Commentary Prepared by Dr. Julia Lenaghan, Ashmolean Museum
A 112
Head of an Amazon from the Argive Heraion. Athens
Under life-size head of an amazon wearing a pointed, cap-like helmet. Tilted dramatically to its left. From the metopes of the Argive Heraion, ca. 400 BC.
Marble
Metope
22.6 cm
From the Argive Heraion. Found in the area of the northwest corner of the temple.
Greece, Athens, National Museum, 1563
Ca. 400 BC
Preservation:The head is broken diagonally through the neck; the break runs upward from the left side of the neck to the right side. There is a broken surface behind the right ear and another above the left ear. The tip of the nose, the area above the right eye, two places on the right cheek, and the chin are abraded. There are two small holes in the ridge of the hat near the back of the head and one small hole at the peak of the ridge.
Description:The head, tilted dramatically to its left, depicts a female wearing a pointed helmet or hat. It is worked completely in the round with greater attention given to the right side which faced the viewer.
The helmet is conical in shape; the top portion falls forward. It also has a back flap that covers the nape of the neck. A raised surface, a fold or hem or metal framework, runs around the helmet’s lower border; this rises near center (just to the right of the nose) and, narrowing as it moves upwards, reaches the pointed peak. A piece of material, worn under the hat to protect the head from chafing, blows backward behind the right ear.
The face is small and asymmetrical. The right side is larger and fuller than the left. The brow, which is crossed by the lower border of the hat, appears low. The eyebrows are fine, low-arching, ridges. The eyes, directly below the eyebrows, are marked by projecting rolls of marble that indicate the eyelids. The eyeballs are flat surfaces that slope inwards from top to bottom. The area of the eye socket is slightly deepened. The nose is has a flat ridge and no indentation at its bridge. The mouth features shapely lips. The upper lip has a pointed central dip. Below the lower lip is a horizontal depression that indicates the beginning of the chin. The chin is U-shaped, smoothly joining the lines of the cheeks, and projects slightly.
The hair is visible only around the temples and ears. It is long and wavy and swept back off the face, covering the upper portion of the ear. It is more carefully worked on the right side. There the strands are indicated by relatively shallow and broad channels that follow parallel paths.
Discussion:This head of an amazon belonged to the sculpted 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 head features a non-Greek, possibly Thracian helmet, suitable for an amazon. The crest of the helmet was in addition decorated with a separately added element. The head is one of the many fragments that assure us that an amazonomachy was represented on the temple’s metopes. Details like this have led scholars to interpret Pausanias’ remark that a war against Troy was depicted to mean the battle of the amazons against Troy.
Julia Lenaghan
Bibliography:C. Waldstein,
The Argive Heraion I (Boston 1902) 180-181, pl. 31.3
brief descriptive catalogue-like entryF. Eichler,
"Die Skulpturen des Heraions bei Argos" (OJh 19/20 1919) 79, no. 6
review discussion of Waldstein, notes details and find location.
