Asklepios was the god of medicine and healing, and his cult was popular throughout Classical and Hellenistic Greece, especially in Asia Minor and the Aegean islands.
This particular head was found on one of those islands, Melos. Its size suggests that it was part of a colossal sculpture, perhaps the cult statue in Asklepios’s sanctuary
Number:
326
Material:
Parian marble
Location of Original:
London, British Museum 550
Size:
0.58m
References:
Lippold: Griechische Plastik, 259 (n.3), pl. 95.2
Smith: Catalogue of British Museum Sculpture I (1892), 289-
Walston: Catalogue of Casts in the Museum of Classical Archaeology (1889), 90, no.488
Date:
325-300 BCE
Provenance:
Found in Melos in the shrine of Asklepios
