The head of Hercules was found off the coast of the island of Antikythera

Near the Greek island of Antikythera in the Ionian Sea, underwater archaeologists have found the head of a marble sculpture of Hercules. The main part of the work was discovered more than a century ago, back in 1900, at the site of a shipwreck. Today it is kept in the collection of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. The found head is made on a 2:1 scale and depicts an ancient Greek mythical hero with curly hair and a beard. Despite the traces of time covering the entire face, the experts determined that the statue belongs to the Farnese type.

Hercules of Farnese is one of the most famous sculptures of the ancient period. The scene depicts the son of Zeus after one of his twelve labors - the theft of the apples of the Hesperides, which he holds behind his back. The bronze original of the statue was created by Lysippos in the 4th century. BC e., but it has not survived to the present day. In the III century. BC e. sculptor Glikon made a marble copy of Hercules. It was she who got her name in honor of Duke Alessandro Farnese, also known as Pope Paul III. Farnese ordered to excavate the baths of the emperor Caracalla, and during the archaeological work in 1546 a marble sculpture was discovered. There are many other replicas similar to the original, one of them sank off the coast of Andikitira.

During the study of the bottom, the researchers also found the pedestal of the statue, the wreckage of the ship, a fragment of the anchor. The island of Antikythera is famous for many unique finds of the ancient world, including the legendary Antikythera mechanism and a two-meter bronze statue of an ephebe. Until now, the seabed hides many secrets, since many artifacts are located in hard-to-reach places at great depths.