Eutychides’ Eurotas. A Contribution to the study of the iconography of swimmers in Ancient art

Pliny the Elder and Philippus of Thessalonica, when writing about a statue created by Eutychides (4th/3rd century BCE) that depicted the personification of the Eurotas River, emphasized that in this work, which has not survived to our time, the sculptural art appeared “more fluid than the river’s current” (amne liquidior) according to Pliny, and “more liquidly than water” (ὕδατος ὑγρότερος) according to Philippus. Both ancient authors likely referred to the exceptional fluidity of movement that characterized the work, accurately reflecting the identity of the depicted figure. Philippus of Thessalonica additionally noted that the artist portrayed the figure as a swimmer traversing the river’s current (ὡς […] διάβροχος ἔν τε ῥεέθροις […] ὑγροβατῶν). Since the personification of another river, the Orontes, is present in Eutychides’ most famous work – Tyche of Antioch, known from preserved sculptural copies – as a swimmer immersed in water with arms arranged in a wave-like shape (which, incidentally, creates an impression of fluidity), it can be assumed that Eutychides’ Eurotas was depicted using this very formula. The formula was innovative not only in the context of the iconography of river gods/personifications, as has been noted several times, but it also represented the earliest successful attempt to create a fully three-dimensional image of a swimming figure, which secures Eutychides’ prominent place in the history of ancient sculpture. Assuming that Eurotas, like Orontes placed at the feet of Tyche of Antioch, was depicted as a half-figure swimmer with arms arranged in a wave-like manner, it is plausible that preserved statuettes commonly interpreted as representations of Orontes inspired by the companion of Antioch’s Tyche could just as well be copies or variations of another work by Eutychides – the lost personification of Eurotas.