abbreviations

kouros and kore
archaic greece
sculpture

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THE STATUES
The kouri and korae are statues a bit older than what we all know as 'classic' ancient greek period of sculpture.
Their main characteristic is their famous archaic smile (wikipedia). The classic statues do not smile :)

Peplos Kore (Peplophoros) c.530 a.e.v. Acropolis Museum, Athens, no.inv.679 (the kore with a peplos = veil)	Kouros 'Kroisos' (Croesus), tomb statue of 530 a.e.v. found at Anavyssos Athens National Archaeological Museum no.inv.3851 (Anavyssos is a summer resort near Athens)

Lots of them were found carefully buried. The greeks buried their old statues, to make new ones.
[photo] This kore in not from the Acropolis.
But is is a good example of how they all look during excavations.
notes@beazley: buried together in antiquity. The kore's base is preserved: she is Phrasikleia who will 'ever be called maiden, the gods allotting her this title instead of marriage'. About 550 BC.

 

THE GREEK WORDS

KOYPOΣ gre.noun.masc. gre.pronunc: [ˈkuros]
plural: KOYPOI mod.gre.pronunc: ['kuri']
literally = young man
statue: young nude man’s archaic statue. He has no beard.

KOPH gre.n.fem. early archaic script with koppa. gre.pronunc.erasmic ['korε] mod.gre.pronunc: [ˈkori]
plural: anc.gre: KOPAI mod.gre: KOPEΣ
literally = daughter
statue: young dressed woman’s archaic statue

 

LINKS

http://www.fhw.gr/chronos/04/en/culture/322arts_sculp_kouroi_evol.html

Foundation of Hellenic World (FHW) page: http://www.fhw.gr/chronos/04/en/culture/320arts_sculpture_intro.html

Kouri by wikipedia

Photos of many many kouri and korae at cobalt.rocky.edu/~moakm/

links checked in 2007./2017.