Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-75dct Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T18:24:49.064Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Type of the Crouching Child and the ‘Temple Boys’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Theodora Hadzisteliou-Price
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Statuettes of children crouching on the floor with one knee bent up or both legs folded have been found in many parts of Greece, in sanctuaries, graves, and living quarters. In the course of a study of the cult of the Greek Kourotrophos there arose the problem of their typology and interpretation, as such statuettes are common finds in the sanctuaries of deities concerned with child-care. Before one can come to any speculations about their meaning and use, the type must be examined; its origin, distribution, and variations.

The crouching posture is not uncommon in eastern, especially Egyptian art. Child-Horus, crouching on the lotus, appears in Egyptianizing Phoenician ivories from the early first millennium B.C. Faience pendants of a squatting child, dated c. 900 B.C., were excavated in tombs in Lachish. Most interesting for this study is the small faience statuette of a crouching boy from an Egyptian grave, now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Plate 20, 1). It is exactly in the posture that the Greek examples appear in: one knee bent up, the other on the floor; it has its finger on its mouth and bears the side-curl of youth. A real child is represented. This is also the case with three statuettes in the British Museum, one in copper and two in ivory, the latter inscribed with the names and titles of the owners. They too come from graves. All are dated around the beginning of the second millennium B.C. by a statuette of the same type coming from the tomb of the Pharaoh Pepi II. It is interesting to know that this posture and the hand on the mouth, as well as the nudity, are significant of young age in Egypt, since the hieroglyph for youth is a naked figure in this posture.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 64 , November 1969 , pp. 95 - 111
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1969

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Smith, W. S., The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt (1965) pl. I B, predynasticGoogle Scholar; Woldering, I., Egypt (1963) 211Google Scholar, fig. 72, Twenty-fifth Dynasty.

2 Cf. Crowfoot, , The Early Ivories from Samaria (London, 1938) 51 ff., pl. 1.Google Scholar

3 Lachish iii, pl. 34, 5 and 22 from burial 107 and tomb 218.

4 No. E. 2199, Egyptian section. Cf. Garstang, , El Arabah 6, pl. 4, above, centre, grave 303.Google Scholar

5 JEA xvii (1931) 98: Glanville, R. K., An unusual type of Statuette pl. 12, 1–9.Google Scholar Also Roeder, G., Ägypt. Bronzefiguren (Berlin, 1956) 115, Abb. 152.Google Scholar

6 From early Middle Kingdom; cf. JEA op. cit. (supra, n. 5), loc. cit. Jequier, G., Annales du Service des Antiquités de l'Egypte, xxvii (1927) 60, pl. 5.Google Scholar

7 JEA loc. cit.

8 Pendlebury, , Aegyptiaka (1930) 33, pl. IIIGoogle Scholar; Demargne, P., Aegean Art (1964), 160, fig. 216, c.Google Scholar 1500 B.C. Pendlebury dated it in the early second millennium (twelfth Dynasty) comparing it with the statuettes in the British Museum. However, since there are no strong stylistic arguments it is more probable that it does not much antedate its L.M. III context.

9 Mollard-Besques, , Figurines du Louvre i (1963) B 238–henceforth quoted as M.-Besques i.Google Scholar

10 Lindos i, 339, pl. 53, especially nos. 1220, 1223. It is significant that the crouching type appears early in Rhodes where many Egyptian imports have been excavated in archaic contexts: e.g. Clara Rhodos iv. 312, fig. 346; ibid., vi–vii, 279 f.

11 Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, no. 1962.314.

