Olympica Hippica

'The jockey of Artemision' (keles)

The composite statue was part or a ship's cargo found by Ishermen of Skiathos near the Euboic peninsula of Artemision in 1930. The site is renowned from the sea battle of the Greek leet (with 200 ships) against the Persian (over 2,000 ships) in 480 BCE. Underwater searchers discovered these two Statues separated, but is almost certain that the horse and the young boy were part of the same masterpiece we see today at the Athens Archaeological Museum. The young anabates [jockey] held the horse's reins in his left and a kentron [goad] in his right hand which is raised to prompt the animal. As for the horse, it seems to make an extreme elort as if jumping over an obstacle, which might have served to stabilize the statue. In general, this bronze is among the best and most original works of the second century BCE. It relects the zenith reached by Greek sculptors during the Hellenistic period.

'The Tiryns Ladies' (synoris)

Found in the later palace of Tiryns ca. 1300 BCEthe fresco depicts a rare scene of two young ladies driving a synoris (biga). In fact, the girl to the right is driving the chariot and the girl to her left is just a passenger. The 'Pinto' coloration of the horses and the four-spoked wheel, a typical element of Greek chariots, are of particular interest. Horses bearing white spots were called Balios (or Phalios) in Homeric times. In demotic terms they are still called Mpalios, a fact relecting the long continuity of the Greek language. Frescoes resembling this were unknown in Minoan Crete but are seen at later periods (after Mycenae had taken over Crete). The most ancient horse scene found in Greece is a sphragidolith (seal stone) depicting a diphros on an obsidian from Mycenae (c.1600 BCE). A synoris driven by two ladies is also depicted on a sarcophagus from the palace of Agia Triada (c.1400 BCE).