Striding figure

The unknown subject of this sculpture is shown in the traditional striding pose for men—left foot forward, arms at the sides, fist clenched—that was already 3000 years old when this statue was made. The softened musculature and curving contours allow us to date it to the Ptolemaic Dynasty (300–30 BCE), when Egypt was ruled by the descendants of Alexander the Great’s general Ptolemy, though the hieroglyphic inscription by the extended left leg mentions the Roman Emperor Commodus (reigned 180–192 CE). By the time of Commodus’s reign, Egypt was part of the Roman Empire, and he wished to represent himself to his Egyptian subjects in a manner they recognized—even if it meant usurping the statue of another person from another time.