Editing Agoracritus

{{Short description|5th-century BC Greek sculptor}}
'''Agoracritus''' {{IPAc-en|ˌ|æ|ɡ|ə|ˈ|r|æ|k|r|ᵻ|t|ə|s}} ({{langx|grc|Ἀγοράκριτος}} ''Agorákritos''; [[floruit|fl.]] late 5th century BC) was a famous sculptor in [[ancient Greece]].<ref name="DGRBM">{{Citation  | last = Mason  | first = Charles Peter | contribution = Agoracritus  | editor-last = Smith  | editor-first = William  | title = [[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]]  | volume = 1  | pages = 75  | publisher = [[Little, Brown and Company]]  | place = Boston  | year = 1867  | contribution-url = http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0084.html }}</ref>

==Life==
Agoracritus was born on the island of [[Paros]], and was active from about [[Olympiad]] 85 to 88, that is, from about 436 to 424 BC.<ref name="pliny">[[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]], ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Naturalis Historia]]'' xxxvi. 5. s. 4</ref> He was a pupil of the sculptor [[Phidias]].<ref name="EB1911">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Agoracritus|volume=1|page=381}}</ref>

Only four of Agoracritus' works are mentioned: a statue of [[Zeus]] and one of [[Athena]] [[Itonia]] in the temple of that goddess at [[Athens]]; a statue, probably of [[Cybele]], in the temple of the Great Goddess at Athens;<ref name="pliny"/> and the [[Rhamnus (Greek archaeological site)|Rhamnus]]ian [[Nemesis (mythology)|Nemesis]].  Respecting this last work there has been a great deal of discussion.  The account which [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] gives of it is that Agoracritus contended with [[Alcamenes]] (another distinguished disciple of Phidias) in making a statue of [[Venus (mythology)|Venus]]; and that the Athenians, through an undue partiality towards their countryman, awarded the victory to Alcamenes.  Agoracritus, indignant at his defeat, made some slight alterations so as to change his Venus into a [[Nemesis (mythology)|Nemesis]] (the goddess of retribution or revenge), and sold it to the people of [[Rhamnus (Greek archaeological site)|Rhamnus]] on the condition that it should never be set up in Athens.

[[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], without saying a word about Agoracritus, says that the Rhamnusian Nemesis was the work of Phidias, and was made out of the block of [[Parian marble]], which the [[Achaemenid Empire|Persians]] under [[Datis]] and [[Artaphernes]] brought with them for the purpose of setting up a trophy.<ref>See Theteaetus and Parmenio, ''Anthol. Gr. Planud.'' iv. 12, 221, 222</ref>  This account however has been overwhelmingly rejected as involving a confusion of the ideas connected by the Greeks with the goddess Nemesis.<ref name="OCD">{{Citation  | last = Stewart  | first = Anthony F.  | contribution = Agoracritus  | editor-last = Hornblower  | editor-first = Simon  | title = [[Oxford Classical Dictionary]] | publisher = [[Oxford University Press]]  | place = Oxford  | year = 1996 }}</ref>  The statue moreover was not of Parian, but of [[Pentelic marble]].<ref>''The Unedited Antiquities of Attica, p. 43</ref>  [[Strabo]], [[John Tzetzes]], the [[Suda]] and [[Patriarch Photios I of Constantinople|Photius]] give other variations in speaking of this statue.<ref>[[Strabo]], ix. p. 396</ref><ref>[[John Tzetzes]], ''[[Chiliades]]'' vii. 154</ref>  It seems generally agreed that Pliny's account of the matter is correct in most of the particulars; and there have been various dissertations on the way in which a statue of Venus could have been changed into one of Nemesis.<ref>[[Johann Joachim Winckelmann]], ''Sämmtliche Werke'' von J. Eiselein, vol. v. p. 364</ref><ref>[[Jörgen Zoega]], ''Abhandlungen'', pp. 56—62</ref><ref>[[Karl Otfried Müller]], ''Arch. d. Kunst'' p. 102</ref>

As late as the early 20th century, parts of the statue's head were in the [[British Museum]]; some fragments of the reliefs which adorned the pedestal were in the museum at [[Athens]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} By the beginning of the 21st century, enough fragments had been recovered (including the base) that a partial reconstruction of Agoracritus' Nemesis was performed in [[Rhamnus (Greek archaeological site)|Rhamnus]].  In it, Nemesis is depicted holding an apple branch and a [[Phiale (libation vessel)|phiale]], wearing a crown decorated with deer.  The base depicts [[Leda (mythology)|Leda]] showing [[Helen of Troy|Helen]] to [[Tyndareus]].<ref name="OCD"/>

Agoracritus is also a character (the sausage seller) in Greek playwright [[Aristophanes]]' play ''[[The Knights]]''.

==References==
{{reflist}}

===Other sources===
*{{SmithDGRBM|title= Agoracritus}}

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[[Category:Ancient Parians]]
[[Category:5th-century BC Greek sculptors]]
[[Category:Metics in Classical Athens]]
[[Category:Ancient Athenian sculptors]]