Head of Mithridates VI Eupator as Herakles
Unknown · 1st century AD (Roman copy)
A young man with a mane of hair and lips slightly parted looks out from beneath the head of a lion, whose skin is drawn over his skull like a hood. The lion skin is the attribute of Herakles, and the way the locks lift from the brow recalls Alexander. Yet this is a king: Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontus, who fought three wars against Rome in the first century BC and became its most feared enemy in the East. The marble is drilled deep between the front locks, a trick that suggests a lost bronze original. The back of the lion skin and part of the nose are missing; both were once filled in with plaster, since removed.
Mithridates claimed descent from both Alexander and the Persian kings, and was said to have made himself immune to poison by taking small doses every day. He presented himself as a new Herakles freeing Greece from Rome, and portraits like this were made in his lifetime and copied afterwards. The Louvre's head is a Roman copy of the first century AD, probably carved in Italy, and belongs to the museum's oldest holdings.
Did You Know? Mithridates, Rome's most stubborn enemy, is shown here as Herakles, the hero who could not be killed.
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