Title: Eros from Thespiai
Context: From Thespiai
Sculptor: Literary attestation to Praxiteles
Material: Bronze
Sculpture Type: Free-standing statue
Category: Original/copies
Style: Late Classical
Technique: Hollow cast
Original or Copy: Original (lost)
Date: ca. 350 BC
Scale: Life-size
Region: Boeotia
Period: Late Classical

Condition: Lost

Other Notes:

According to Paus. 1.20.1, Praxiteles' lover Phryne took this work when Praxiteles confessed that it was his favorite (of his own works), and dedicated it at Thespiai. It was much admired by the Romans, as well as the Greeks, brought to Rome by Caligula, returned to Thespiai by Claudius, and eventually returned to Rome by Nero. Menodoros, a Roman copyist, was said to have replaced the original which was destroyed in a fire during the reign of Titus.

Sources Used: A. Ajootian in Palagia & Pollitt 1996, 113; Richter 1954, 68 no. 107

Other Bibliography: Zanker 1974, 108-109, no. 11, pl. 81.1-2; Vierneisel-Schlörb 1979, 276, 278 n. 12; Furtwängler 1893/1964, 540-46