Statue of a rider. The "Persian or Scythian Rider"
Inventory number
Ακρ. 606
Artist
Attic workshop
Category
Sculpture
Period
Archaic Period
Date
520-510 BC
Dimensions
Height: 1.08 m
Material
Marble from Paros
Location
Archaic Acropolis Gallery
The statue was discovered close to the Erechtheion in 1886. Found in many fragments it was reassembled and restored.
The rider is dressed in a short chiton decorated with leaf-like motifs in green, red and blue colour with a yellow outline. His and tight-fitting trousers are decorated with colorful diamonds whose size diminishes downwards, signifying the elasticity of the fabric. On his feet he wears red boots, on which bronze pins for securing the laces can still be seen. He is an archer, as seen from the drilled holes on his left thigh, once used for attaching the quiver, a pouch for arrows. The holes in the horse's forelocks were also used to insert fixed bronze tufts of horsehair, which made the mane's appearance even more impressive.
The statue's conventional name "Persian" or "Scythian" rider is due to his attire which is of Eastern provenance. In Athens, during the 6th cent. BC, lived a few hundred mounted Scythian archers. They were employed as mercenaries, essentially policemen, to maintain public order. However there is another possibility. A ceramic plate, now in Oxford, bears the image of a similar rider and the inscription "Miltiades Kalos", meaning Miltiades is handsome. This has led to the hypothesis that this is a statue of the Athenian general Miltiades who later won the battle of Marathon in 490 BC. In his youth, Miltiades spent much time in Thrace, near the land of Scythians. He had fought them on the side of the Persians, defending the military and commercial interests of the Athenians in the Black Sea region.
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