Commentary Prepared by Dr. Julia Lenaghan, Ashmolean Museum

A 111
Lunging nude male torso pressed by female hand from the Argive Heraion. Athens

Under life-size torso of a naked male with a shield attached to a background. The figure is in the act of delivering a death blow to a crouched amazon who reaches up with her left hand entreatingly. From the metopes of the Argive Heraion, ca. 400 BC.

Marble (Parian)
Metope
55 cm

From the Argive Heraion. Found in the foundations of the peristasis not far from the southwest corner of the second temple. The upper arm fragment and shield fragment were found on the south slope near pilaster no. 4.
Greece, Athens, National Museum, 1572
Ca. 400 BC

Preservation:
The fragment preserves a male torso against a small wedge-shaped portion of the relief background. The head is broken through the neck; both arms are broken just beyond the shoulders; the right leg is broken at the thigh; and the left leg is broken just above the knee. A portion of the left arm and of the shield behind the left arm have been joined to the torso. There were traces of paint on the shield fragment.

Description:
The fragment depicts, in high relief, a nude male in vigorous motion. The hand of another figure, probably females, holds the torso under the right armpit. The male figure raises its right arm; the upper part of the left arm falls down and to the left of the body. Behind the left arm part of a round shield is preserved. The right leg was raised and lunges to the right of the body. It probably bore the body weight. The left leg trails behind the body; it extends diagonally to the left. The figure is fit and lean. The anatomical details are indicated but not over-emphasized. The sternum, pectorals, rib cage, linea alba, navel, and iliac furrow are rendered. Even a surging bulge below the iliac furrow, which appears only in particular movements of strain, is indicated. The figure is grasped by a left hand on the right side of the rib cage, just under the armpit. The fingers reach around the side of the body and the thumb points upward and slightly to the right. The hand does not press upon the body but seems to rest on it. It appears delicate and soft. The fingernails are delineated on all the fingers, and the wrinkles on the knuckles of the thumb are also marked.

Discussion:
The lunging male torso touched by an imploring hand of an amazon was part of the decoration of a metope of the second temple to Hera in the Argive Heraion. The Argive Heraion was located the Argive plain, approximately five kilometers from Mycenae and ten kilometers from Argos. The Heraion was visited and described by the second century author Pausanias and has been excavated in the modern era. The second temple is usually dated on architectural grounds around 400 BC. The sanctuary and the temple are more fully discussed under cat. no. A 109. The nude male holding a shield was surely about to kill an amazon crumpled at his feet. She reaches up with her left hand to plead for mercy. This composition is common in sculpture of this period. The motif occurs in the reliefs around the inner cella at Bassae, dated in the last quarter of the fifth century, (cf. cat. no. A 106) as well as in an extremely similar fragment from the temple of Athena at Mazi, dated ca. 390-380. Stylistically the fragment shows a remarkable attention to the forms of the human body, both to the muscular young male body and the soft female hand. Julia Lenaghan

Bibliography:
C. Waldstein, The Argive Heraion I (Boston 1902) 185-186, pl. 34 brief descriptive catalogue-like entry
F. Eichler, "Die Skulpturen des Heraions bei Argos" (OJh 19/20 1919) 59-61 discussion of torso and adjoining fragments
S. Karouzou, National Archaeological Museum. Collection of Sculpture (Athens 1968) 59 pithy museum catalogue entry
C. Rolley, La sculpture grecque II. La période classique (Paris 1999) 170-171, fig. 154 brief discussion of temple with bibliography, comment on this figure and relationship to similar figure at Mazi