Wiktionary
n. A sculpture of a naked youth in Ancient Greece, the male equivalent of a kore.
Wikipedia
A kouros (, plural kouroi) is the modern term given to free-standing ancient Greek sculptures which first appear in the Archaic period in Greece and represent nude male youths. In Ancient Greek kouros means "youth, boy, especially of noble rank." The term kouros, was first proposed for what were previously thought to be depictions of Apollo by V. I. Leonardos in 1895 in relation to the youth from Keratea, and adopted by Henri Lechat as a generic term for the standing male figure in 1904. Such statues are found across the Greek-speaking world, the preponderance of these were found in sanctuaries of Apollo with more than one hundred from the sanctuary of Apollo Ptoios, Boeotia, alone. These free-standing sculptures were typically marble, but also the form is rendered in limestone, wood, bronze, ivory and terracotta. They are typically life-sized, though early colossal examples are up to 3 meters tall.
The female sculptural counterpart of the kouros is the kore.
Kouros is a type of Ancient Greek sculpture, which represents a naked male youth.
Kouros may also refer to:
- Kroisos Kouros, a marble kouros from Anavyssos in Attica
- Blond Kouros's Head of the Acropolis, head of a lost marble statue of a young man now in the Acropolis Museum in Athens
- Getty kouros, an over-life-sized dolomitic marble statue bought by the J. Paul Getty Museum
- Kouros of Tenea, the grave statue of a youth from Tenea
Kouros is a perfume for men produced by Yves Saint Laurent. The perfume was introduced in 1981. It was created by perfumer Pierre Bourdon.
The perfume was inspired by a trip to Greece Saint Laurent had taken. He was particularly impressed by the kouroi:
J’avais été fasciné par le bleu de la mer, le ciel, la fraîcheur intense qui émanait de cet univers voué à la beauté. Dans le même temps, j’ai revu les statues de ces jeunes hommes qui sont la splendeur de la statuaire grecque. ... J’avais mon nouveau parfum. Et son nom.
(I had been fascinated by the blue of the sea, the sky, the intense freshness which emanated from this universe dedicated to beauty. At the same time, I saw the statues of these young men who are the splendor of Greek statuary . ... I had my new perfume. And its name.)
A spin-off fragrance Body Kouros was released in 2000, and ''Kouros Fraicheur ''by Yves Saint Laurent, a woody chypre fragrance was launched in 1993
Usage examples of "kouros".
This, in turn, is composed in the alphabet of the Hierophantic court, based at that period on the island of Kouros, yet in the language of an obscure tribe of the southern mountains across the Osiat Sea near Aurenen.
I took a boat in two stages to Kouros, an obscure island in the Cycladic group.
The name of the hotel was Kouros, like the village, the island, the ship that provided passage to and from the island.
He had seen such marks before, carved into the walls of caves on the sacred island of Kouros, and on rocks along the Skalan coastline.
Almost choking on Kouros cologne and looking at his choice of clothes, I wondered what his idea of high profile would be.
Between that, the Kouros, and the lack of air-conditioning, the room was close to unbearable.
Plenimar who think the Twelfth Treaty of Kouros should never have been signed, and that those who say so are anxious to get Petasarian out of the way so his son can set things to rights.
Naked to the waist, every muscle taut, he was sculpted like the Kouros statue in the whirlpool tub at Avalon.