated Myron among the greatest of Greek sculptors, a sign that his contemporaneous reputation had remained high.

A marble figure in the Lateran Museum, which is now restored as a dancing satyr, is almost certainly a copy of a work of Myron, a Marsyas desirous of picking up the aulos which Athena had thrown away ^[7]. The full group is copied on coins of Athens, on a vase and in a relief which represent Marsyas as oscillating between curiosity and the fear of the displeasure of Athena.

The ancient critics say of Myron that, while he succeeded admirably in giving life and motion to his figures, he did not succeed in rendering the emotions of the mind. This agrees with the extant evidence, in a certain degree, though not perfectly. The bodies of his men are of far greater excellence than the heads. The face of the Marsyas is almost a mask; but from the attitude we gain a vivid impression of the passions which sway him. The face of the discus-thrower is calm and unruffled; but all the muscles of his body are concentrated in an effort.

Roman bronze reduction of Myron's Discobolos, 2nd century CE (Glyptothek, Munich)

A considerable number of other extant works are ascribed to the school or the influence of Myron by A. Furtwangler.^[8] These attributions, however, are anything but certain, nor do the arguments by which Furtwangler supports his attributions bear abridgment.

A papyrus from Oxyrhyncus gives dates of victors at Olympia of whom Myron made statues of the athlete Timanthes, victorious at Olympia in 456 BC, and of Lycinus, victorious in 448 and 444. This helps us to fix his date. He was a contemporary, but a somewhat older contemporary, of Pheidias and Polykleitos.

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[edit] References

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

• Andrew Stewart, One Hundred Greek Sculptors: Their Careers and Extant Works 7.42. (On-line text)