Mantineia Base

The Mantineia Base is an ensemble of three ancient Greek bas relief plaques, one of which depicts Apollo, Marsyas, and a slave, and the other two of which each show a group of three Muses.

On 11 August 1887 in the course of excavations at Mantineia by the French School at Athens, the archaeologist Gustave Fougères discovered the three plaques, which had been reused in the floor of a Byzantine church.

[1] The upper part had been heavily worn by the passage of the parishioners, but the side facing downwards still bore sculpted decoration in a good state.

In the centre a bearded man is standing, wearing a kind of Phrygian cap, a chiton, and anaxyrides (trousers), holding a knife in one hand.

[3] When he published the discovery, Fougères suggested that the three plaques decorated the sides of a rectangular pedestal and suggested that they be associated with a passage of Pausanias who mentions in his description of Mantineia, "a sanctuary of Leto and her children; it was Praxiteles who made the statues, two generations after Alcamenes; on their base there are carvings of a Muse and a Marsyas playing the aulos.

[7] To resolve the problem, it has been suggested that Pausanias, whose descriptions are often very vague, was confused and has mistaken Apollo for a Muse.

[9] It has been proposed to see the plaques as the decoration for a platform for the competitors of a musical contest which took place every year in Arcadia according to Polybius.