Re: Cleobis and Biton

Upon closer reading of my notes, I see that the inscription does not name
them. My bad. We really want them to be Cleobis and Biton (thanks,
Herodotus and Pausanias for making romantics out of us all!), but they
needn't be at all. Right?

A student tried to argue that the placement of their hands represented
their action of pulling the cart with their mother. Unfortunately the
wikipedia page (otherwise pretty good, I think) further suggests that their
musculature is related to the strength they must have had to fulfill their
mission. I think this is all backwards - interpreting typical stylistic
elements of archaic kouroi to match characters in this particular story.
Right? Sort of a reverse-engineered analysis.

Janice Siegel
Hampden-Sydney College
Associate Professor of Classics
Dr. J's Illustrated Guide to the Classical World:
https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fpeople.hsc.edu%2Fdrjclassics%2F&data=02%7C01%7CCLASSICS-L%40lsv.uky.edu%7Cb15f99cf27e14a1311e508d6990393d1%7C2b30530b69b64457b818481cb53d42ae%7C0%7C1%7C636864637984857917&sdata=jVfJsoH45UouBYFi%2F2%2BfSiJk5ObOKRnJG17mbsQsoeI%3D&reserved=0


On Fri, Feb 22, 2019 at 2:51 PM Janice Siegel <[email protected]> wrote:

> Can someone get me up to speed on the attribution of the kouroi found in
> Delphi? In my notes from my American School travels I wrote that there was
> an inscription identifying them as Cleobis and Biton. But I also wrote the
> enigmatic note: "Could they be the Dioscuri?" Is there cause to doubt the
> inscription?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Janice Siegel
> Hampden-Sydney College
> Associate Professor of Classics
> Dr. J's Illustrated Guide to the Classical World:
> https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fpeople.hsc.edu%2Fdrjclassics%2F&amp;data=02%7C01%7CCLASSICS-L%40lsv.uky.edu%7Cb15f99cf27e14a1311e508d6990393d1%7C2b30530b69b64457b818481cb53d42ae%7C0%7C1%7C636864637984857917&amp;sdata=jVfJsoH45UouBYFi%2F2%2BfSiJk5ObOKRnJG17mbsQsoeI%3D&amp;reserved=0
>