Marble statuette of a naked youth

Unknown provenance. Late 1st c. BC.
(ΕΑΜ/ΝΑΜ Γ 3631)

Version of a figure of a group, which has been interpreted either as Orestes and Pylades, or as Hypnos (Sleep) and Thanatos (Death). The personification of death is connected with the down-turned torch and the altar, which are both funeral symbols. The modelling of the figure goes back to statues of the 5th-century sculptor, Polykleitos.