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A Note on Praxiteles' Sauroktonos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Extract

The only reference to the Sauroktonos by Praxiteles occurs in the writings of Pliny. Although much scholarly ink has flowed over virtually every square inch of the figure's languid body, no one (to my knowledge) has yet considered the activity of the left hand which is held directly above the ascending lizard in all three copies and on coins of Nikopolis and Philippopolis.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1973

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References

page 36 note 1 Pliny, , NH xxxiv. 6970Google Scholar; see also Mart. xiv. 172.Google Scholar

page 36 note 2 Marble statue in the RizzoLouvre, G. Louvre, G., Prassitele (Milan, 1932), pl. LXGoogle Scholar; marble statue in the AmelungVatican, W. Vatican, W., Die Sculpturen des vaticanischen Museums, ii (Berlin, 1903), pl. 49, fig. 264Google Scholar; bronze statue in the HelbigVilla Albani, W. Villa Albani, W., Führer, ii (Leipzig, 1913), 412Google Scholar; Richter, G. M. A., The Sculpture and Sculptors of the Greeks (New Haven and London, 1970), fig. 722.Google Scholar

page 36 note 3 Rizzo, op. cit. pl. LXII; Lacroix, L., Les Reproductions de statues sur les monnaies grecques (Liège, 1949), pl. xxviiCrossRefGoogle Scholar, figs. 7, 8; Pick, B., Die antiken Münzen Nord-Griechenlands (Berlin, 1898), pl. xiv, figs. 34, 35.Google Scholar

page 37 note 1 This is supported by Aelian's implication (NA v. 47) that the lizard must be captured before it is pierced.