AKONTISTAI. ap 
have represented an Olympic pentathlete, which was originally set up 
at Argos, where it was also adopted for a figure on the heroic grave- 
relief already mentioned, which represented the youth with a spear over 
his shoulder standing beside a horse. Bulle also thinks that the statue 
represented a victor athlete set up in some sacred spot. 
For its interpretation as the statue of .a pentathlete victor, an added 
proof is furnished by the discovery of a late Roman copy of it at Olym- 
pia.t This may very well have been the dedication of an athlete of 
late date—of the first century B.C. or of the first A.D.—who preferred 
to be represented by a copy of the famous work of Polykleitos rather 
than by anewstatue. Treu’s contention that the torso 1s too large for 
a victor statue,”because Lucian saysthat the Hellanodikai did not allow 
statues of victors to be over life-size,’ falls to the ground, since we know 
that exceptions to the rule existed at Olympia.t’ He agrees with Col- 
lignon? in interpreting it as a decorative statue, which surely involves 
an anachronism in the middle of the fifth century B. C.; and his argu- 
ment that its good preservation shows it to have been set up in aninterior 
room, perhaps of the Bouleuterion, in whose ruins it was found, ad- 
ducing this as additional evidence of its decorative character, is no proof, 
since victor statues at Olympia seem sometimes to have been housed.® 
Thus the theory that the Doryphoros represents a pentathlete victor 
is well within the range of possibilities. 
Two bronze statuettes in the Metropolitan Museum,’ New York, 
belonging to the second half of the fifth century B.C., may be repre- 
sentations on a small scale of pentathletes with the akontion. The first 
shows a youth standing with the weight of the body on the left foot, the 
right drawn slightly back. ‘The left hand, held close to the side, may 
have carried an akontion, the right arm being extended. ‘The other, 
more carelessly executed, represents a youth standing similarly with his 
weight on the left foot, the right being drawn back. Here again the 
left arm is hanging by the side, and probably held the same attribute as 
the first statuette. he right armis also bent at the elbow. A patera 
may have been held in the outstretched hand of each. ‘The square 
1This torso is of Pentelic marble, like many of the later victor statues at Olympia, and is fleshier 
than the Naples and Vatican copies: Bildw. v. Ol., Textbd., p. 250 and fig. 284 (back view); 
Tafelbd., Pl. LXII, 1; Furtw., M/., p. 228, Mw., p.420. Itisinthe Museum at Olympia. 
2The Naples copy is 1.99 meters high; see Kalkmann, Die Proport. des Gesichts in d. gr. Kunst, 
53stes Berl. Winckelmanns progr., 1893, p. 53; the Olympia torso is 1.10 meters high for the pre- 
served part (Treu). 8Pro Imag., 11. 
47. g., the statue of Polydamas, P., VI, 5.1; the base of the statue of Kallias, Inschr. v. OL., 
no. 146; of Eukles, zb7d., no. 159; etc. 
5Collignon, I, p. 490; he believed that the original statue by Polykleitos stood in a Gymnasion 
at Argos. 
°Cy. anfra., Ch. VIII, p. 342 and n. 2. 
7Richter, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Bronzes, nos. 87 (pp. 56f., and fig., showing front and back, 
on p. 57; cf. Cat. Class. Coll., p. 114, fig. 72; it is from Cyprus), and 88 (fig. on p. 58; Mus. Bull., 
Dec., 1913, p. 270, Richter). No. 87 is 6.25 inches tall; 88 is 5.56 inches. 
