Discovered by Sponge Divers
In 1900, a team of Greek sponge divers taking shelter from a storm off the coast of the island of Antikythera discovered the wreck of a Roman-era cargo ship. Lying on the seafloor at a depth of 42-52 meters were the fragmented remains of its cargo, which included a spectacular, over-life-sized bronze statue. The find was the first major ancient shipwreck to be investigated by archaeologists, opening a new chapter in underwater exploration. The statue, now known as the Antikythera Youth, was recovered in several pieces, heavily corroded and encrusted after nearly two millennia beneath the sea.
The statue stands at 1.96 meters (about 6 feet 5 inches) tall and is dated to approximately 340–330 BC. This means the sculpture was already an antique, almost three hundred years old, when the ship carrying it sank around 70–60 BC. The Youth was created using the lost-wax method, hollow-cast in separate pieces that were later expertly joined. Chemical analysis of the metal shows it to be a copper and tin alloy, with no traces of the lead that became common in bronzes of the later Hellenistic period. After its discovery, the statue underwent an initial restoration, followed by a more extensive one in the 1950s that reattached its right arm and corrected its posture and gaze.
An Unsolved Identity
The identity of the Antikythera Youth is a subject of scholarly debate. The figure is depicted in a contrapposto stance, a classic pose where the body’s weight is shifted onto one leg. The right arm is extended, and the hand once held a spherical object, now lost to the sea. This single missing item is the clue to the statue's identity, and several theories have emerged.
One popular interpretation is that the statue represents Paris, the Trojan prince, holding the Apple of Discord, which he was to award to the most beautiful goddess. The sculptor Euphranor is known to have created a famous bronze of Paris, and some scholars attribute the Youth to him or his school, based on the figure's muscular and graceful build. Another theory suggests the figure is the hero Perseus, holding the severed head of Medusa. A third possibility is that this is a depiction of a youthful, beardless Heracles with one of the golden Apples of the Hesperides. The statue's style shows influences from the school of the High Classical sculptor Polykleitos, particularly in the muscular torso, but its smaller head and more dynamic pose are characteristic of Late Classical artists like Praxiteles or Lysippos. Without more evidence, the true subject of this bronze masterpiece is a mystery.