The lefthand figure was originally headless but was restored in the 17th century, the heyday of interpretive restorations, by
Ippolito Buzzi, when the sculpture was in the collection of Cardinal
Ludovico Ludovisi, using a Hadrianic-era (ca. 130) bust of
Antinous of the Apollo-Antinous type from another statue. The identification of the figures inspired many choices of male pairs during the 17th and 18th centuries. During the 19th century, it became known as "
Antinous and
Hadrian's
genius", to get over the problem of their both being youths, whereas ahistorically it was an important feature of Antinous' relationship with Hadrian that Antinous was a youthful
eromenos and Hadrian an elder
erastes. Alternatively "Antinous and a sacrificial
daemon" was suggested, in reference to the myth that Antinous had killed himself as a sacrifice to lengthen Hadrian's life), or simply as Antinous and Hadrian pledging their fidelity to one another. Other alternative identifications in the past have included: •
Hypnos and
Thanatos, interpreting the sphere as a pomegranate, symbol of death •
Corydon and
Alexis •
Winckelmann's suggestion of
Orestes and
Pylades offering a sacrifice to the statue of goddess
Artemis, which they wanted to seize, or in front of the tomb of murdered Agamemnon. Winckelmann was the first to publish the sculpture, in
Monumenti Antichi Inediti 1767, pp xxi–xxii. All these identifications are now thought to be erroneous and simply due to the figure's restoration as Antinous: the group is now accepted as
Castor and Pollux, offering a sacrifice to
Persephone. Such an identification is based on the right-hand figure, who holds two torches, one downturned (on a flower-wreathed altar) and one upturned (behind his back), and on identifying the woman's sphere as an egg (like that from which the Dioscuri were born). The interpretation was supported by
Goethe, who owned a cast of the group. Some scholars assert that the statute group was originally created by the ancient sculptor
Pasiteles. ==Style==