CAPTURING THE MOMENT
Homolle’s team took this photograph on
May 30, 1893, when the statue of Kleobis
(above) first emerged, largely intact, from
the ground.ON MAY 30, 1893, Théophile Homolle documented
an exciting discovery in his excavation journal:
“We found the early statue of Apollo (?), which
lacks only its feet. The legs have been preserved
down to the knee. The statue was found to the
NW of the Athenian Treasury, very nearby, set
into a modern wall and resting on the polygonal
wall that heads off from the Sacred Way to the
SE of the Treasury (covered in inscriptions at this
point) and continues westward.” Next to the en-
try, in the margin, the name Kleobis is written in
pencil, correcting the initial identification of the
statue. The statue’s base, identifying the sculp-
tor, appeared on November 30, and the next year,
on May 28, 1894, the statue of Biton was found.
In Greek myth Kleobis and his twin brother Biton
were so strong that they were hitched up to the
chariot of their mother, a priestess of Hera. For
five miles, the brothers pulled the chariot to Hera’s
temple in Argos.
FINDING
THE FIRST TWIN
JOURNAL DE LA GRANDE FOUILLE DE DELPHES (1892-1901), PAGE 31. DELPHES 2-C DPH 23, ARCHIVES EFA N.C./ÉCOLE FRANÇAISE D’ATHÈNES. MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND SPORTS/EPHORATE OF ANTIQUITIES OF PHOKIS
PAGE FROM HOMOLLE’S DIARY OF THE EXCAVATIONS. THE DIARY DETAILS
THE WORKS CARRIED OUT BETWEEN 1892 AND 1901, LISTS THE FINDS, AND
INCLUDES CORRECTIONS AS NEW DISCOVERIES WERE MADE.