Knabe mit Jugendlocke

The head of a boy, recognizable from the portrait-like features, stems from a Hellenistic smaller-than-life votive statue. The full, broad face has a high forehead, narrow eyes with thick stressed lids, a somewhat pinched nose, a large mouth with small upper lip and a small, round cleft-chin. The ears are small, but distinctly carved. The hairstyle consists of short, flowing locks which -- apart from a swirl on the back of the head -- cover the cranium. The forehead is framed with forelocks or kiss-curls. On the back of the head one can discern a long, plaited pony-tail. This points to the presence of the ‘youth-lock’ which has been known since the Hellenistic period, and is a sign of the servants of Horus. The pony-tail would be cut off as a sign of adulthood around the boy’s 14th year. Boys’ heads with ‘youth-locks’ were often created in Cyprus from the third century B. C.

A. Bernhard-Walcher u. a., Die Sammlung zyprischer Antiken im KHM. Sammlungskataloge des KHM Bd. 2, Wien: 1999