Metope from the Temple of Zeus at Olympia: Thigh of Heracles
Unknown · c. 460 BC
The smallest of the three surviving pieces of the Geryon metope is a fragment of a thigh seen in profile, with a fold of drapery beside it, no larger than a hand span. It is the upper right thigh of Heracles, the hero who bends forward in the main fragment to attack the triple giant. Fragments like this are the raw material of archaeology: the sharp cutting of the muscle and the flat background plane match the other pieces, and its place in the composition was worked out by fitting it against a cast of the larger fragment. On the reconstructed metope the missing area is filled by a plaster cast, so that you can see where this piece belongs.
The metope, carved in Parian marble around 460, was one of twelve showing the labours of Heracles over the porches of the temple of Zeus at Olympia, the sanctuary of the Olympic games. Together with the head of Geryon and the main fragment, it was excavated by the French Morea expedition in 1829, presented to France by the Greek government and entered the Louvre in 1830.
Did You Know? The piece is smaller than a sheet of paper, yet it was identified as a specific thigh of a specific hero on a specific panel.
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