The Inopos

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It's evident that in ancient times Alexander was a shape-shifting figure indeed, more of an archetype than a person. For not only was his own personality multifaceted and contradictory, but his accomplishments sparked wildly divergent and contradictory reactions from those who encountered him. So he quickly became a stereotype or rather a set of stereotypes or commonplaces to be invoked in images that are wildly diverse in character, quality, type, origin, date, and, apparently, purpose. All this points less to a Hellenistic and Roman "portrait" of Alexander than to a complex and multifaceted use of his image and its attendant connotations that extended over many centuries. His face was the most influential in history. Originally thought to represent the Cycladic river god Inopos, the nearly one meter tall fragmented bust known as The Inopos is now widely accepted as a portrait of Alexander the Great. If the full figure had survived intact, it would stand at well over eight feet tall—godlike scale. At the Louvre, the imposing, larger-than-life figure remains largely unnoticed, staring down at the crowds that flock to see the Venus de Milo just twenty feet away (compare the photos from the Louvre and CES).