12 G. Roeder, op. cit. (supra, n. 5) 310, para. 388d–e, pls. 46d, 81e; cf. Type V, 2.

13 Ibid. 310, para. 388c.

14 Boardman, J., ‘Archaic Finger Rings’, Ant. Kunst 1967, 16 ff.Google Scholar

15 Pryce, F. N., BMC Sculpture, 1. iiGoogle Scholar, C 226. H. 71 cm., c. 520 B.C.

16 Lindos i, 575, under no. 2372.

17 MA I, 817; context late B.F. lekythoi with palmettes only.

18 Cf. infra, Type I, 1a and 2.

19 Neugebauer, K. A., Die griech. Bronzen der klassischen Zeit und des Hellenismus (Antiq. Berlin, ii. Berlin, 1951) 41, under no. 31Google Scholar: ‘Das Motiv des Sitzens auf dem Boden…. in der gr. Kunst findet es sich nur an Wesen niedrigen Ranges vor allem Sklaven.’ For the origin of the type he quotes the wrong hieroglyphs (p. 42 n. 1); instead he should have referred for the posture to hierogl. fig. 162, in Griffith, , Egypt Exploration Fund viGoogle Scholar, and its variations.

20 Corinth xv. ii. 115, pl. 23, Class XVI, no. 1.

21 Corinth xv. ii, Class XVI; Corinth xii, nos. 191, 192; Corinth xiv. 140, pls. 54, 55; Hesperia 1947, pl. lxvi, 33. Moulds KH 61, 62 from the Terracotta Factory; Cor. Neg. 4017 (unpublished) from the Potters' Quarter, similar to the last

22 Clara Rhodos iv, Sep. 188, 3.

23 Breitenstein, N. J., Cat. of Greek and Roman Terracottas in the Danish Nat. Mus. (Copenhagen, 1941)Google Scholar no. 309—henceforth quoted as Breitenstein—where further bibliography; Higgins, , BMC (1954) nos. 257–60Google Scholar—henceforth quoted as Higgins i.

24 Studien zur archäisch-griechischen Tonbildnerei in Kreta, Rhodos, Athen und Böotien (1937) 138 ff., 161 ff.

25 Higgins i nos. 257, 568, 1156–9.

26 Q. von Ufford, , Terres cuites siciliennes (Assen, 1941) 47, from AgrigentoGoogle Scholar; also Civic Museum, Agrigento, Room II, Case 28, example from the Sanctuary of the Chthonic Deities; von Stradonitz, Kekule, Terrakotten von Sicilien 19, fig. 41Google Scholar; an example from the Artemision in Belvedere of Syracuse (Plate 22, 20); several from Gela and Selinus are in the Archaeological Museums of Gela and Palermo; Jacobsen, , Ny-Carlsberg Glypt., nos. 84–8 and 94–6Google Scholar from Taranto; Naples, Nat. Mus. nos. 112778 from Nola, 20361 20361 from Egnazia, with dog; Christ, , München Konigl. Antiquar. Fuhrer 22, no. 841.Google ScholarAtti e Mem. Soc. Magna Grecia, 1961: Lissi, E., La Collezione Scaglione a Locri, 96, no. 109 pl. xl, from Locri.Google Scholar

27 Many examples from a votive deposit are unpublished, in the Museum of Ayios Nikolaos, East Crete; cf. infra, n. 44.

28 For further distribution cf. Winter, , Die Typen der figurlichen Terrakotten (Berlin, 1903) vol. ii, pls. 266–75Google Scholar—henceforth quoted as Winter i or ii.

29 Lullies-Hirmer, , Greek Sculpture (1960) pl. 113.Google Scholar

30 Ohnefalsch-Richter, , Kypros, the Bible and Homer (Berlin, 1893) 206Google Scholar—henceforth quoted as KBH: ‘The crouching attitude, like thenecklace worn by the boys, was of the highest sacred importance. The art type accordingly penetrated into the countries of the Mediterranean along with the mythos (of Adonis).’ Also SCE iv. 3, 108, under group 3: ‘It is interesting to see the temple-boys, which may be considered as a typical Cypriot type of sculpture, displaying many features which can be recognized as survivals from older Cypriot styles.’

