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MYRON
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MYRON , a See also:Greek sculptor of the See also:middle of the 5th See also:century B.C. He was See also:born at Eleutherae on the See also:borders of See also:Boeotia and See also:Attica. He worked almost exclusively in See also:bronze: 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, by introducing greater boldness of pose and a more perfect See also:rhythm. His most famous See also:works according to See also:Pliny (Nat. Hist., 34, 57) were a cow, Ladas the runner, who See also:fell dead at the moment of victory, and a See also:discus-thrower. The cow seems to have earned its fame mainly by serving as a peg on which to hang epigrams, which tell us nothing about the pose of the See also:animal. Of the Ladas there is no known copy. But we are fortunate in possessing several copies of the discobolus, of which the best is in the Massimi See also:palace at See also:Rome (see GREEK See also:ART, Pl. iv. fig. 68). The example in the See also:British Museum has the See also:head put on wrongly. The See also:athlete is represented at the moment when he has swung back the discus with the full stretch of his See also:arm, and is about to hurl it with the full See also:weight of his See also:body. The head should t.. turned back toward the discus. A See also:marble figure in the Lateran Museum (see GREEK ART, Pl. iii. fig. 64), which is now restored as a dancing satyr, is almost certainly a copy of a See also:work of Myron, a See also:Marsyas desirous of picking up the flutes which See also:Athena had thrown away (See also:Pausanias, i. 24, 1). The full See also:group is copied on coins of See also:Athens, on a See also:vase and in a See also:relief which represent Marsyas as oscillating between curiosity and the fear of the displeasure of Athena. The See also:ancient critics say of Myron that, while he succeeded admirably in giving See also:life and See also:motion to his figures, he did not succeed in rendering the emotions of the mind. This agrees with the extant See also:evidence, in a certain degree, though not perfectly. The bodies of his men are of far greater excellence than the heads. The See also:face of the Marsyas is almost a See also:mask; but from the attitude we gain a vivid impression of the passions which sway him. The face of the discus-thrower is See also:calm and unruffled; but all the muscles of his body are concentrated in an effort. A considerable number of other extant works are ascribed to the school or the See also:influence of Myron by A. See also:Furtwangler in his suggestive Masterpieces of Greek See also:Sculpture (pp. 168-219). These attributions, however, are anything but certain, nor do the arguments by which Furtwangler supports his attributions See also:bear abridgment. A recently discovered See also:papyrus from See also:Egypt informs us that Myron made statues of the athlete See also:Timanthes, victorious at See also:Olympia in 456 B.C., and of Lycinus, victorious in 448 and 444• This See also:helps us to See also:fix his date. He was a contemporary, but a somewhat older contemporary, of See also:Pheidias and See also:Polyclitus. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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