Apollo Archegete (“the one who guides”) is an original Greek sculpture realised at the beginning of the fifth century BC, preserved in the Civic Museum of Castello Ursino in Catania. It is the result of a courageous refurbishment work, where the operators decided to unify the two different sculptural remains, discovered between the ‘700 and the beginning of the ‘900 in Lentini, the old Lentinoi, a Chalcidian Colony of Sicily: the “Torso of kouros of Lentini”, already preserved in the Archaeological Museum “Paolo Orsi” of Syracuse, and the ”Biscari Head”, which was in Catania, in the Civic Museum of Castello Ursino.
The comparison with its contemporary, and very similar, Apollo Reggino of the Museo of Reggio, allowed our reconstruction: with gold blond hair, a bow in the left hand, and a patera in the right extended arm.
The similarity between the two statues of Apollo is not surprising, as a matter of fact, the god Archegete was the medium of the various Chalcidian poleis, which created an alliance between the cities Rhegion, Messene, Leontinoi, Katane, Naxos e Himera, since they were attacked in a war by the Dorians of Sicily at the beginning of the V century BC.
English translation by Corinna Castrizio.
