Damophon

( fl earlier 2nd century BC). Greek sculptor from Messene. The only ancient author to mention him is Pausanias, who was impressed by his statues for the Peloponnesian towns of Messene, Aigion, Megalopolis and Lykosoura. Yet since Pausanias gave no dates, and the numerous inscriptions mentioning the sculptor and his family are also undated, Damophon's chronology must be inferred from the neo-classical style of his surviving works. This points to the period when the Achaian League (to which all the cities above belonged) was at the height of its prosperity and engaged in an extensive building programme.

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Damophon (2nd century BC) was an ancient Greek sculptor of the Hellenistic period from Messene, who executed many statues for the people of Messene, Megalopolis, Aegium and other cities of Peloponnesus. His statues were acroliths. Considerable fragments, including three colossal heads from a group by him representing Demeter, Persephone, Artemis and the Titan Anytus, were discovered on the site of Lycosura in Arcadia, where there was a sanctuary of the goddess Despoina, The Mistress. They were preserved in part in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens and partly at a small museum on the archaeological site. Damophon also restored Phidias' statue of the Greek god Zeus, which had been damaged in an earthquake.

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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