Commentary Prepared by Dr. Julia Lenaghan, Ashmolean Museum

A 030
Head of a Warrior from the West Pediment of the Temple of Aphaia at Aigina. Munich

Marble
Pedimental Figure

From Aigina. Found at the Temple of Aphaia, in the front of the west side near the northern end.
Germany, Munich, Glyptothek, 75 (number corresponds to the statue with which the head was originally thought to belong)
ca. 490-480 BC

Preservation:
The head is broken through the neck under the chin. The break rises higher on the left side. The tip of the nose is broken as is a portion of the helmet under the right eye hole. The crest of the helmet is preserved separately. The left side of the face is more weathered than the right side.

Description:
The head depicts a beardless male who wears a helmet that could be called Corinthian. It has a connected opening for the eyes, the nose, and the lower face. It is pushed back off the face and, thus, reveals a short layered fringe and long hair rolled under a cord. The helmet sits so that the lower border of the cheek guard touches the front fringe hair. The eye holes rest almost as far back as the crown and the lower edges of the ear holes touch the tops of the ears. The dome of the helmet extends back behind the head. A series of ten holes for metal attachments run around the ridge where the dome connects to the lower part of the helmet. Running down the center of the top of the helmet is a smooth band which features a rectangular hole near the back of the head. A crest made of marble was attached here. A cord, tied around the head, appears over the ears which it touches and across the front of the head between the two cheek guards of the helmet. A section of the cord over and behind the ear is concealed by hair which is wrapped around it. Beneath the helmet at the back of the head the hair is combed upwards. This indicates that the hair of the back of the head was long and obviously looped around the cord. The hair between the ears over the brow frames the face in a harmonious arch and appears visually in two layers. The upper layer is rendered in thick parallel wavy strands which fall from the crown of the head and pass under the cord. These locks end abruptly and below them in a continuous band from ear to ear are small snail curls. The locks directly in front of the ear in contrast to the others show the upper wavy lock continuing into the snail curl. Whether the snail curls are intended as the ends of the wavy locks elsewhere over the brow is not clear. In frontal view the head has a broad oval shape. The brow is low. The eyes are wide set and the chin is broad. The cheeks do, however, taper slightly. The short brow slopes outward and the nose continues this forward projection. The high arch of the eyebrow cuts into the brow. There is a smooth flat space between the eyebrow and the upper lid which also follows a high arch and projects. The lower lid, beginning at the inner corner, rises slightly to form the tear duct and then commences its downward arch. The cheeks below the eyes protrude. The nose is straight without a dip at the bridge. The corners of the mouth are tucked into the cheeks and are raised. The lower lip has a downward arch that becomes pointed at the center. The line of the upper lip rises, falls, rises, and falls. This gives it a central dip. The edges of both lips are sharp. Below the mouth, the chin projects pronouncedly forward.

Discussion:
For a full discussion of the history, both ancient and modern, of the sculpture from the four pediments of the Temple of Aphaia at Aigina, see the discussion of the central figure of Athena from the West Pediment (cat. A 29). This head, found in front of the west side of the Temple, almost certainly belongs to the West pediment which features the story of the second Trojan War. The head had originally been thought to belong to a fallen figure (cat. A 28) located on the left side of the pediment. Furtwängler, however, pointed out that this was impossible given the shape of the crest of the helmet which fits this head. The front portion of the top of this crest is flat and the flat area is not entirely rectangular but has a slanted back edge. This flattened portion, Furtwängler astutely pointed out, was where the head touched the slanting roof of the pediment. Because of the shape of the crest’s smooth surface and the fact that the left side of the face is more eroded, Furtwängler concluded that the left side of the face faced outward and that the head actually turned gently to its left. He thought that head belonged on the further of the two warriors directly to Athena’s left. This head would have belonged to the figure who was fighting against a warrior lunging to the left (cat. A 163). In Ohly’s most recent restoration, the head is connected to the second of the pair of warriors directly to Athena’s left. The conjectured stance of the warrior, however, has changed and it is now seen as retreating. The face and the hair of the head stylistically belong to the Late Archaic period. Very similar faces and hairstyles can be seen on such kouroi as the “Strangford Kouros” (cat. B 27) and the kouros from the Temple of Apollo Ptoon (cat. B 24). Also the figure of Theseus from the pediment of the Temple of Apollo at Eretria wears the same hairstyle, though its face is squarer with more stylized features. The Aigenetan head from the West Pediment has a rounder more natural appearance than the heads presumed to belong to the earlier pediments (cat. A 40) of the Temple of Aphaia. In addition, it wears a different type of helmet, one in which the opening for the face is considerably larger and includes the mouth, than the heads from the earlier pediments.

Bibliography:
A. Furtwängler, Beschreibung der Glyptothek König Ludwig's I zu München (Munich 1900) p.96 catalogue entry that assumes the head belongs on Glyptothek no.75
A. Furtwängler, Aigina. Die Heiligtum der Aphaia (Munich 1906) p.219 no.K discusses the importance of the crest of the helmet for understanding the position of the figure within the pediment
D. Ohly, Glyptothek Munchen: Griechische und romische Skulpturen (Munich 1972) p.62 no.III considers the head to belong to a figure who steps backward