Object Description
A moulded pink terracotta statuette depicting a satyric actor. The features are quite worn but we can discern the bearded features, the hand on the stomach and the shape of the legs. The reverse is plain and unmodelled. Mounted on a simple wood stand (height with stand 14 cms).
From the 4th Century BC, figurines acquired a decorative function, rather than votive or honorific. They began to represent theatrical characters, such as the slave, the peasant, the nurse, the fat woman, or the satyr from the satyr play. Figurine features might be caricatured and distorted. By the Hellenistic era, the figurines became grotesques: deformed beings with disproportionate heads, sagging breasts or prominent bellies, hunchbacks and bald men.
Within Greek mythology, satyrs are deities of the woods and mountains. In the Athenian tradition of drama, there was not only comedy and tragedy, but a third genre – the satyr play. The satyr play would deal with the legends of gods and heroes, with a chorus composed of satyrs and sileni. The satyr genre would cleverly ridicule the mythic tradition with pantomime and mockery, the ancestor to our own satirical comedy today. Only one complete satyr play remains from the 5th Century BC – the Cyclops of Euripides.