Figure 24 Attic marble statue of a young man (“kouros”); height 1.946 m, ca. 590–580 BC. New York,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fletcher Fund, 1932 (32.11.1).
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fletcher Fund, 1932. www.metmuseum.org (accessed March
29, 2016).
“Kouroi” is simply the plural form of the ancient Greek word kouros, which means nothing more than
“young man.” The fact that art historians use this term indicates that they, and we, simply do not know
whom these statues are intended to represent. In the case of Egyptian statues there is usually no doubt. The
figure is shown, for example, with the unmistakable attributes of the pharaoh or, in many cases, is
specifically identified by an inscription that names the individual whose likeness is portrayed. Greek
kouroi, too, are sometimes accompanied by an inscription, usually on the base on which the kouros stands,
but the inscription cannot be interpreted as saying, in effect, “This statue is a representation of so-and-so.”
Rather, the inscription gives the name of the god to whom the statue is dedicated or the name of the person
making the dedication or the name of the person over whose tomb the statue stands. For, like large-scale
works of sculpture generally in the Archaic Period, kouroi can serve one of two functions, either as a
grave marker or as a dedicatory offering to a god. The only other function that large-scale Archaic
sculpture fulfills is that of cult statue of a god or goddess, in which case there can be no uncertainty
regarding the identity of the subject of the statue: The cult statue is a representation of Apollo, say, or
Athena, as is clear from the statue’s placement in the god’s temple, or from the fact that the figure is
represented with the attributes of the deity, Apollo with his bow, Athena with her aegis.