The Statue of Apollon Rheginos in the Archaeological Museum of Reggio Calabria

The only scientific study related to the "Kouros of Reggio", exhibited at the Archaeological Museum of Reggio Calabria, is the one made by Elena Lattanzi in 2001. The kouros is a very important and still too little famous artistic masterpiece, placed on the border between the archaic period and the classic one. It is a marble statue of the Greek island of Paros, known in antiquity for its quality, depicting a young beardless, with a rich and complex hairstyle. Although the surface of the work does not show signs due to erosion and the action of atmospheric agents, the sculpture is mutilated of the right forearm, of almost the entire left arm and of both legs, from the knees downwards. The paper will analyze the style of the statue and will use comparisons to understand the cultural area of the sculptor. Applying the new techniques of iconographic analysis, we will try to decode the message entrusted by the ancient artist and his clients to the language of images. Based on a philological reading of the statue and using the evidence relating to the discovery of the same, I will try to show that the work represents an Apollo, gift of the tyrant Anaxilaos to the polis of Rhegion immediately after 494 BC. The expulsion of the tyrants in 461 BC, which made the cult statue hateful for the local population, caused its burial.