A standing male figure from Boeotia, a region of Greece to the north west of Athens but separated by a mountain range. There was an important temple and sanctuary there of Apollo Ptoios, an epithet derived from the name of the mountain, where the sanctuary was located and this sculpture was found.
A fragmentary inscription on the left thigh records that Pythias dedicated the kouros to the god ‘with the silver bow’, that is, Apollo. While the pose is still strictly frontal, the portrayal of the anatomy is naturalistic: there is a slight twist of the torso to the leading leg, and the weight is taken on the back leg
Athens National Museum 20
Purchased in 1930
Lippold: Griechische Plastik, 85 (n.12)
Richter: Kouroi, no.131 (no.155 in the 1970 third edition)
Buschor: Frühgriechische Jünglinge, 122, figs.139-141
Papaspiridi: Guide du Musée Nationale d’Athènes (1927), 28-
Richter Kouroi (2) , no. 155
Holleaux: Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique XI (1887), 287
Inscription: BCH 11 (1887), 287
Pythias of Akraiphia and Aischrion dedicated me to the Ptoan … of the silver bow
Found in the Sanctuary of Apollo Ptoos in Boeotia
