HELLENISTIC GREEK MARBLE HEAD OF MELEAGER, FROM A SARCOPHAGUS

The Meleager type is based on a late Classical Greek bronze masterwork, by the renowned Skopas of Paros (ca. 340–330 BC). Now lost, it survives in variations of the Roman era.

The Greek hero Meleagros was among Jason’s Argonauts, but is best known for slaying the Calydonian Boar with the notable assistance of the virgin huntress Atalanta. Homer first recounts the tale in the Iliad, IX.527, ff., but rather it is in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, VIII, 269–525, that our modern conception of the myth is rooted.

2nd– 1st Century BC

Height: 11.7 cm.     (4 5/8 in.)

Width: 7.1 cm.     (2 13/16 in.)

Depth: 9.7 cm.     (3 13/16 in.)

Ex: French private collection of Jean-Marie Talleux, Grand Fort Philippe.

#5723

Published: 

Antiquarium, Ltd.; Ancient Treasures XIX. (London, 2020) p.26

Comparanda:

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin  Id. No. T.I 123

Harvard Art Museums, The Fogg Museum  acc. no. 1926.48