Theseus slays the Minotaur

Along with Herakles, Theseus was one of the most beloved heroes in classical antiquity. Son of the mythical Attic king Aigeus, Theseus (like Herakles) had to accomplish numerous heroic deeds in his youth – including battling various monsters. One such was the Minotaur, a creature half bull and half man, vanquished by Theseus in the Cretan labyrinth. The hero thus freed his home city of Athens from the frightful tribute it was condemned to pay every year: fourteen young men and women sent as offerings to the Minotaur. This episode is one of the oldest in Theseid epic as well as one of the most frequently represented heroic deeds in ancient art for centuries. Its popularity peaked, however, in the Archaic and Classical periods, from the seventh to fifth centuries BC.
The bronze group in Berlin shows Theseus and the Minotaur in the defining moment of their struggle. Theseus has lept onto his foe from behind and knocks him to the ground. With his left thigh against his enemy’s right flank, he pushes with all his might. The Minotaur falls forward, his left knee about to hit the ground and his right big toe already touching it. Theseus holds the Minotaur’s horn firmly in his left hand and his shoulder in his right. Defending himself, albeit weakly, the Minotaur tries to wrest Theseus’ arm from his horn – yet he rests his right hand uselessly across his chest. The hero’s victory in this wrestling match is imminent: in the next instant he will break the monster’s neck.
The piece is hollow-cast and very well preserved. It was minimally restored right after its purchase and conserved again in 1968. The remarkably similar shape of the two figures’ right legs and upper bodies indicates that models for the body parts were made in the same moulds before being individually reworked into wax models for the bronze casting (observed by Uwe Peltz). Flattened areas on the backs of both figures, otherwise highly plastic in their rendering, hint at the group’s original function: rather than a standalone object, the piece was an appliqué. We can only speculate about what it once adorned, but a chest or other piece of furniture seems likely.
Stylistic and formal criteria suggest a date in the late Hellenistic period, long agreed upon by scholars. A large bronze appliqué of the same subject and composition from Lixus (today Morocco, now in the museum in Rabat) serves as confirmation that both the Berlin group from Asia Minor and its north African pendant copy a large-scale sculpture now lost. Whether this model was an original creation of the late Hellenistic or late Classical period is debatable.
The supposition sometimes expressed in recent scholarship that this mythological group is an allegory for a victorious Hellenistic king is unconvincing. It is contravened in the first place by the complete lack of portrait features on the Theseus figure – even the fillet in his hair is normal for heroes. Comparing the piece with standalone statuettes of Ptolemaic and Seleukid kings in wrestling or boxing matches reveals only the broadest formal similarities.