Marble has always been an abundant and familiar material
on Naxos. The craftsmen of Naxos were highly sought after, and the fortunes they
made from the marble allowed them to dedicate expensive offerings of their own
to the gods.
These craftsmen were the first people to build entire structures of pure and
unalloyed marble, and there is a legend that Byzes and his
son Euergos, both sculptors and builders, were the first craftsmen to make
marble tiles.
The large statues of nude men and clothed women, known to be from Naxos, are
among the earliest of their type found in Greece. Among the best-known example
is the Artemis (650 B.C.), housed in the National Archeological
Museum in Athens.
Equally significant are the nude male statues of the Kouroi (7th
century B.C.), and the 25-feet tall marble Apollo raised
on Delos by the Naxians (600 B.C.).
Among the other imposing examples of Naxian works are the enormous lions
of Delos, dedicated to Apollo by the Naxians.
But the most impressive pieces of all are those that were never finished. These
colossal statues are chronologically dated after the Homeric epics, which presented
the gods in a form very different from that of the old earth deities, who were
represented by small idols. The gods were anthropomorphic, but also "much taller
than the average tall man." |
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It is precisely this new concept which the Kouroi statues represented. The popular
name for the Kourois was "Ellinas" ("Greek") and comes
from the ancient "kouros" (7th century B.C.). The Kouroi statues measures 6.40
meters tall. They are unique relics in the history of ancient Greek sculpture
and, particularly that of Naxos'.
An example of Kouroi in Naxos is named "Dionysus." It lies
in the village of Apollonas and is more than 30 feet long.
The oldest buildings on Delos and most of the things Delos has to offer are Naxian.
The community of Naxios dedicated a number of valuable vessels to Apollo of Delos
and also a number of highly impressive monuments such as the Sphinx
of Delphi to the other shrines of the gods.
Among the most recent discoveries is a temple of Demeter at
Gyroulas -- a building with a marble roof and a large temple (13.5 meters
x 25 meters). This temple was built in the mid-6th century and functioned for
nine consecutive centuries until its violent destruction in the 3rd century AD.
This find is of great importance to the history of Greek architecture because
the temple was built at a time when the transition from granite to marble was
being made.
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