Representing the fonder: some observations of Taras stat- ue from the Thermae Pentascinenses of Taranto

Abstract

The paper focuses on a small white marble statue of Na-
tional Archaeological Museum of Taranto, coming from
the Terme Pentascinensi. The epigraph in Greek states that
it is a dedication to the god Taras, datable between the end
of the second and the beginning of the third century A.D.
Through an iconographic study of the god and the found-
ing heroes, an attempt is made to reconstruct the process
of structuring the foundation’s myth of Taranto over the
centuries, from the Archaic age to the Middle Roman Em-
pire: in fact, an overlap/replacement of Falantos with Taras
and this one becomes the new founder, represented with
the Delphic symbols. Finally, the context of origin is ana-
lyzed in its continuity from the Greek gymnasium ideal to
the Roman thermal one.