Archaic II

Limestone relief

The relief depicts Herakles rustling the cattle of Geryon. Recognizable by the lionskin falling over his back, the hero stands at the far left. In the upper register, Geryon's three-headed dog has an arrow in one neck. In the lower register, Eurytion, the herdsman, is characterized as uncivilized by his satyrlike features and by the stone and tree that he uses as weapons. Geryon's herd is represented with particular attention to the calves in the foreground and the lead animals that look back. Since this relief as well as the statues of Geryon and Herakles were all found near the temple of Goloi, the question arises whether they were originally associated in some way. WebPub GR 2012 Cesnola: 20 1/2 × 34 3/8 × 2 15/16 in., 98 lb. (52 × 87.3 × 7.5 cm)

Classification

Object type: Relief
Motif: Human figure
Material: StoneLimestone
Period: Iron AgeCypro-Archaic
Date: 550 - 500 BC
Place of production: Cyprus
Findspot: Golgoi

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Collection

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Provenance

Sanctuary of Golgoi-Ayios Photios, “in the field west of the temple”

References

Doell, Johannes. 1873. Die Sammlung Cesnola. no. 763, p. 47, pl. XI.6, St. Petersburg: L’Académie Impérial des Sciences.Cesnola, Luigi Palma di. 1877. Cyprus: Its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples. A Narrative of Researches and Excavations During Ten Years' Residence in That Island. pp. 135-37, pl. XII, London: John Murray.Cesnola, Luigi Palma di. 1885. A Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Vol. 1. pl. CXXII.912, Boston: James R. Osgood and Company.Myres, John L. 1914. Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus. no. 1368, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Masson, Olivier. 1971. "Kypriaka IX: Recherches sur les antiquités de Golgoi." Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, 95(1): p. 317, fig. 10.Tatton-Brown, Veronica. 1984. "Sculptors at Golgoi." Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus (RDAC) p. 171, n. 14, pl. XXXIII:1.Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1988. Vol. 4: Eros-Herakles. "Eurytion II," p. 115, no. 49, pl. 61, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1990. Vol. 5: Herakles-Kenchrias. "Herakles (Cypri)," p. 195, no. 27; "Herakles," p. 78, no. 2512, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1994. Vol. 7: Oidipous-Theseus. "Orthros I," p. 106, no. 21, pl. 78, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.Karageorghis, Vassos. 1998. Greek God and Heroes in Ancient Cyprus. pp.58-60, fig. 23, Athens: Commerical Bank of Greece.Karageorghis, Vassos, Joan Mertens, and Marice E. Rose. 2000. Ancient Art from Cyprus: The Cesnola Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 192, pp. 127-28, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Stylianou, Andreas and Patrick Schollmeyer. 2007. "Der Sarkophag aus Golgoi." Dynastensarkophage mit szenischen Reliefs aus Byblos und Zypern: Der Sarkophag aus Amathous als Beispiel kontaktinduzierten Wandels, 2. pp. 219, 221, no. 211, 231, pl. 55c, Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern.Mertens, Joan R. 2010. How to Read Greek Vases. p. 78, fig. 31, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Hermary, Antoine and Joan R. Mertens. 2013. The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art : Stone Sculpture. no. 440, pp. 312-315, Online Publication, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Counts, Derek B. 2014. "Myth into Art: Foreign Impulses and Local Reponses in Archaic Cypriot Sanctuaries." The Cambridge Prehistory of the Bronze and Iron Age Mediterranean, Arthur Bernard Knapp and Peter van Dommelen, eds. pp. 290-1, fig. 16.6, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Identifiers

Accession no.: 74.51.2853, Metropolitan Museum of Art
In catalogues: Doell 1873, no. 763
Myres 1914, no. 1368
Karageorghis 2000, no. 192
Hermary 2013, no. 440

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Limestone relief

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