Statue of Prokne and Itys
Inventory number
Ακρ. 1358
Artist
Alcamenes
Category
Sculpture
Period
Classical Period
Date
Around 430 BC
Dimensions
Height: Prokne 1.63 m
Height: Itys 1.05 m
Length: Prokne 0.58 m
Length: Itys 0.23 m
Width: group 0.44 m
Material
Marble
Location
First Floor, North
Fragmentarily preserved complex of a woman and a little boy. It was found in 1836 in front of the west tower of the Propylaia, near the Temple of Athena Nike.
The complex depicts Prokne, the daughter of the mythical king Pandion of Athens, at the moment she is about to kill her son Itys with the knife she would have held in her left raised hand. She wears a belted peplos and a shawl-like himation. The nude boy, who has only a band around his waist, seeks refuge in his mother's skirts. Five drilled holes, two of which retain traces of metal, can be seen around the boy's head. According to the traveller Pausanias, the dedicator was Alcamenes, a well-known sculptor of the time, who also created it.
According to the myth, the Athenian Prokne was the wife of the Thracian king Tereus, who raped her sister Philomela and cut out her tongue to prevent her from speaking. Philomela wove the story on a tapestry and Prokne, in order to avenge him, killed their son, cooked him and served the boy as a meal to his father. When Tereus realised what had happened, he attempted to avenge his son, however, the gods intervened and transformed Prokne into a nightingale, Philomela into a swallow and Tereus into a hoopoe. The sculptural depiction of the myth promoted Prokne as the ideal Athenian who put the honour of her paternal family above her own marital family.
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