Ageladas
6th or 5th-century BC Greek sculptor
Ageladas (Ancient Greek: Ἀγελάδας Agelā́dās) or Hagelaedas (Ancient Greek: Ἁγελᾴδας Hagelā́idās) was a celebrated Greek (Argive) sculptor, who flourished in the latter part of the 6th and the early part of the 5th century BC.
Ageladas' fame is enhanced by his having been the instructor of the three great masters, Phidias, Myron, and Polykleitos. The determination of the period when Ageladas flourished has given rise to a great deal of discussion, owing to the apparently contradictory statements of the writers who mention his name. Pausanias states that Ageladas cast a statue of Cleosthenes (who gained a victory in the chariot-race in the 66th Olympiad) with the chariot, horses, and charioteer placed at Olympia.
Also at Olympia, there were statues by Ageladas of Timasitheus of Delphi and Anochus of Tarentum. Timasitheus was put to death by the Athenians for his participation in the attempt to overthrow the tyrant Isagoras during the 68th Olympiad in 507. According to Eusebius, Anochus was a victor in the games of the 65th Olympiad. Therefore, if Ageladas was born about 540, he may very well have been the instructor of Phidias. On the other hand, Pliny says that Ageladas, with Polykleitos, Phradmon, and Myron, flourished in the 87th Olympiad. This agrees with the statement of the scholiast on Aristophanes, that at Melite there was a statue of Heracles (Ἡρακλῆς ἀλεξίκακος), the work of Ageladas the Argive, which was set up during the great pestilence at the 87th Olympiad.
To these authorities must be added a passage of Pausanias, where he speaks of a statue of Zeus made by Ageladas for the Messenians of Naupactus.
“Ageladas” enters the record as 6th or 5th-century BC Greek sculptor. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Ageladas, 5th-century and Greek can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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