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Apellas

Apellas was a sculptor of ancient Greece who made, in bronze, statues of worshipping women. He made the statue of Cynisca, who conquered in the chariot race at Olympia. Cynisca was sister to Agesilaus II, king of Sparta, who died at the age of 84, in 362 BCE. Therefore, the victory of Cynisca, and the time when Apellas flourished, may be placed about 400. His name indicates his Doric origin.

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Apellas (Ancient Greek: Ἀπελλᾶς) was a sculptor of ancient Greece who made, in bronze, statues of worshipping women (ad orantes feminas).1 He made the statue of Cynisca, who conquered in the chariot race at Olympia.2 Cynisca was sister to Agesilaus II, king of Sparta, who died at the age of 84, in 362 BCE. Therefore, the victory of Cynisca, and the time when Apellas flourished, may be placed about 400. His name indicates his Doric origin.3

His father Callicles and his grandfather Theocosmus were also sculptors.4

The writer Diogenes Laërtius mentions a different man with this name, a sceptic philosopher with the name Apellas, about whom nothing else is known.5

Notes

Notes

  1. Pliny the Elder, Natural History 34.19.26
  2. Pausanias, Description of Greece 6.1.2
  3. Tölken, Amalthea, iii. p. 128
  4. Pausanias, 6.7.2
  5. Diogenes Laërtius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers 9.106

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, Philip (1870). "Apellas". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. p. 221.