Everything about Myron totally explained
Myron of Eleutherae (
Greek Μύρων) working c. 480-440 BC, was an Athenian
sculptor from the mid-fifth century BC. He was born in
Eleutherae on the borders of
Boeotia and
Attica. According to
Pliny's Natural History,
Ageladas of Argos was his teacher.
The traveller
Pausanias noted sculptures by Myron that remained
in situ in the second century CE. Chionis, a seventh century Olympic victor from Sparta was commemorated in an idealized bronze by Myron
He worked almost exclusively in
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, according to commentators in Antiquity, by introducing greater boldness of pose and a more perfect rhythm, subordinating the parts to the whole. Pliny's remark that Myron's works were
numerosior than those of
Polycleitus and "more diligent" seem to suggest that they were considered more harmonious in proportions (
numeri) and at the same time more convincing in their realism:
diligentia connoted "attentive care to fine points", a quality that, in moderation, was characteristic of the best works of art, according to critics in Antiquity.
His most famous works according to
Pliny's
Natural History (34.57-59) were a heifer, a dog (
canem,
Cerberus?), a Perseus, a satyr— Marsyas— admiring the flute and Minerva (Athena), a Hercules, which was taken to the shrine dedicated by Pompey the Great at the
Circus Maximus,
Discobolus (the
discus thrower), and an Apollo for
Ephesus, "which Antony the triumvir took from the Ephesians, but the deified Augustus restored it again after being warned in a dream". The Early Imperial Roman writers consistently rated Myron among the greatest of Greek sculptors, a sign that his contemporaneous reputation had remained high.
The heifer 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 animal. An epigram on Ladas, the fleetest runner of his time, notes that he was commemorated in a sculpture by Myron; of Myron's
Ladas there's no known copy. A description by
Lucian conclusively identifies as Myron's the
Discobolus or "Discus-Thrower", of which several copies exist, of which the best is in the
Palazzo Massimi alle Terme, Rome.
Strabo also registers stray comments on Myron, especially a large group at
Samos; several surviving heads were identified as copies of Myron's
Samian Athena by C.K. Jenkins in 1926.
A marble figure in the
Lateran Museum, which is now restored as a dancing
satyr, is almost certainly a copy of a work of Myron, a
Marsyas desirous of picking up the
aulos which
Athena had thrown away. The full group is copied on coins of Athens, on a vase and in a relief which represent Marsyas as oscillating between curiosity and the fear of the displeasure of Athena.
The ancient critics say of Myron that, while he succeeded admirably in giving life and motion to his figures, he didn't succeed in rendering the emotions of the mind. This agrees with the extant evidence, in a certain degree, though not perfectly. The bodies of his men are of far greater excellence than the heads. The face of the Marsyas is almost a mask; but from the attitude we gain a vivid impression of the passions which sway him. The face of the discus-thrower is calm and unruffled; but all the muscles of his body are concentrated in an effort.
A considerable number of other extant works were ascribed to the school or the influence of Myron by
Adolf Furtwängler. These attributions have not stood up to the test of time.
A
papyrus from
Oxyrhyncus gives dates of
victors at Olympia of whom Myron made statues of the athlete
Timanthes, victorious at Olympia in
456 BC, and of Lycinus, victorious in 448 and 444. This helps us to fix his date. He was a contemporary, but a somewhat older contemporary, of
Pheidias and
Polykleitos.
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