We have much evidence about the Greek presence in Egypt during the Archaic period. Tradition maintains that “the pharaoh Psammetichos I (664-610 B.C.) invited east Greek mercenaries to serve him against his enemies, which, in turn, resulted in concessions to Greeks to settle and trade in Egypt (Boardman, 18)”. This led to the growth and prosperity of the city of Naukratis during the 26th Dynasty (664–525 B.C.) in the northwestern Nile River Delta. In the present day, excavations have revealed a Milesian temple to Apollo, a Samian temple to Hera, a temple to the Dioskouroi, a temple to Aphrodite. Numerous fragments of Archaic Greek statuettes found scattered about the site of the Temple

First, one study compared profiles of three Archaic Greek nude kouroi, the New York Kouros , the Thera Kouros (Figure 5), and the twelve kouroi from Athens, and the Egyptian Canon II style of statue. In it, a method called the z-score analysis provides an accurate graph of the profile of a statue where each z-score represents an index of similarity, or standard deviation, of particular parts between a statue and the average human (Gularnick, 1985). It also plots the data gained from a few statues onto one graph so that similarities and differences can be seen between them. Such profile traits as depths, widths, heights, and distances of the chest, waist buttocks, shoulders, and hips to other body parts were analyzed carefully. From it, the three Greek statues are shown very similar to the Egyptian second canon for men. “The canon and the kouroi similar to it consistently differ from men in the extremely slender waist, about three standard deviations from that of a perfectly average man (Guralnick, 1985).” The New York Kouros differs by one standard deviation only three times when compared to the Egyptian canon. The Theras Kouros also only differs from that of the Egyptian with a subtle broadening of its chest.

Probably the most important of facet of Egyptian sculpture integrated into Greek was the fact that they were life-sized. “The size appealed to that sense for the monumental, which the Iron Age Greeks had so far expressed only in their architecture and pottery (Boardman, 18).” Also, since no evidence of Greek statues that possessed this new concept can be accurately dated before this period of contact with Egypt, Archaic Greek sculpture drew at least some influence from the Ancient Egyptian culture.

Also, while most of their bodies are covered, most anatomical features are found in their faces. In the Walter’s Statuette, her head is shaped like an egg, with its axis running from the chin to the back of the crown. Almond-shaped, Ionic slanting eyes “converge nicely to the curved surface of the head, providing a subtly slanted appearance from the front (Benson, 2001).” The face is oval and is marked by high cheekbones and a small mouth that curves into a slight Archaic smile, giving her a hint of personality, as the chin projects outward.

A study was performed that sought out similarities in the proportions of kouroi and the Egyptian canon for men (Guralnick, 1978). In this analysis, the computer was instructed to classify statues into groups. So, as the number of statues increased, the number of groups increased, but the degree of dissimilarity of the statues in one group decreased. These clustering procedures, thus, analyzed sets of proportional variables, which, in turn, grouped these statues. The results show that the most similar kouroi to the Egyptian Canon II are the New York Kouros and the Athens 12 Kouros. In fact, according to the variables that they were compared upon, the New York kouros and the canon are exactly alike in every respect.

Since there was unmistakable proof of the Greek presence in Naukratis, and coupled with the Greeks characteristic curiosity, similarities showed in the resultant statuary sculpted by the Greeks. These similarities both involve the profile and the proportion of the male and female Greek kouroi and korai and the Egyptian male and female statues during this period.

Some topics in this essay:
Archaic Greek, York Kouros, Canon II, Walter’s Statuette, Statuette Figure, Egyptian Kouroi, Egypt Archaic, Herodotus Greek, Ancient Egyptian, Theras Kouros, archaic greek, egyptian canon, york kouros, archaic greek sculpture, greek sculpture, male female, walter’s statuette, egyptian canon ii, canon ii, archaic period, greek sculpture differs, greek korai, benson 2001”, egyptian canon guralnick, kouroi egyptian canon,