Apellas () was a sculptor of
ancient Greece
Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...
who made, in bronze, statues of worshipping females (''ad orantes feminas''). He made the statue of
Cynisca
Cynisca (; or Kyniska, ; born ) was a wealthy Spartan princess. She is famous for being the first woman to win at the Olympic Games. Cynisca first entered the Olympics in 396 BC, where she won first prize competing with a team of horses she had t ...
, who conquered in the chariot race at
Olympia. Cynisca was sister to
Agesilaus II
Agesilaus II (; ; 445/4 – 360/59 BC) was king of Sparta from 400 to 360 BC. Generally considered the most important king in the history of Sparta, Agesilaus was the main actor during the period of Spartan hegemony that followed the Peloponn ...
, king of
Sparta
Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...
, who died at the age of 84, in 362 BCE. Therefore, the victory of Cynisca, and the time when Apellas flourished, may be placed about 400. His name indicates his Doric origin.
His father Callicles and his grandfather
Theocosmus were also sculptors.
The writer
Diogenes Laërtius
Diogenes Laërtius ( ; , ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Little is definitively known about his life, but his surviving book ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal source for the history of ancient Greek ph ...
mentions a different man with this name, a
sceptic philosopher with the name Apellas, about whom nothing else is known.
Diogenes Laërtius
Diogenes Laërtius ( ; , ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Little is definitively known about his life, but his surviving book ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal source for the history of ancient Greek ph ...
, ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
Diogenes Laërtius ( ; , ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Little is definitively known about his life, but his surviving book ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal source for the history of ancient Greek phi ...
'' 9.106
Notes
4th-century BC Greek sculptors
362 deaths
{{AncientGreece-bio-stub