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Statue of a Slinger? (Read 24892 times)
Altay
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Statue of a Slinger?
Nov 27th, 2007 at 8:50pm
 
I recently wrote a paper about Plato, and when I looked him up in my history book (The Western Heritage by Kagan) I found the picture below on the same page. The caption in the book read:
Quote:
The striding god from Artemisium is a bronze statue dating from about 460 B.C.E. It was found in the sea near Artemisium, the northern tip of the large Greek island of Euboea, and is now on display in the Athens archaeological museum. Exactly whom he represents is not known. Some have thought him to be Posiedon holding a trident; others believe he is Zeus hurling a thunderbolt. In either case, he is a splendid representative of the early Classical period of Greek sculpture.


...

I did some selective blurring to make the image somewhat less objectionable. Anyway, when I first glanced at the image, I immediately thought, Look! It's a Greek slinger! Is it just my imagination, or does he look like he's holding a sling (very close to the release on a figure-8)? I was thinking that perhaps the statue was originally made with a real sling attached to him, but it decayed/fell apart over time leaving the slinger behind. Any ideas?
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slinger.png (1421 KB | )
slinger.png

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Curious Aardvark
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Re: Statue of a Slinger?
Reply #1 - Nov 28th, 2007 at 12:07pm
 
nope look at the back hand - it's grasping a shaft not a sling.
definitely some sort of spear.
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Mordechaj
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Re: Statue of a Slinger?
Reply #2 - Nov 28th, 2007 at 5:06pm
 
staff-sling?


yeah, looks like a spear thrower to me too.  Wink
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axon50
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Re: Statue of a Slinger?
Reply #3 - Nov 28th, 2007 at 10:16pm
 
and even if the position was right, that would be some pretty thick sling cord he's holding.
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Altay
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Re: Statue of a Slinger?
Reply #4 - Nov 28th, 2007 at 10:26pm
 
axon50 wrote on Nov 28th, 2007 at 10:16pm:
and even if the position was right, that would be some pretty thick sling cord he's holding.

Well, I was thinking he was keeping his hand loose (rather than making a fist), but I guess it does look more like he's holding a shaft because of the perfect O his fingers are forming. It's funny that that's the exact same position in which I stand when I'm slinging (just before the release). I didn't realize javelin-throwing was so similar to slinging.

However, it still doesn't look exactly like a spear/javelin holder to me. For one, he has his left hand pointing forward as if he's about to throw something in that direction, so I doubt it's a spear he's holding in his right hand. But if it is a javelin he has in his right hand, why is it aimed down? Looking at the angle his right hand makes with the ground, if he was holding a sling it would be up and about to release, but if he was holding a javelin it would be facing down and about to stab. Any ideas?
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Re: Statue of a Slinger?
Reply #5 - Nov 29th, 2007 at 11:09am
 
Okay spear fishing 101.
If that's poseidon and he's holding a trident (which seems likely) then that is the classic spear fishing stance.
You sort of aim down your left arm, it also helps to balance and stabilise you.

It's poseidon with an invisible trident - spear fishing. :-)
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Altay
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Re: Statue of a Slinger?
Reply #6 - Nov 29th, 2007 at 2:34pm
 
[quote author=curious_aardvark link=1196214609/0#5 date=1196352581]It's poseidon with an invisible trident - spear fishing. :-)[/quote]
Spear fishing! Okay, it makes sense now. I couldn't think of a good reason someone would aim a javelin down, but spear fishing makes perfect sense.
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Re: Statue of a Slinger?
Reply #7 - Nov 29th, 2007 at 3:26pm
 
Obviously a spear, at least behind the blurring  Wink

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Re: Statue of a Slinger?
Reply #8 - Nov 30th, 2007 at 10:56am
 
there's nothing objectionable about this statue, it's a very fine sculpture, not porno. so why did you blur out the statue's carrot? it's not as if he's waving it at your auntie

SV

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Re: Statue of a Slinger?
Reply #9 - Nov 30th, 2007 at 12:46pm
 
oh my God. i haven't noticed the blurring untill now.

that's really perverse.

why would you need to blurr it? is it something noone of us has ever seen yet? if there are such individuals here then it's be better to educate them on questions of human anatomy.


reminds me of a sea-side village who's fisherman regularly drowned because noone knew how to swim. and they didn't know how to swim because flesh is weak and bodies are sinfull, so it's better to ignore them and not show them at the beach, where they could learn how to swim. so they removed the possibility of temptation Smiley
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funda_iucunda
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Re: Statue of a Slinger?
Reply #10 - Nov 30th, 2007 at 4:07pm
 
sv and mordechaj are right. A piece of art should be shown as it is. Otherwise we would harm the artist by changing his work.
By the way, did we ever gave honor at slinging.org to the most famous slinger ever created by an artist: Michelangelos "David"?

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Altay
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Re: Statue of a Slinger?
Reply #11 - Dec 5th, 2007 at 2:40pm
 
sv wrote on Nov 30th, 2007 at 10:56am:
there's nothing objectionable about this statue, it's a very fine sculpture, not porno. so why did you blur out the statue's carrot?

I was worried that it might offend someone somehow. I didn't realize that blurring it would be more offensive. If you'd like to see the "fine sculpturing" that is his carrot I could upload the unblurred version. Also, staring at a naked guy (to figure out whether or not he could be a slinger) was making me uncomfortable. Lastly, I wanted to try out GIMP. I've done blurring in Photoshop before and I wanted to see how easily I could do it in GIMP.
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« Last Edit: Dec 5th, 2007 at 4:39pm by Altay »  

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sv
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Re: Statue of a Slinger?
Reply #12 - Dec 6th, 2007 at 8:26pm
 
it was a good find, and well spotted Altay. NB i don't think we want to see his thingy, or anyone's thingy, finely-sculptured or otherwise. blurring it just seemed a bit prudish but anyway we get the message of what the figure is about, with or without revelation of the organs of regeneration.

SV
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funda_iucunda
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Re: Statue of a Slinger?
Reply #13 - Dec 8th, 2007 at 5:21pm
 
I read somewhere that in Berlin in the Arsenal Museum (Zeughaus) is a little bronce statue of a antique celtic slinger. Unfortunately the sling did not remain. But the author is convinced that it once had been a sling. The foto in that article is not very well printed. But I'll try to send it to the forum.

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funda_iucunda
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Re: Statue of a Slinger?
Reply #14 - Dec 8th, 2007 at 5:49pm
 
Here (hopefully) come the fotos. It is from Alfred Haffner, Zur Schleuderwaffe im vorrömischen Gallien, Kurtrierisches Jahrbuch 1973 (foto: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (former GDR). The statue holds an object that is identified as a biconic sling projectile as many of them had been found around Trier. There are some remains at the left Hand which lead to the assumption that the statue once hold a shield. Haffner writes that some authoers errouneously thought it beeing a spear thrower though the first publication identified it clearly as a slinger. The statue is estimated of around 300 before Christ.

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