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21 Mar 2021 
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The Delphi Charioteer is an early classical Greek sculpture that was created around 460 BC. It is made with different materials, which are mostly bronze, copper lips and eyelashes, silver teeth and headband, and onyx eyes. It is done with the lost wax methods. The height is 1.8 meters, which is a little bit over life size. It is placed in the Delphi Museum now. The statue is built just before the pantheon, with a long garment that charioteer wears. It is the earliest bronze original statues in archaic context in the ground that survived till today. It depicts the victor of some kinds and thank offering, which indicated to show off to other city of the victor they owned in a remarkable way. In company with the sculpture, there are six horses, and two attendants that are small.
The statue is a step forward from the archaic style, where the surface is two-dimensional, but there are some details that are in three-dimensions, such as the curled in hair. This is a severe type of early classical style, which the sculpture starts to become more natural and lifelike. The body has a little movement with a little contrapposto, that is not too obvious. He turns to the right a little, which is not entirely frontal, like the archaic period, with hands lifted in an open pose, which is not too active. The statue has two bared feet are parallel together, not forward and back, with clothes that are static, which seems like the columns. The slightly tilt head breaks the symmetrical, which gives the statue life, however the expression on the face does not seem happy, but moody and sober with the lips. Yet, the facial expression shows calm and
The article, “Delphic Enigmas? The Γέλας ἀνάσσων, Polyzalos, and the Charioteer Statue”, by Gianfranco Adornato noted on the inscriptions that were found during the archaeology, which were separated as several fragments. One of the fragments wrote that “Gelon [who won the Pythian games in the horse race, dedicated] me to you [son of Deinomenes] ; give him glory, noble Apollo” and “[Gelon offered me to you], Polyzalos dedicated me [son of Deinomenes]; give him glory, noble Apollo.” (pg.31) The inscription means that the sculpture, Delphi Charioteer, was dedicated by Polyzalus of Gela, who was a tyrant in Sicily, because Apollo won the chariot race for him. With the fragments, the race occurred in the Pythian games, which happened every four years in the early classical period. The statue shows the victorious moment of Apollo, who was controlling the chariot and horses as a driver. It is also a votive offering, and a response of thanks from Polyzalus to Apollo for helping him to win the race. Also, it is a sign of showing off to other regions that they won the game and the person who won the game is in their region, who is honorable and respectable to become a model.
There are two explanations of the inscriptions that described what this sculpture is and what it is built for. According to the article, “The Charioteer of Delphi”, by Oliver M Washburn, another explanation is dedicated by Cyrenaeans, despite that there is not a lot of evidence. The sculpture might represent Arkesilas, the king of Cyrene, as there is the relation between Delphi and Cyrene in the political situation. Cyrene won the race and they were crowned by Nike. Meanwhile, Adornato also mentioned in his article that “At Delphi, the Cyrenaeans consecrated Battus on chariot: Battus was he who led them on ships from Thera to Libya. The auriga of the chariot is Cyrene; on the chariot is Battus, who is crowned by Libya. This group is the work of Amphion of Knossos, son of Akestor.” (pg.31) This explanation could be a possibility, still there are too less evidence to prove that and the first explanation is more popular.