This sculpture shows 2 men called Orestes and Pylades.
The sculpture is also named the Group of San Ildefonso after its exhibition site in La Granja de San Ildefonso in Segovia.
Orestes and Pylades are the protagonists of a story from Greek mythology.
Mythology is the collection of stories about the gods, heroes and traditions specific to nations or cultures.
Orestes was the son Agamemnon.
Agamemnon was the king of Mycenae.
When Agamemnon returned to Mycenae from the Trojan War, his wife and her lover murdered him.
Orestes lived in the house of his friend Pylades, far from Mycenae.
When Orestes heard of murdering his father, he decided to take revenge and kill his mother and her lover.
Orestes was punished for killing his mother and her lover.
The god Apollo ordered him to find a statue of Artemis and to take it to Athens.
Pylades accompanied Orestes on this journey, but they were captured before completing their task.
One of them had to sacrifice himself to save the other.
But two friends offered to sacrifice themselves.
They became an example of true friendship.
The sculpture represents 2 naked figures facing the viewer.
One of the men has his arm around the neck of the other.
Their bodies lean because each man rests his total weight on one leg.
This inclination allows the viewer to see a triangle gap between the 2 men.
In the middle, we can see the arm of one of the men with a torch pointing to a small altar.
On the right side of the figures, there is a small statue of the goddess Artemis.
This is the sculpture Apollo had ordered Orestes and Pylades to find.
