Croatian Apoxyomenos (detail) (The Scraper)
Unknown artist
4th century BC (original)
Statue of an athlete scraping himself or scraping his strigil,bronze and copper inlay
Dimensions height: 192 cm (75.5 in)
1996: discovered (Lošinj, Croatia)
Museum Riva lošinjskih kapetana Croatia.
The Croatian Apoxyomenos is one of the rare preserved Greek statues which used to adorn Greek temples and cities, especially their training grounds (gymnasion, palaistra). The statue was raised from the sea in the vicinity of the islet of Vele Orjule near Lošinj, in 1999. After comprehensive conservation work, which took all of six years, it was presented to the public in Zagreb in 2006, together with an extensive exhibition.
It represents an athlete – Apoxyomenos (‘the Scraper’) – in the act of scraping sweat and dust from his body with the small curved instrument called
It is the most complete and best preserved among eight known Apoxyomenos statues.
«La nobleza del hombre procede de la virtud, no del nacimiento: “valgo más que tú porque mi padre fue cónsul y además soy tribuno, y tú no eres nada”. Vanas palabras, amigo. Si fuésemos dos caballos y me dijeses: mi padre fue el más ligero de los caballos de su tiempo y yo tengo alfalfa y avena en abundancia y además soberbios arneses, te contestaría: lo creo, pero corramos juntos. ¿No hay, asimismo, en el hombre algo que le es propio –como al caballo la velocidad–, algo por lo cual se conoce su calidad y se estima su verdadero valer? Y este algo, ¿no es el pudor, la honradez y la justicia?… Muéstrame, pues, la ventaja que en todo esto me llevas, hazme ver que como hombre vales más que yo y te consideraré superior a mí. Porque si no me dices sino que sabes rebuznar y dar coces, te contestaré que te envaneces de cualidades propias de un asno o de un caballo, pero no de un hombre.»
Epicteto
NEFERTITI
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Nefertiti, whose name means «a beautiful woman has come,» was the queen of Egypt and wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten during the 14th century B.C.
Little is known about the origins of Nefertiti, some evidence suggests that she hailed from the town Akhmim and is the daughter or niece of a high official named Ay.
Other theories have suggested that she was born in a foreign country, possibly Syria.
The exact date when Nefertiti married the future pharaoh Amenhotep IV, is unknown.
It is generally believed she was 15 when they wed, which may have been before Amenhotep assumed the throne.
They had six daughters, with speculation that they may have also had a son.
Their daughter Ankhesenamun would eventually marry her half brother Tutankhamun, the future ruler of Egypt.
Nefertiti and her husband, established the cult of Aten, the sun god, which defined Aten, the sun, as the most important god and the only one worthy of worship in Egypt’s polytheistic canon.
Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten, to honor the deity. It is believed that the king and queen were priests and that it was only through them that ordinary citizens could obtain access to Aten.
The royal family resided in a constructed city called Akhetaton—in what is now known as el-Amarna—meant to honor their god. There were several open-air temples in the city, and at the center stood the palace.
Nefertiti was perhaps one of the most powerful women ever to have ruled.
Her husband went to great lengths to display her as an equal.
In several reliefs, she is shown wearing the crown of a pharaoh or smiting her enemies in battle.
Despite this great power, Nefertiti disappears from all depictions after 12 years.
The reason for her disappearance is unknown.
Some scholars believe she died, while others speculate she was elevated to the status of co-regent—equal in power to the pharaoh—and began to dress herself as a man.
Other theories suggest she became known as Pharaoh Smenkhkare, ruling Egypt after her husband’s death, or that she was exiled when the worship of the deity Amen-Ra came back.
Despite extensive searches, the tomb of Nefertiti has never been found.
Although, a recent discovery near KV62 in the Valley of the Kings could soon lead to a breakthrough.
If this is Nefertiti’s tomb, it would be an astounding archaeological discovery, and the most significant since find since Howard Carter’s 1922 uncovering of Tutankhamun.
