The Wrestler Milo of Croton

A French bronze model of the Milo of Croton on a stepped marble base after the original marble statue by sculptor Edme Dumont (1720-1775) displayed in the Louvre.  Through the presentation of this particular sculpture, Dumont was in 1768 inducted in the Acadame Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris. This bronze is unsigned and is probably a late 19th century casting. There is a similar version of it in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

Milo (or Milon) of Croton was a legendary Greek wrestler from the Greek settlement of Croton in southern Italy.  He won the wrestling contest at five successive Olympic Games, and swept the board at all other festivals, a sort of Michael Phelps of antiquity.  A man of huge stature, he boasted that no one had ever brought him to his knees. It is said that he carried a live ox upon his shoulders through the stadium at Olympia, then ate it all in a single day.  Tradition has it that in his old age, on seeing an oak tree partly split open with a wedge he tried to wrench it apart, but only succeeded in causing the wedge to fall out, thereby trapping his hands.  He was left a helpless prey to the wild beast who soon finished him off.

Dimensions: 31″ ( 79 cm ) H x 15″ ( 38 cm ) D