Kouros of Apollonas, Naxos, 6th Century BC;
Jasper Quentin dress, Neous Jumel sandal, Nikos Koulis Look earrings, Nikos Koulis Look long necklace, Nikos Koulis Look long lariat necklace worn around waist, Nikos Koulis Look bracelet, Nikos Koulis Look ring
Kouros of Faranghi, Naxos, 6th Century BC;
Jasper Stanley dress, Ancient Greek Sandals Iro jelly flats in nude
Kouros of Faranghi, Naxos, 6th Century BC;
Jasper Stanley dress, Ancient Greek Sandals Iro jelly flats in nude, Nikos Koulis Look earrings, Nikos Koulis Look long necklace, Nikos Koulis Look long lariat necklace worn around waist, Nikos Koulis Look bracelet, Nikos Koulis Look ring
of a Naxian marble God
from 6th Century BC
With eyes only for stone
I floated for the first time
at the height of a statuary-filled summer
Polishing my tongue on a pumice moon
gold, diamonds, flesh, love, jasper
the sun pours down like honey
Sleeping Giants
much larger in time than in physical space
resting in wild and naked perfection
Your contour flows to me
warm marble taste
The absence of a feeling of flesh
characteristic style of your maker
renders you forever lovely
Who can choose the sun-drenched moment
when time is ready to receive us
We demand the hidden love
a new mystique
of everyone we meet
The hidden love not the daily love
cult of Dionysos worship routine
On the Cycladic island of Naxos three Kouroi dating from the Archaic period of Ancient Greece lie unspoiled in nature surrounded by olive trees, abandoned in the quarries where they were conceived some 2,700 years ago for reasons that remain a mystery. Winding up the coast of the myth-soaked land of Naxos in an ancient quarry we meet. The Kouros of Apollonas or the Colossus of Dionysus, the God to which your monumental 10.7 meter tall, 80 ton form is attributed to sun, light, poetry or the latter wine and ecstasy is unclear. The deep lineage of sculpture experienced in raw gravitas was something felt in the bone of my being. Land art from the era of antiquity cut with Persian origins, two looks by Jasper, the first, a sculpted form that gives way to striations in free flow tangles the roots of two ancient civilizations with colossal artistic ambition.
As the afternoon crept in we continued our journey to the interior of the island where two other Kouroi lie. En route to the Sanctuary of the Springs at Flerio, the sight was one where I thought I’d been slipped mushrooms at lunch, an entire mountainside sliced open to reveal unfathomable gleaming white marble slabs with blue-grey shimmering veins. The ancient quarries from which the roof of the Parthenon is composed continue to supply marble to the modern industry.
A through line we reached the Sanctuary of the Source, ascending a lush, meandering village garden where we had a first blush with the Kouros of Flerio. With the press of a sunset so gold I thought I might turn, we proceeded through olive groves, terraced hills, and clusters of goats to the Kouros of Faranghi, which dates to the early second quarter of the 6th century BC. In the Archaic period, sculptures acquired their rough shape in the quarry and were transported to their destination for final refinement. Transportation on the slope was achieved by moving them with ropes and wooden sledges over a layer of chips — little pieces of marble produced during the rough carving process. The Kouros of Faranghi never left its quarry, as its legs, seen in part here, were broken.
The word marble is derived from the Greek marmairein (to shine). Blessed by the God of contemporary jewelry in Greece, Nikos Koulis, high-polished gold and diamonds set suspended to create a mirror-like assemblage complete my worship routine to the Goddess of the Springs. The next day in Koufonisia, I float effortlessly for the first time.
Photographs by Job Piston