31 Pryce, F. N., BMC Sculpture 1. ii (1931) 64Google Scholar, Type 18, C 160–72, figs. 101–7—henceforth quoted as Pryce; SCE iv. 3, 108; Cesnola, , Atlas ii pls. 36, 44.Google Scholar

32 Winter ii. 266, 2.

33 Bieber, M., Hellenistic Sculpture (1961) fig. 542.Google Scholar

34 Van Hoorn, , Choes and Anthesteria (1951) fig. 460.Google Scholar

35 Klein, A., Child Life in Ancient Art (1932) pl. xi B.Google Scholar I am indebted to Dr. J. R. Green, who kindly showed me a part from his forthcoming article on choes of the late fifth century B.C., where he quotes the following examples of crouching children in frontal view depicted on choes: Athens, N.M. 1672 and 2544 (Heydemann, pl. 12, 7); Athens, Agora P. 16917 (Van Hoorn, fig. 293); Boston 02.40 (Van Hoorn, fig. 482); Harvard Univ., Fogg Museum 60.356 (Van Hoorn, fig. 479); Heidelberg K 41 (Van Hoorn, fig. 291); Leningrad St. 1541 (Van Hoorn, fig. 480).

36 Cf. supra text and nn. 26, 28.

37 Winter i. 125, 8. Cf. Winter i. 125, 10 from Tanagra.

38 Vatican, Museo Etrusco, nos. 12107–8. Lamb, W., Greek and Roman Bronzes (London, 1929) 208, pl. lxxvi.Google Scholar G. Richter, Ancient Italy fig. 107. della Seta, A., Italia antica (1921) fig. 243Google Scholar, with dove. Poulsen, F., Cat. der Etr. Mus., Ny-Carlsberg Glypt. 6, no. 10Google Scholar, nude with cap.

39 Bianchi-Bandinelli, in La critica d'arte i. 90 n. 2 where also bibliography.Google Scholar

40 Cf. supra, n. 39.

41 Naples, Nat. Mus. no. 6110 in marble with dove. Scavi di Ostia, I ritratti, I (1964) 68 f., no. 108, pl. lxiii, Trajanic, unknown provenience. The statuette from Roman Gaul: Espérandieu, E., Bas-reliefs, statues et bustes de la Gaule romaine (L'Académie des Inscr. et Belles-Lettres, Paris, 1966) no. 9145, 1–2, pl. lxxxv)Google Scholar, described as ‘personnage grotesque nu et accroupi’, is probably a degenerate provincial reproduction of the crouching type, as also is the Hellenistic example from Gela (Manfria), exhibited in the local museum.

42 Edgar, M. C. C., Cat. général des antiq. égypt. du Mus. du Caire viii, Greek Moulds (1903), plaster mould no. 32043, Hellenistic DionysosGoogle Scholar; no. 32064, Harpokrates with cornucopiae. Bissing, F. W., Ägyptische Kunstgeschichte (Berlin, 1934–1938) 133.Google ScholarWeber, , Ägyptisch-griechische Terrakotten in Berlin (Berlin, 1914) ii, 54 f.Google Scholar ‘Horus’, pl. 6, 7.

43 Edgar, op. cit. (supra, n. 42) no. 32360.

44 Kretika Chronika 14 (1960) 512.

45 H. Jucker, op. cit. (supra under Type II, 3c) fig. 102: Saitic statuette. Cf. also Roeder, op. cit. (supra, n. 5) pls. 17–18, crouching Harpokrates-Horus with attributes.

46 Heibig, W., Führer durch die öffentl. Samml. in Rom (1961) 290, no. 379.Google Scholar

47 Boston, Mus. of Fine Art: group of Penmeru with family, Giza, c. 2500 B.C.; Smith, W. S., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: Ancient Egypt (1960)Google Scholar, fig. 29.

