Discophoros
130 - 140.Room 073
This work is a Roman copy of the Discophoros ("the discus-bearer)", the first creation of the sculptor Polyclitus (active 460-420 B. C.). As is typical of Polyclitus’s art, the modelling of the body is clearly defined by the tense muscles and by the movement caused by his posture. The head, not preserved, was a little tilted and looked at an object he held in his right hand. In the best-known copy it is a discus, although in the Greek original it could have been a sword. If so it would have represented Theseus contemplating the weapon of his father, Aegeus.
