blastedheath:

Ioannis Altamouras (Greek, 1852-1878), Port of Copenhagen, 1874. Oil on canvas, 30 cm x 43 cm. National Gallery of Greece, Museum Alexandros Soutzos, Athens.

aleyma:

Greek, Caryatid mirror with Aphrodite, Erotes, and siren, c.460 BC (source).

(via venusmilk)

mythpictures:

Herakles is about to strike down Kyknos, son of Ares, with his sword. The battle is witnessed by the gods Athene, Ares and Zeus. The last, standing in the centre, raises his hand to prevent Ares from interfering. Beside Ares stands the mother of Kyknos.

Attic Black Figure, ca 510 - 500 BC, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, USA.

(via mermanonfire)

nichqu:

A Herma (Ancient Greek: ἑρμῆς, pl ἑρμαῖ “hermai”), is a sculpture with a head above a plain, usually squared lower section, on which male genitals may also be carved at the appropriate height, originating in Ancient Greece. In the earliest times Greek divinities were worshiped in the form of a heap of stones or a shapeless column of stone or wood. There were in many parts of Greece piles of stones by the sides of roads, especially at their crossings, and on the boundaries of lands. The religious respect paid to such heaps of stones, especially at the meeting of roads, is shown by the custom of each passer-by throwing a stone on to the heap or anointing it with oil. Later there was the addition of a head and phallus to the column, which became quadrangular (the number 4 was sacred to Hermes). The phallus formed an essential part of the symbol, probably because the divinity represented by it was in the earliest times, before the worship of Dionysus was imported from the East, the personification of the reproductive powers of nature.

In ancient Greece the statues had an apotropaic function and were placed at crossings, country borders and boundaries as protection, in front of temples, near to tombs, in the gymnasia, palaestrae, libraries, porticoes, and public places, at the corners of streets, on high roads as sign-posts, with distances inscribed upon them. Before his role as protector of merchants and travelers, Hermes was a phallic god, associated with fertility, luck, roads and borders. His name comes from the word herma referring to a square or rectangular pillar of stone, terracotta, or bronze; a bust of Hermes’ head, usually with a beard, sat on the top of the pillar, and male genitals adorned the base. In Athens, the hermai were most numerous and most venerated, they were placed outside houses as apotropes for good luck. They would be rubbed or anointed with olive oil and adorned with garlands or wreaths. This superstition persists, for example the Porcellino bronze boar of Florence (and numerous others like it around the world), where the nose is shiny from being continually touched for good luck or fertility.

(via mermanonfire)

cavetocanvas:

Kroisos Kouros - Ancient Greek sculpture, c. 530 BCE

Things to think about when studying:

• Where does this work fit in the development of Greek sculpture?
• How does it differ from later works where contrapposto is introduced?

(via blackbird6)

omgthatartifact:

Ointment Vase

Greece

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

(via blackbird6)

omgthatartifact:

Krater

Greece, 6th century BC

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

(via blackbird6)

hadrian6:

iffranco:

A giant (Otos?) being killed by Artemis.

Detail of a hellenistic relief in the Gigantomachy frieze at the Pergamon Altar.

hadrian6:

(via antonio-m)

centuriespast:

Syriskos Painter; Kantharos; Side B: Head of a Woman; Greek; Late Archaic; c.490 BCE; Paris: Bib. Nat., Cab. des Medailles; Attic red-figure ceramic

(via blackbird6)

blackbird6:

centuriespast:

Kore from the Acropolis Archaic period (600 – 480 BCE)

The Kore statues were usually lifesize or larger, and made of marble. The kouros (male statue) was always nude and the koure (female statue) was always clothed. The left leg is always forward, the arms are close to the body, touching the side of their thighs. Strict symmetry, simple geometric forms, no individualization.