The outstanding life-size “Charioteer of Delphi,” also …

Years: 474BCE - 474BCE

The outstanding life-size “Charioteer of Delphi,” also known as Heniokhos (the rein-holder), is one of the largest Greek bronze works of the age.

The life-size statue of a chariot driver, found in 1896 at the Sanctuary of Apollo in Delphi, and now in the Delphi Archaeological Museum, is erected at Delphi soon after 474 BCE, to commemorate the victory of a chariot team in the Pythian Games, which are held at Delphi every four years in honor of Pythean Apollo.

(It was originally part of a larger group of statuary, including the chariot, four (possibly six) horses and two grooms.

Some fragments of the horses were found with the statue.

When intact, it must have been one of the most imposing works of statuary in the world.)

An inscription on the limestone base of the statue shows that it was commissioned by Polyzalus, the tyrant of Gela, a Greek colony in Sicily, as a tribute to Apollo for helping him win the chariot race.

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