Diskobolos (Discus Thrower)

ca. 460 B.C. Stewart, T43: Pliny the Elder, Natural History 34.58 (Natural History completed by 77 A.D.) He seems to have been the first to extend the representation of natural truth, being more rhythmical in his art than Polykleitos and more careful over proportion (symmetria); yet though he was very attentive to the bodies of his figures he does not seem to have expressed the feelings of the mind, and also did not treat the hair and the pubes any more correctly than did the rude art of old. Stewart, T44: Lucian, Philopseudes (Lovers of Lies) 18 (a second century A.D. work) The discus-thrower... [is] the one bent over into the throwing-position, with his head turned back to the hand that holds the discus, and the opposite knee slightly flexed, like one who will spring up again after the throw?... That's one of Myron's works. Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria (Training of an Orator) 2.13.10 (a literary work which was completed before 96 A.D.): What work is there which is as distorted and elaborate as that Diskobolos of Myron? But if anyone should criticize this work because it was not sufficiently upright, would he not reveal a lack of understanding of the art, in which the most praiseworthy quality is this very novelty and difficulty?