Name of Object:

Statue of Athlete – Ephesos

Location:

Vienna, Austria

Holding Institution:

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities

 About Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Date of Object:

2nd century AD (copy after a Greek original from the last quarter of the 4th century BC); found in 1895

Inventory Number:

ANSA_VI_3168_5

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Bronze

Dimensions:

Height 192 cm

Provenance:

Ephesos

Description:

After competitions in the palestra (sports arena), it was customary for the athletes to clean the sand from their oiled bodies with a strigil, or scraping iron. The Ephesian athlete seen here has already finished this task and – with his hair still soaking in sweat – is cleaning the strigil itself. This statue cannot be attributed to any Greek artist with certainty, yet Roman reproductions in marble and depictions on pottery reliefs and engraved stones speak to a high degree of familiarity with the original.

Citation of this web page:

"Statue of Athlete – Ephesos" in "Sharing History", Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://sharinghistory.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;AWE;at;18;en

Copyedited by: Daniel de la VegaDaniel de la Vega

Daniel de la Vega is a copy editor based in Portland, Oregon. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in linguistics from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 2014 and has since done editing and localization work on everything from college applications to magazines to video game dialogue.

MWNF Working Number: AT 019