Kouros in the context of "Apollo"

Heroic nudity or ideal nudity is a concept in classical scholarship to describe the un-realist use of nudity in classical sculpture to show figures who may be heroes, deities, or semi-divine beings. This convention began in Archaic and Classical Greece and continued in Hellenistic and Roman sculpture. The existence or place of the convention is the subject of scholarly argument.

In ancient Greek art, warriors on reliefs and painted vases were often shown as nude in combat, which was not in fact the Greek custom, and in other contexts. Idealized young men (but not women) were carved in kouros figures, and cult images in the temples of some male deities were nude. Later, portrait statues of the rich, including Roman imperial families, were given idealized nude bodies; by now this included women. The bodies were always young and athletic; old bodies are never seen. Pliny the Elder noted the introduction of the Greek style to Rome.

Palaiopoli (Greek: Παλαιόπολη 'old city') is an ancient city on the west coast of Andros in the Cyclades Islands, Greece, and was the capital of Andros, during the Classical period.

From the archaic to the first Byzantine period, the center of the island's activities is traced to the area of Paleopolis, which is found on the west side of the island, at a distance of 5 kilometers from Ipsili and 10 kilometers from Zagora. The ceramic findings, which were gathered from the area, are dated back to the Mycenean period, though some areas show signs of inhabitation during the Geometric period. Important findings of the area, the Kore of Copenhagen, a kouros, and a statue group of Pegasus and Bellerophon, which date back to the 6th century BC, show that the city was prosperous during the Archaic period. Construction in the area, according to the most recent findings, began during the beginning of the 5th century BC and continued through the old Christian times.

The Kroisos Kouros (Ancient Greek: κοῦρος) is a marble kouros from Anavyssos (Ανάβυσσος) in Attica which functioned as a grave marker for a fallen young warrior named Kroisos (Κροῖσος).

Kore (Greek: κόρη "maiden"; plural korai) is the modern term given to a type of free-standing ancient Greek sculpture of the Archaic period depicting female figures, always of a young age. Kouroi are the youthful male equivalent of kore statues.

Korai show the restrained "archaic smile", which did not demonstrate emotion. It was the symbol of the ideal, transcending the hardships of the world. Unlike the nude kouroi, korai are depicted in thick and sometimes elaborate drapery. As fashions changed, so did the type of clothing they wore. Over time, korai went from the heavy peplos to lighter garments such as the chiton. Their posture is rigid and column-like, sometimes with an extended arm. Some korai were painted colorfully to enhance the visual impact of the garments and for narrative purposes.

Kritios (Ancient Greek: Κριτίος, /krɪˈtiːəs/) was an Athenian sculptor, probably a pupil of Antenor, working in the early 5th century BCE, whose manner is on the cusp of the Late Archaic and the Severe style of Early Classicism in Attica. He was the teacher of Myron. With Nesiotes (Νησιώτης,) Kritios made the replacement of the Tyrannicides ("Tyrant-killers") group by Antenor, which had been carried off by the Persians in the first stage of the Greco-Persian Wars. The new group stood in the Agora of Athens and its composition is known from Roman copies.

With Nesiotes Kritios made other statues, of bronze, dedicated on the Acropolis, of which only their inscribed bases remain to give testament. The head of a marble statue found on the Acropolis so much resembles the copies of one of the Tyrannicides – Harmodius – that it has been called the Kritios Boy (now in the Acropolis Museum). Its easy naturalism and relaxed contrapposto set it apart from the Late Archaic conventional kouroi that preceded it. It was re-discovered too late (1865) to have had an effect on Neoclassical sculpture, as it would have done if it had been known a century earlier.

Sellada (Greek: Σελλάδα) is a mountain pass between the peaks of Profitis Ilias and Mesa Vouno, near the village of Kamari in the island of Santorini, Greece. The NE and NW slopes of Sellada accommodated the necropolis (i.e., cemetery) of Ancient Thera, an ancient city of Santorini. Excavations conducted in Sellada by Nikolaos Zapheiropoulos during the years 1961 - 1982 uncovered several tombs with funeral gifts, pithoi, and funerary kouroi and korai, some of which are exhibited at Fira archaeological museum.