The Kouros - Buddha meets Mona Lisa

The Kalymnos kouros is a rare, smiling statue of an androgynous youth. In its serene face are echoes of both the Buddha and Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

This site, compiled by writer Faith Warn, who has lived on the Greek island of Kalymnos, tells the full story of the kouros recently discovered there. Its historical and archaeological importance, its connection to Britain and the modern world and its philosophical meaning.

The kouros is the oldest and most valuable of 26 statues in a record-breaking discovery, the only haul of antiquities of its kind in Greece and the biggest find for 50 years. The sculptures span five centuries and were buried at the site of a temple to the god Apollo (see left).

Kouros statues became extremely popular in the Archaic Greek era, about 650-500 BC, between the Dark Ages following the fall of the goddess culture of Minoan Crete and the Classical period of ancient Greece. The female version, usually clothed, was known as a kore. Most male kouroi were huge, naked and muscular but the Kalymnos kouros is child-sized and wears a tunic.

Dating from about 530 BC, the kouros is exquisitely carved from marble and bears an inscription. This skill and delicacy make it a new link between Archaic and Classical Greek art.

This work of art can transform the story and fortune of the Kalymnian people. Their vibrant culture and tradition of male machismo alongside female inheritance have survived the hardships of foreign occupation, economic migration and the deadly trade of sponge diving.

For all of humanity, the kouros offers gentle invitations. To be aware of our spiritual nature and connection with each other, to integrate the masculine and feminine within us, to harmonise with the natural world and explore the purpose and potential of our existence.

Now cleaned and restored, the kouros is displayed in a newly opened Museum of Archaeology on Kalymnos in the Dodecanese Islands, along with other Classical, Hellenistic and Roman statues from the underground cache.

Find out more about the Kouros...