Perikles

Perikles (ca. 495-429 BCE), not on display

Modern plaster replica of a Greek original of 450-425 BCE. Perikles was the Athenian stateman responsible for the extensive building program that included the Parthenon and other buildings, even those constructed after his death from the plague, the Erechtheion and Temple of Athena Nike.

Pliny (Natural History 34.74) mentions a "Perikles the Olympian" as by Kresilas, presumably an Athenian sculptor. The heads of two herms (pillars with heads on top) are inscribed "Perikles," and there are numerous copies of these works. Plutarch (Life of Perikles III.2) mentions that most portraits of Perikles show him wearing a helmet, presumably to hide his tall skull (a herm in Naples even has his hair showing through the eyeholes of his tilted-back helmet).

The original of this head is in the British Museum, inv. no. 1805.7-3.91 (Perikles's hair does not show through the eyeholes of his helmet).