1. Introduction

Endoios is one of the few sculptors of the Archaic period who is known to us by literary sources and by his signature on works. He was highly appreciated by his contemporaries and undertook orders for cult statues almost throughout the Greek world, as well as for votive offerings and tomb monuments of distinguished members of the Athenian aristocracy. He worked with wood equally well as with ivory and marble, and he was also a painter. It seems that he generally had a particular preference for seated statues, and he might be the one who introduced this primarily Ionian statue type in Athens. From his early works in Asia Minor few have survived. His art became prominent mainly from his work in Athens.

2. Biography - Work

Pausanias mentions that Endoios was an Athenian citizen and student of Daedalus, whom he followed to Crete.¹ A great portion of contemporary scholars of Archaic sculpture – based on this information by Pausanias – regard Endoios as being of Athenian origin. Yet his career, his pieces of work, his signatures and his clientele indicate that he was probably an Ionian who arrived in Athens to settle professionally in the second half of the 6^th century BC, just like other potters, sculptors and poets from Asia Minor. Pausanias’ information signifies that Endoios was perhaps granted the political rights of an Athenian after the intervention of his aristocratic clientele, who were often linked to political power. As far as his relationship with Daedalus is concerned, it was most likely myth-making, with an aim to associate one of the most renowned names of sculpture with the mythical ancestor of all sculptors, who, according to literary sources was of Athenian descent.²

After he had been taught the art of sculpture in Ionia, Endoios received a great reputation. Thus, when Croesus was king around 550-40 BC, he undertook the construction of the wooden or ivory cult statue of Ephesian Artemis,³ within the frame of erection of the Artemision in Ephesus. The numerous Roman copies of a certain Ephesian Artemis which have survived maintain the echo of this lost statue. Endoios has been granted – though with poor arguments in favor of this – the relief drums of the columns of Artemision. Around the same period he also worked in the neighbouring Erythrae, where he created the colossal, wooden, seated cult statue of Athena Ergane for the sanctuary of Athena Polias, as well as a marble complex of the Graces and Hours.⁴ Nothing has been preserved from Athena’s cult statue. On the contrary, the identification of a renowned statue of a kore from Erythrae (550-25 BC) with one of Endoios’ Graces and Hours has been suggested.⁵

Following this, he moved to Athens, perhaps due to the conquest of Lydia by Cyrus in 546 BC, with an intermediary stop in the Peloponnese. There he created the ivory cult statue of Athena Alea in Tegea, Arcadia. This statue survived the fire that broke out in the temple in 395 BC, and was transported to Rome by Augustus after the sea battle at Actium (31 BC).⁶ Its iconographic type is most likely reflected by a copper statuette of a standing, armed Athena in the Promachos style, which was found in the sanctuary of Athena Alea in Tegea.⁷

The sculptor’s activity in Athens has been dated approximately between 540 BC and 520 BC, when he must have been 60 years of age.

Endoios was particularly associated with the tyrants’ court, maintaining at the same time a close relationship with the Ionians who had settled in Athens. Around 550-540 BC he created a seated statue of Athena for the Acropolis of Athens, which was a votive offering by an Athenian aristocrat and relative of the Peisistratids, Callias. This was one of the few archaic statues on the Acropolis that have survived the Persian catastrophe in 480 BC. One could admire this piece of art until at least the 2^nd century AD, close to the Erechtheion.⁸ The statue has been most rightly identified by scholars with the damaged statue of the marble seated statue of Athena (no. 625) in the Acropolis Museum (530-20 BC), which was found lying on the northern side of the Acropolis, below the Erechtheion. It combines elements of both Ionic and Attic sculpture.⁹

The three attested signatures of Endoios also come from Athens. One of them (550-25 BC) is inscribed on the base of a marble grave statue which has been lost – possibly of a kouros, made after a certain Neilonides, who was an Ionian or a Samian installed in Athens.¹⁰ This base was decorated with an inscribed and painted seated male figure – perhaps of the same Neilonides who was dead, or of his father, Neilon, or even of the god Hades – which was also made by Endoios. A second signature of the sculptor has survived on the pillar that supported the lost votive sculpture of Ophsios (530-500 BC),¹¹ next to the signature of a Samian sculptor, Philergos ("Work-lover"), who also worked in Endoios’ workshop. The third signature has survived on the basis of the also lost grave stele of Lampito, who died away from her country, in Ionia (circa 525 BC).¹²

Based on stylistic features, the kore statue (no. 602) in the Acropolis Museum,¹³ which was considered to be standing on the pillar that bore the signatures of Philergos and Endoios,¹⁴ has been rightly ascribed to Endoios. It seems that Endoios, being the master of his workshop, added his own signature on the piece of art that the new, inexperienced sculptor had created.

According to a view that has been strongly doubted, he was probably the creator of the cult statue of Athena Polias in Athens, which was made of olive-tree wood and was the oldest and most renowned cult statue of the goddess. It was preserved in the Erechteion since the Classical period.¹⁵ It seems that Endoios added a face, arms, legs, a golden shield, and a gorgoneion on the ancient, infigurative wooden statue of the goddess, which was believed to have fallen from the sky. The order for this statue was possibly made to Endoios during the construction period of the temple of Athena by the Peisistratids around 520 BC.

The attribution to Endoios of a votive relief from the Acropolis (beginning of the 5^th century BC)¹⁶ based on epigraphic evidence and depicting a potter who is holding two pots, has been dubious. Equally doubtful has been the imputation of a Gigantomachy representation on the northern frieze, as well as the representation of the Agora of Gods on the Eastern frieze of the treasury of the Siphnians at Delphi (around 525 BC).¹⁷ Based on stylistic similarities with the Potter's Relief and Athena (no. 625 of the Acropolis Museum), Endoios – or his workshop team – has been assigned a range of other eminent sculptures and reliefs from Athens. These attributions, however, are equally doubtful. These include, among others, the so called Rayet head in Copenhagen (Museum no. 418), most likely the "ballplayer" base for a kouros (Athens, National Museum, no. 3476), the seated statue of Dionysus from Eleftherias square in Athens (National Museum, no. 3711), and Athena from the Gigantomachy pediment in the Acropolis.¹⁸

3. Evaluation

Endoios has emerged as a strong and innovative artistic personality, inspired by the mature and late Archaic art of Ionia, as far as the elaboration of his sculptures’ is concerned, the garments, the processing of folds, and the typological and iconographic characteristics. At the same time, he gathered strength from the Attic artistic style of the late 6^th century BC, which is distinguished for its vividness, the three-dimensional representation of the figures and their spatial incorporation, as well as its artistic sensitivity. His work opened new horizons and exerted strong influence on the art of the early 5^th century BC.