Roman
Odysseus, about 25 BCE
Parian marble , 66.7 x 109.9 x 31.8 cm (26 1/4 x 43 1/4 x 12 1/2 in.)
General admission for children 17 years and under is always free
This Roman sculpture, made of white marble, depicts a male figure from Greek mythology, Odysseus. The man is shown in profile, facing toward your right. He is crouching, with his left leg bent double and his left knee and the flexed toes of his left foot resting on a flat, horizontal architectural element, but he appears ready to spring into action. His right leg, which extends backward toward your left, is broken with some evidence of repair and the piece below the knee is missing. His left arm arm is stretched forward and down to the horizontal base and his left hand is gripping something. His right arm is drawn back and bent at the elbow, which is raised above his right hip, and he is also gripping a thin object in his right hand. The part of the object he is holding between his hands is missing, but could be the blade of a sword. The man is wearing a cape with wide folds curving gently to your right and draped over his torso, but his muscular right leg, side and arm are bare and his genitals are showing. The man is looking straight ahead to your right, so that you can only see the right side of his face. His hair and the bottom of his beard are rendered in many raised circular pieces, each with a perforation in the middle, and he also has a mustache. He wears a cone-shaped cap or helmet with a folded rim chipped in one place. The shape of the sculpture is roughly triangular, with the man’s head adding some extra height on the right side of the triangle. There are triangular spaces between the man’s right arm and torso and between his flexed left foot and calf and the base of the sculpture. The back of the sculpture is finished, showing the drape falling over the left side of the man’s back but leaving bare part of his back and left thigh and all of his hips, buttocks, right arm, and truncated right leg.
Courtyard
Commentary
Odysseus creeping towards an unseen object or adversary has long been a magnificent mythological sight at Fenway Court. The crafty Greek hero assumed this unusual posture on several occasions during the ten-year siege of Troy. Near the end of the war, he crept into the city on a spying mission. Odysseus also entered the city with Diomedes to steal the sacred image of Athena, the Palladium. Some sources say the Odysseus did the stealing. Others say he became jealous of Diomedes’ success in this endeavor and crouched just outside the city to ambush his accomplice returning over the walls with the small icon. The glint of moonlight on Odysseus’ drawn sword is what saved Diomedes from death.
This Odysseus is a Roman pedimental figure, meant to be seen in the setting of a wide triangle on a small building such as a shrine in the Gardens of Sallust in Rome, where the statue was found in 1885. The complete composition might have shown the Palladium on an altar or pedestal in the center, with Diomedes creeping up from the other side. Or perhaps Athena herself stood in the middle of the pediment, as was often the case in Archaic Greek sculpture, helping the thieves to hasten Troy’s fall.
Source: Cornelius C. Vermeule (1984), "Odysseus," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 5.
This Odysseus is a Roman pedimental figure, meant to be seen in the setting of a wide triangle on a small building such as a shrine in the Gardens of Sallust in Rome, where the statue was found in 1885. The complete composition might have shown the Palladium on an altar or pedestal in the center, with Diomedes creeping up from the other side. Or perhaps Athena herself stood in the middle of the pediment, as was often the case in Archaic Greek sculpture, helping the thieves to hasten Troy’s fall.
Source: Cornelius C. Vermeule (1984), "Odysseus," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 5.