New from Research on the Riace Bronzes

In recent years, research on the Riace Bronzes has yielded fascinating insights that remain largely unfamiliar to the international scholarly community. Collaboration with Greek archaeologists Ch. Piteròs and K.Tziampasis has enabled the key findings like that of a bronze statue unearthed in excavations at Argos, and special studies like the reconstruction of the helmet crest on Bronze B’s head. The Argos discovery of a statue, which is similar in size and construction technique to the Riace Warriors and is made from the same casting material, prompt that it might have belonged to the same sculptural group. New investigations into Bronze B have revealed the evidence of two pins at the top of the head for securing a helmet, markings at the nape for attaching a headband, and signs of a fastening gear around the neck of the statue, confirming the presence of the korinthie kynê on it — a symbol of absolute power. Collaborative work also led to the discovery of a base, still in situ, in the Agora of Argos, showing clear impressions of footprints and a hole designed to fix the spear and matching the Bronze A, which proves that the statue originated in that city. The search for ancient copies of the Riace Warriors has led to the identification of a Roman-origin 30 cm bronze statuette found in Rome in 1906, and now housed in an American museum in Connecticut, that reproduces the features of Bronze A, providing further evidence of the Bronzes’ transportation and display in Rome and representing the earliest known ancient copy of Bronze A. The study of the iconography of Polynices and Eteocles, as depicted in the Riace Bronzes, has resulted in the recognition of the scene on an Etruscan sarcophagus in the Copenhagen Museum portraying the episode of the two brothers shaking hands in a pact to alternate ruling Thebes for one year each. However, behind them stand two demons, signaling that the pact is cursed and will be broken by Eteocles. The art-piece is recognized as the earliest depiction of the fraudulent pact between the sons of Oedipus.