The Amazons were a mythical race of warrior women from the fringes of the known ancient world, and in Greek art, they were often depicted fighting such heroes as Herakles, Achilles, and Theseus. This statue (32.11.4) represents a refugee from battle who has lost her weapons and bleeds from a wound under her right breast. Her short chiton is unfastened at one shoulder and belted at the waist with a makeshift bit of bridle from her horse. Despite her plight, her noble face shows no sign of pain or fatigue. She leans lightly on a pillar at her left and rests her right arm gracefully on her head in a gesture often used to denote sleep or death. ⁣ Such emotional restraint was characteristic of the Classical Greek style. However, certain elements such as her slightly slender, elongated proportions and the archaizing pattern of folds of the drapery against her thighs were likely introduced by a Roman copyist. Most of the right arm, the lower part of the plinth, and the base are eighteenth-century marble restorations. The lower legs and feet were restored in the twentieth century with plaster casts taken from Roman copies of the same type in Berlin and Copenhagen. ⁣ The original statue probably stood in the precinct of the sanctuary of Artemis at Ephesos, on the coast of Asia Minor, where the Amazons had legendary and cultic connections with the goddess. The Roman writer Pliny the Elder described a competition held in the mid-fifth century B.C. between five famous sculptors, including Pheidias, Polykleitos, and Kresilas, who were to make a statue of an Amazon for the temple. This type of statue is generally associated with that contest.⁣ #GreekRoman #TheMet #Amazons #WarriorWomen #Artemis #Restoration #HowToReadGreekSculpture