Dating

The charioteer was found in a stratigraphic layer associated with the destruction of Motya in 397 BC, which provides a terminus ante quem. Several stylistic features make clear that it dates from the 470s BC and is an early example of Classical sculpture. This early date is suggested by the depiction of the hair with rows of snail curls, which is typical of Archaic Greek sculpture, as well as the bulging veins. Such veins were first depicted in sculpture by Pythagoras of Rhegium ca. 480-470 BC, suggesting a date around this time. Moreover, the facial features are similar to those of the figures in the pedimental sculpture of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, which dates to the 460s BC.^[3]

Subject

The subject of the statue is heavily disputed. It clearly belongs within the Greek sculptural tradition, but Motya was a Punic settlement. Which of these two factors should be given preeminence in interpreting the statue is an open question.

Scholars who foreground the Punic context of the sculpture have seen it as depicting a Punic priest. In this interpretation, the belt around the figure's chest is compared to a piece of priestly regalia seen in depictions of priests in Punic art. Some go further and see the sculpture specifically as a depiction of Hamilcar I of Carthage, who led the invasion of Sicily that culminated in the Battle of Himera in 480 BC, and is depicted as a priest in Greek literary sources.

Scholars such as R. R. R. Smith, who emphasise the Greek artistic context, interpret the sculpture as a depiction of a charioteer celebrating a victory in one of the Panhellenic Games. On this interpretation, the chiton and belt are the chiton poderos or xystis, the traditional costume worn by charioteers – to be compared with that worn by the Charioteer of Delphi. One objection to this interpretation is the starkly different postures of the Motya Charioteer and the Charioteer of Delphi. However, Smith argues that this difference reflects the divergent status of the two charioteers. Usually, the owners of chariots entered in the Panhellenic Games did not drive their own chariots, instead employing professional drivers. Sculptural groups commemorating victories commonly depicted the charioteer, but presented him in an impassive guise and focused attention on a figure of the victorious owner. Some chariots, however, were driven by their owners; examples include Herodotus of Thebes and Thrasybulus of Acragas. In that case, the victorious owner and the charioteer would be one and the same. Smith proposes that the Motya sculpture depicts an owner-charioteer of this type, arguing that "the swaggering whole embodied agonistic arete as conceived in the early fifth century BC."^[3]

Scholars who favour this latter interpretation have tended to explain the charioteer's presence in the Punic settlement of Motya by regarding it as war booty seized from one of the Sicilian Greek centres destroyed in the Carthaginian invasion of Sicily in 410–404 BC. R. R. R. Smith argues that this explanation may not be necessary, given the large Greek population resident in Motya as well as the familiarity of the Punic inhabitants of Motya with Greek culture.^[4][3]