Votive Statuette of a Male Youth

Standing frontally with his arms raised to hold now-lost offerings in his outstretched hands (the left one now missing), this nude kouros (youth) served as a votive offering to the god Apollo. An inscription on the rectangular base names the dedicator as a man called Hyamos. Two holes in the base served to fasten the statuette as an offering.

The figure's long hair, tied with a diadem, falls in six strands at the back and four over his chest. The musculature is finely detailed, especially in the chest and abdomen, and the long nose, prominent chin, and outlined eyes, are all stylistic features suggesting an origin in a workshop in Lakonia (the region of Sparta). The letter forms of the inscription are also distinctively Lakonian.