Description - Comments:

Only the lower part of the statue is preserved from about the waist downwards (the diagonal break at its upper part has an almost flat surface). The left inset forearm is not preserved (there is a circular socket for the insertion of a metal pin on the surface of the marble). The figure is depicted standing, frontal, slightly smaller than life-size, wearing a long chiton, an ample himation that covers most of the body to about the height of the knees, and closed leather shoes (calcei muliebres). The figure is a variant of the so-called “Ephesos Kore/Persephone” statuary type, with the distribution of weight reversed (the figure's weight falls on the right leg rather than the left), and the length of the himation is shorter (it falls rigidly up to the knees and not below them). As is characteristic of the statuary type, the himation is gathered between the body and the left elbow (the garment ends in a small circular tassel on the surface of the left calf). The rendering of the folds of the chiton between the legs and of the himation around the figure, as well as the somewhat (Q)stiff(Q) overall stylistic rendering are very close to a smaller than life-size statue of a togatus, dated to the Flavian – Trajanic period, and today displayed right next to the statue in the courtyard of the Epidauros museum (see F. Havé-Nikolaus, Untersuchungen zu den kaiserzeitlichen Togastatuen griechischer Provenienz, Mainz am Rhein 1998, 116-118, cat. no. 15, pl. 22,3). The present statue should probably be dated to the same period. More broadly, the stylistic similarity between the two statues, combined with the same type of marble (which based on macroscopic examination does not appear to be Pentelic or Parian), and the same findspot (both from the ancient city of Epidauros and not the sanctuary of Apollo Maleatas and Asklepios) may indicate that they originally belonged to the same family (?) statue-group.

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