A Bronze Statuette of Heracles

Abstract

The statuette described below has been kept for a long time as an heirloom in the family of the present possessor, Dr. E. C. Despotes.¹ The exact place of its discovery is unknown, but it is reported to have been found in a field near the ancient site of Dodona, and its style certainly points to Epirus. The piece is cast in bronze, solid all the way through, and is almost completely preserved. Only the object held in the raised right hand and a part of the object grasped in the left are missing. Scars on the forehead and over the nose, on the left corner of the mouth and on the left arm, and small scratches on the left shoulder and left thigh are the only blemishes that the surface of the figure has incurred in the centuries since its casting. It was evidently cleaned without the use of chemicals, and it is covered with a very thin coat of patina, of a bluish-green hue. The metallurgist's tests have proved that a good quantity of oxide is present in the body of the metal and that the corrosion has been very gradual and slow, both indispensable characteristics of ancient bronzes.