The Anavyssos Kouros

• Date 530 BC
• Height 1.94 m
• The base inscription says 'Stay and mourn at the monument for dead Kroisos whom violent Ares destroyed, fighting in the front line'
• He represents nobility, strength and the ideal male youth
• Instead of being sharply incised, forms are gently rounded, flat planes meeting sharply at angles have been transformed into curved masses suggestive of soft flesh rather than hard stone - Woodford
• The decorative bead-like rendering of the hair, which was in harmony with the rest of the decorative formal treatment of the earlier kouros, now jars in the context of the otherwise more naturalistic forms of the later kouros - Woodford
• Patterns of muscle and sinew (which were grooves and ridges) are carved in more realistic ways and the patterns take forms closer to life
• Ears are no longer volutes - they look like ears
• The kneecaps show asymmetry of muscle caused by one leg being in front of the other
• Little attempt is made to show character : differentiation of age is only tentatively expressed and expression of emotion relies on gesture because in faces we see little if any expression
• The modelled lines on the torso are less straight and harsh, but rounded and gentler, denoting more than simple anatomy