ATHENS IN 477 BC

Antenor was a Athenian sculptor of the late Archaic period who carved the first group of statues of the tyrannicides Harmodius and Aristogiton for the Athenian agora and a kore (a freestanding figure of a maiden) for the Acropolis (now in the Acropolis Museum in Athens).


In 480, when Xerxes I captured Athens, the sculpture of the tyrannicides was carried off to Susa, and in 477 Critius, probably with Nesiotes, was commissioned to make another group to replace it. Copies of the second group have been found and identified on coins, vases, and reliefs, but no copies of Antenor´s group have been found, through a statue base, signed by Antenor and thought to belong to his original group, was unearthed on the agora. Antenor´s sculpture of the tyrannicides probably dates from shortly after 510.


The kore attributed to Antenor, which probably dates from c. 530 to 520, is one of the finest surviving examples of late Archaic sculpture. The greater part of this figure was found in 1886, northwest of the Erechtheum, on the Acropolis. It is of marble and larger than life. Traces of colour remain. Because of a similarity inn style between the Acropolis kore and the figures of maidens along the east pediment of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, it has been suggested by some that the Delphi pediment is the work of Antenor.