It used to be thought that all kouroi were representations of the god Apollo, hence the name. Thanks to findspots in temples or inscriptions some clearly were, but others were simply grave markers, which may be the case here. A realistic portrait of the deceased was not intended, rather an ideal representation of the virtues and values of the dead: youthful beauty, athleticism and aristocratic bearing.
Although this example is very close to the end of the Achaic period, when the formulaic kouros was the universal standard male form, he wears his hair long in the Archaic manner, braided at the back and in a solid band of uniform curls at the front
London British Museum 475
Purchased in 1884 from Brucciani
Lippold: Griechische Plastik, 90 (n.2)
Richter: Kouroi, no.134
Pryce: Catalogue of Sculpture; British Museum I (1928), 204, pl. 43
Reporter: 19 June 1885, 891, no.17
Walston: Catalogue of Casts in the Museum of Classical Archaeology (1889), 10, no.18
Burn: Greek and Roman Art (1991), 57
Said to have been found on the island of Anaphe in the Aegean Sea
