Paeonius

Sculptor and architect

Born: c. 450 b. c.e.; Mende, Thrace Died: c. 400 b. c.e.; place unknown Also known as: Paionios Category: Art and architecture

Life Paeonius (pee-OH-nee-uhs) is known only by the inscription on the triangular base of his statue Nike (Victory), which states that the Messenians and the Naupactians consecrated the statue to Olympian Zeus as a tithe of the spoils of war and that Paeonius of Mende made it and won the right to make the acroteria for the god’s temple. The statue, discovered broken at Olympia in 1875, was carved to celebrate the victory of 14,000 Athenians under Demosthenes and Cleon of Athens over 420 Spartans and

1,000 helots under Epitadas at Sphacteria in 425 or 424 b. c.e. in the Peloponnesian War (431-404 b. c.e.). Several other sculptures and fragments, such as a running girl, a kneeling boy (both perhaps Niobe’s children), and a helmeted head, are sometimes attributed to him.

Influence Paeonius’s Nike marks the transition from the majestic style of the Parthenon and other great works of the mid-fifth century b. c.e. to the more playful style of the later fifth century b. c.e. Even in pieces, it is still generally recognized to be one of the most magnificent examples of Classical Greek art. A reconstruction of it appeared on a Greek postage stamp in 1896 to celebrate the first modern Olympics.

Further Reading

Boardman, John. Greek Sculpture: The Classical Period. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1995.

Paeonius

Ridgway, Brunilde Sismondo. Fifth-Century Styles in Greek Sculpture. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1981.

Eric v. d. Luft

See also: Art and Architecture; Cleon of Athens; Demosthenes; Peloponnesian Wars.