The Magnificent Five or the Smiling Horse-Men

Abstract

The present article discusses five Archaic bronze statuettes of centaurs which form a particularly interesting group of representations (figs. 2-8). The main feature that distinguishes the magnificent five from other centaurs is their smile. A significant question about them is who these centaurs are. The horse-men stare at the onlooker with their genial and likeable faces, big wide-open eyes, and, most notably, with radiant smiles, which makes them wonderfully pleasant, peaceful, and attractive monsters registering no potential aggression. Taking into consideration the fact that the figurines decorated large wine vessels, it seems plausible to interpret the statuettes as representing the centaurs dwelling on Mount Pholoe who surged up in order to become fellow drinkers of Pholus, the host of Heracles, as soon as the aroma of their own communal wine hit their nostrils. The artists of the five bronze statuettes seem to have imagined ordinary Peloponnesian centaurs overjoyed by the strong fragrance of their wine, and they created images of smiling horse-men with this idea in mind.