48 Cf. supra, n. 31. Also KBH pl. 92, 2–3, 4, 7, from Idalion, temple of Aphrodite; Dikaios, P., Guide to the Nicosia Museum (1961) 103Google Scholar, no. 35, from Lefkoniko; Cesnola, , Atlas i pl. 130, nos. 937–44, 949–55, Pls. 131, 132Google Scholar; Myres, J. L., Handb. to Cesnola Coll. (N.Y., 1914) 129 fGoogle Scholar; id., Cat. Cyprus M. (Oxford, 1899) no, nos. 3151–7; Westholm, OpAth 2 (1955) 75–7.Google Scholar

49 Westholm, op. cit. (supra, n. 48) 75.

50 Pryce, loc. cit. (supra, n. 31).

51 Representations of negroes appear in Greek art already in the archaic period: Beazley, J., Devel. of ABF (1951) pl. 30Google Scholar; E. Buschor, Das Krokodil des Sotades (plastic vases); Hesperia Suppl. vii. 1943, 124 f. Hesperia 1952, no. 48, pl. 39, ithyphallic figure crouching by a Herm, does not belong to this group (‘the group had a Dionysiac connection’), but to that of the Crouching Silenos type. Hausmann, U., Hellenistische Neger, AM 1962, 255 ff.Google Scholar Also Neugebauer, loc. cit. (supra, n. 19).

52 Cf. supra, nn. 10, 16 f. Lindos i. 7, 46, 53 f. pls. 111 f. fifth century B.C. from the Big Deposit, and later from the Small Deposit.

53 Clara Rhodos i. 100, fig. 82.

54 Newton, , Halikarnassos 11, ii. 328, pl. 60, fig. 11.Google Scholar

55 Boehlau-Schefold, , Larisa am Hermos (1942) iii pl. 9, 25–8.Google Scholar

56 AE 1907, 78 ff. pls. 1–2; Reinach, S., Répert. de la statuaire (Paris, 1906–1930) v. 192, 1Google Scholar; Baur, P.V.C., Eileithyia (English ed. Chicago, 1902) 48Google Scholar; Furtwängler, in AM 3, 197Google Scholar for the inscribed column with the epithet of the deity. Here Type VII.

57 Thompson, D. Burr in AJA 1966, 59.Google Scholar Also examples from Eleusis, the Athenian Acropolis and the Thesmophorion.

58 von Gaertringen, Hiller, Stadtgeschichte von Thera (Berlin, 1904) 58, fig. 43.Google Scholar

59 Baur, op. cit. (supra, n. 56) 18.

60 Cf. supra under Type I, 2.

61 Cf. supra, n. 21, and Plate 21, 9–10, 12.

62 Arvanitopoulos, A. S., Αἱ γραπταὶ στῆλαι τῶν Παγασῶν (1928) 45 ff.Google Scholar, figs. 54, 8 and 55, 7.

63 AE 1909, 170 f.

64 AE 1909, 133, 178; 1917, 78–104; Svoronos, , Τὸ ἐν Ἀθήναις Ἐθνικὸν Μουοσεϊον 294–324.Google Scholar

65 5 AE 1909, 157, 163, figs. 13–14.

66 Cf. supra, n. 48.

67 Cesnola, , Atlas i, pl. 130, nos. 1945–8Google Scholar, and pl. 137.

68 Dikaios, op. cit. (supra, n. 48), 218 f.

69 KBH 10, no. 5.

70 Cesnola, , Atlas i, pl. 130, nos. 937–44, 949–55Google Scholar; pls. 131–2, nos. 981–7.

71 Myres, Handbook, loc. cit. (supra, n. 48).

72 AE 1909, 244 f., 250, pl. 8.

73 Cf. supra, Type VI.

74 MA i. 817, Sep. 23, from Megara Hyblaea; ibid. ix. 261, Sep. 19, and Sep. 36 from Camarina; ADelt 1961–2, Chronika 300, pl. 359a, fourth century B.C., from Chania, Crete. Cf. also infra, nn. 80, and 104–10. A classical example from Eleusis, Cemetery towards Megara, Tomb B17, no. 8.

75 Cf. infra, n. 104. Also Olynthos vii, nos. 279–87 and p. 114 where bibliography.

76 de Ridder, A., Cat. Coll. De Clercq (Paris, 1885–1911) v, 56 ff.Google Scholar Also supra, Types II, 3b and VI, 3. For Attic: BCH 76 (1953) 24–5; Baudat, B., Terres cuites de l'École française d'Athènes, no. 21, pl. xix.Google Scholar Interpretation unfounded.

