Discophoros

Not to be confused with Discobolus.

The Townley Discophoros (British Museum)

The Discophoros, also spelled Discophorus (Greek – "Discus-Bearer"), was a bronze sculpture by the classical Greek sculptor Polyclitus, which is known today through many Roman marble copies. It is not to be confused with Discobolus of Myron, which shows a discus being thrown, not carried.

Like his Doryphoros and Diadumenos, it was created as an example of Polyclitus's "canon" of the ideal human form in sculpture. It features a young, muscular, solidly-built athlete in a moment of thought before throwing a discus. Most marble copies feature the addition of a marble tree stump – marble is weaker but heavier than bronze- as the stump is needed for support. These copies are also often missing their arms, which are often restored.

There are variant in the Louvre Museum {Paris) and the Capitoline Museums (Rome).

Gallery

• 
  Discophorus fountain, on Calle Obregon in Colonia Roma in Mexico City
• 
  A variant, found in via del Mare, 1910 (Capitoline Museums)

See also

• Discobolus

References

• Borbein, Adolf. "Polykleitos", in O. Palagia and J.J. Pollitt, eds, Personal Styles in Greek Sculpture (Yale Classical Studies XXX) (Cambridge University Press) 1998:66–90. Summarizing traditional attributions.
• Herbert Beck, Peter C. Bol, Maraike Bückling (Hrsg.): Polyklet. Der Bildhauer der griechischen Klassik. Ausstellung im Liebieghaus-Museum Alter Plastik Frankfurt am Main. Von Zabern, Mainz 1990 ISBN 3-8053-1175-3
• Detlev Kreikenbom: Bildwerke nach Polyklet. Kopienkritische Untersuchungen zu den männlichen statuarischen Typen nach polykletischen Vorbildern. "Diskophoros", Hermes, Doryphoros, Herakles, Diadumenos. Mann, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-7861-1623-7