Delphi Charioteer
Erected in honour of the winner of the chariot race at the Pythian Games held in Delphi. The sculpture would have consisted of a chariot and horses. But when the piece was rediscovered in excavations in 1896, only the driver and a few fragments survived.
The eyes of the original are onyx, the lips copper and the headband impressed in silver. Its burial in a landslide saved it from being melted down for armour or jewellery
Delphi Museum 3484 & 3540
Purchased1899-1900
Lippold: Griechische Plastik, 113 (n.2), pl. 37.4
Richter: Sculpture & Sculptors of the Greeks (1950), 96-, figs.162 & 285
Hampe, R: Der Wagenlenker von Delphi, Brunn-Bruckmann, Denkmäler Griechischer und Römischer Skulptur, pls. 786-790, text vol.6 (1947)
Poulsen, F: Delphi, 220-
Fouilles de Delphes: IV, 5 (1955)
For inscription – Frickenhaus, A: Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts XXVIII (1913), 52-
Inscribed on base (not on cast): Dedicated by Polyzalus, younger brother of Gelon, tyrant of Gela and later of Syracuse, and of Hieron
Found in 1896 at Delphi in the Sanctuary of Apollo