77 Platon, N. in Kret. Chron. 11 (1957) 336–7Google Scholar for the examples from the Asklepieion at Lissos (province of Selinos, Crete). In ibid. 12 (1958) 465–7 many votives of boys, youths, and girls are mentioned. They are unpublished in the Museum at Chania.

78 Fouilles de Delphes v. 205, no. 673, fig. 898.

79 Myres, , Handbook (supra, n. 48) 187Google Scholar, nos. 2302–18.

80 Clara Rhodos viii. 187, Sep. 78 (Ialysos), figs. 185–6; p. 18, interpretation.

81 Westholm, loc. cit. (supra, n. 48).

82 Pryce, 93 f.

83 Sjökvist, E., AJA lix (1955)Google Scholar, ‘A Cypriot Temple Attendant’.

84 A chain worn over the shoulder across the chest is painted on some figurines found in tombs at Argos (cf. under Type II, 1a, ii. A string of amulets was worn by some children depicted on Attic choes (cf. supra, n. 35).

85 Cf. Types II, 3b, and III.

86 Gladys, G. M. N., The Asiatic Dionysos (1914) 233.Google Scholar

87 Perrot-Chipiez iii. 458, fig. 327.

88 AE 1909, 138, fig. 8, 6.

89 AE 1909, 165.

90 AE 1909, 162–3, figs. 12–13.

91 AE 1909, 164.

92 AE 1909, 166–7; 1917, 87 f. pl. 2b.

93 AE 1909, 157.

94 AE 1909, 167, n. 4.

95 AE 1909, 159, fig. 11.

96 KBH under ‘Adonis and the Gods of vegetation’; Cesnola, , Atlas i, pl. 130.Google Scholar

97 Myres, , Handbook 186 f.Google Scholar

98 Cf. supra, n. 35.

99 Cf. supra, n. 48, Westholm.

100 Cf. supra, n. 83.

101 Pryce, type 21; AJA 1956, 171 f. Bieber demonstrates that the cap was worn by warriors, and that this is also the case in the Boscoreale fresco. Thompson, D. B. (Troy Suppl. iii (1963) 53–5, 84–6, no. 148)Google Scholar adds more examples and suggests an oriental origin of the cap, whose type was eventually widespread.

102 Pryce, type 18, C 170.

103 Cf. supra, n. 74.

104 Olynthos xiv, nos. 275–9, 282, 360; iv, no. 417, pl. 59; made locally.

105 Clara Rhodos iv 148, tomb 54, fig. 144.

106 Clara Rhodos iv, tomb 63.

107 Clara Rhodos iv, tomb 66, fig. 164. A similar example comes from Agrigento: Winter ii. 266, 5.

108 Clara Rhodos iv, tomb 104, p. 210 where bibliography, fig. 222.

109 Clara Rhodos iv 211, fig. 222.

110 Clara Rhodos iv 334, tomb 188, fig. 370.

111 Cf. Wiesner, , Grab und Jenseits (Berlin, 1938) 159 ff.Google Scholar, 161, for the offer of statuettes as substitutes.

112 Clara Rhodos iv 263, fig. 287, tomb 132.

113 The author interpreted them as ‘apotropaic genii’, for which, however, there is no evidence. Cf. supra, n. 80.

114 Cf. supra, n. 35.

115 As the one in the Ostia Museum, of unknown provenience, supra, n. 41.

116 This article grew out of an appendix to my doctoral thesis on the Greek Kourotrophos, under Professor C. M. Robertson, Oxford. I am grateful to him for his advice and encouragement. For other help I must thank Messrs. John Boardman, P. R. S. Moorey, W. Hodges, and Dr. J. R. Green. For photographs and permissions I am indebted to Dr. Paola Pelagatti, Miss H. von Raits, and the American School of Classical Studies at Corinth, Doctors R. W. Hamilton, H. W. Catling, Professors L. Bernabo-Brea, P. Orlandini, C. Drago, N. Platon, A. Cambitoglou, Doctors St. Alexiou, Dem. Lazarides, A. Oliver, Jr., the French School of Archaeology at Athens, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.