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Polar bear with carrot

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Satyric Telamones

I bought these two exceptional figures at the show during set up. These twin satyrs are plaster over cast stone. They are horned and have goat feet and wings around their lower torso. They measure 42" high. Quite heavy. Great patina. Each seems to have a slightly unique personality. People have been oogling them at my space and I am told that they are sure to have come from the 1915 Pan Pacific Exposition. One of the directors of the Maybeck Foundation said that if I mail him pictures he will try to deduce where they originally stood.


Telamones were the male counterparts to the caryatids and guarded the temples in Greece and Rome. They are sentries at the Temple of Olympian Zeus in Agrigento, Sicily. Satyrs often carry the thyrsus: the rod of Dionysus tipped with a pine cone.

From Wiki: Older satyrs were known as sileni, the younger as satyrisci. The hare was the symbol of the shy and timid satyr. Greek spirits known as Calicantsars have a noticeable resemblance to the ancient satyrs; they have goats' ears and the feet of donkeys or goats, are covered with hair, and love women and the dance.
Although they are not mentioned by Homer, in a fragment of Hesiod's works they are called brothers of the mountain nymphs and Kuretes, strongly connected with the cult of Dionysus. In the Dionysus cult, male followers are known as satyrs and female followers as maenads or bacchants.

Satyrs were companions to both Pan and Dionysus. Their chief was Silenus, as recounted in Euripides' Cyclops.

If they do not sell this weekend I look forward to installing them in my gallery. Sort of hope that you get a chance to see them.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Found an interesting article regarding your satyric Atlantes/Telamones

http://phdiva.blogspot.com/2008/05/article-vitruvius-caryatids-and.html

"The most popular type of figured supports in the fourth century and Hellenistic period are not Caryatids, but Maenads and Satyrs in the Atlantes pose to be found in high-relief supporting stage fronts with their forearms. The figures involve a thematic change to fit the function of the building; they become, for example, part of the Dionysiac retinue at theatres."