Inventory number
Ακρ. 1313
Category
Sculpture
Period
Late Roman-Early Byzantine Period
Date
Beginning of 5th cent. AD
Dimensions
Height: 0.32 m
Length: 0.21 m
Width: 0.23 m
Material
Marble from Hymettos
Location
First Floor, North
This head belongs to a bust as its shaping on the back shows. It is preserved down to the upper part of the chest. The deep wrinkles on the forehead and around the mouth, the big eyes and his intense gaze, the arched eyebrows and the thick moustache which covers part of the mouth are all distinctly individual characteristics. He has a laurel wreath on his head, signifying he was a priest. This wreath along with his advanced age have led scholars to the conclusion that he must be the Athenian philosopher Plutarch (AD 350-433).
Plutarch was the founder of the Neoplatonic School of Athens. He was a priest of Asklepios and he also sponsored three times the procession of the Greater Panathenaia in a time where the pagan religion was losing ground in favor of Christianity. He erected on the south slope of the Acropolis a luxurious mansion that functioned also as an academy, which he left to his successors Syrianus and Proclus. Today this academy is known as the "House of Proclus".
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