ATHENS, Greece (AP) – Haralambos Goumas is a man who fashions gods out of clay – a reversal of most ancient creation myths in which the gods make the men.
Over the past half-century, Goumas, 67, has produced thousands of large terracotta statues of ancient Greek deities, mythical figures and fabulous beasts, mostly for use as architectural and garden ornaments.
They are a rare survival of a vanishing art in recession-plagued Greece, all made by hand using traditional techniques in a western Athens workshop squeezed in among warehouses, small industries and a railyard.
In this Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017 sculptor and ceramicist Haralambos Goumas carries out of a furnace the bust of Homer, whom Greek tradition named as the author of the Iliad and Odyssey epics, at his workshop in the Egaleo suburb of Athens. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
“I guess that in my lifetime I have made many more statues than those in China’s Terracotta Army,” Goumas told the Associated Press.
Like the 2,200-year old, life-sized sculptures of about 9,000 soldiers and imperial officials dug up in northwestern China, many of Goumas’ pieces stand in tidy ranks, in a yard fronting the long, metal-roofed shed with its old-fashioned wood-fired furnace where he works.
Others are scattered apparently randomly: an Athena here, a horse or a satyr there, among bulls’ heads, griffins, sphinxes, garden urns or busts of 5th-century B.C. Athenian philosopher Socrates and the 19th-century Greek poet Dionysios Solomos. There’s even a Christ somewhere.
Most draw from the neoclassical tradition that dominated Greek urban architecture from the 1830s to the 1920s, and was blitzed during unbridled post-World War II redevelopment. Once rejected as trite remnants of an irrelevant past, the original neoclassical terracotta statues that decorated facades, niches and pediments are now highly-prized antiques.
The tenth of 12 children, Goumas was born next to the workshop – initially his father’s porcelain fittings business – that was still surrounded by vineyards and orchards, with the Acropolis dominating the landscape to the east. All his brothers worked there at some point, though he is the only one to have persevered.
“It’s very hard, physically demanding work,” he said. “It’s not so easy to breathe in the smoke from the furnace, or lift these very heavy statues – some weigh 100 kilograms (220 pounds) and the moulds can reach 300 kilograms.”
Although past retirement age, Goumas hopes to continue working and at the same time to create a school for young artists on the site, provided he can raise the necessary funds.
“Then I’ll never have to leave this place,” he said. “I have made so many gods that I believe one or other will help me. (Otherwise,) what did I make them all for?”
In this Friday, Nov. 20, 2017 photo, two terracotta busts of a Caryatid and the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom, Athena, are seen among other ceramic broken pieces in Haralambos Goumas’ sculpture and ceramic workshop, in the Egaleo suburb of Athens. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
In this Friday, Oct. 13, 2017 photo, the bust of the ancient Greek messenger of the gods, Hermes, left, stands among other statues and antefixes in Haralambos Goumas’ sculpture and ceramic workshop, in the Egaleo suburb of Athens. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
In this Thursday, Oct. 19, 2017 photo, sculptor and ceramicist Haralambos Goumas works on a huge terracotta eagle in a mould, at his workshop, in the Egaleo suburb of Athens. Over the past half-century, Goumas, 67, has produced thousands of large terracotta statues of ancient Greek deities, mythical figures and fabulous beasts, mostly for use as architectural and garden ornaments. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
In this Friday, Nov. 20, 2017 photo, a dog lies next to a terracotta statue of Erato, one of the nine Muses of ancient Greek mythology, stands in Haralambos Goumas’ ceramic workshop, in the Egaleo suburb of Athens. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
In this Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2017 photo, sculptor and ceramicist Haralambos Goumas works on a terracotta eagle, at his workshop, in the Egaleo suburb of Athens. Over the past half-century, Goumas, 67, has produced thousands of large terracotta statues of ancient Greek deities, mythical figures and fabulous beasts, mostly for use as architectural and garden ornaments. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
In this Friday, Oct. 13, 2017 photo a dog stands next to ceramic medallions based on ancient Greek coins in Haralambos Goumas’ sculpture and ceramic workshop, in the Egaleo suburb of Athens. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
In this Friday, Oct. 13, 2017 photo, pensioner Panayotis Goumas, 74, helps his brother Haralambos in his sculpture and ceramic workshop, in the Egaleo suburb of Athens. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
In this Friday Dec. 15, 2017 photo, sculptor and ceramIcist Haralambos Goumas works on a terracotta flower pot decorated with the face ancient Greek god of the sea, Poseidon, at his workshop in the Egaleo suburb of Athens. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
In this Friday, Nov. 20, 2017 photo, a sooty, dust-covered terracotta statue of Greek mythological hero Hercules, a son of Zeus, stands on top of a burning furnace next to an antefix in Haralambos Goumas’ sculpture and ceramic workshop, in the Egaleo suburb of Athens. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
In this Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017 photo, sculptor and ceramicist Haralambos Goumas works on a terracotta statue of Hermes, messenger of the ancient Greek gods, at his workshop in the Egaleo suburb of Athens. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
In this Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2017 photo, sculptor and ceramicist Haralambos Goumas works on a terracotta eagle, at his workshop, in the Egaleo suburb of Athens. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
In this Friday, Nov. 20, 2017 photo, smoke the terracotta statue of Athens, ancient Greek goddess of wisdom and patron of Athens, left, stands in front of Apollo, god of light and music, in Haralambos Goumas’ sculpture and ceramic workshop, in the Egaleo suburb of Athens. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
In this Friday, Nov. 20, 2017 photo, the terracotta statues of ancient Greek muses Erato, left, and Clio, stand in Haralambos Goumas’ sculpture and ceramic workshop, in the Egaleo suburb of Athens. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
In this Friday, Nov. 20, 2017 photo, sculptor and ceramicist Haralambos Goumas looks into the fire as he tries to control the temperature of the furnace in his workshop in the Egaleo suburb of Athens. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
In this Tuesday Dec. 19, 2017 photo, terracotta statues, busts, antefixes and flower pots stands in the yard of Haralambos Goumas’ sculpture and ceramic workshop, in the Egaleo suburb of Athens. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
In this Tuesday, Dec 19, 2017 photo, a pickup track drives on a street of Athens carrying a terracotta statue of Zeus, chief among the ancient Greek gods, made by sculptor and ceramicist Haralambos Goumas. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
In this Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017 photo, a woman walks past a neoclassical building decorated with terracotta statues of the muses, on the roof, and Atlases, flanking the windows, made by sculptor and ceramicist Haralambos Goumas in Piraeus, the port of Athens. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
In this Friday, Nov. 20, 2017 photo, rays of sunlight shine on sculptor and ceramicist Haralambos Goumas as he works in his workshop, in the Egaleo suburb of Athens. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
In this Friday, Nov. 20, 2017 photo, the terracotta statue of Ares, the ancient Greek god of war, middle, stands among other statues, busts, antefixes and flowers pots in the yard of Haralambos Goumas’ sculpture and ceramic workshop, in the Egaleo suburb of Athens. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
In this Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017 photo, sculptor and ceramicist Haralambos Goumas touches a terracotta statue of Hermes, messenger of the ancient Greek gods, at his workshop in the Egaleo suburb of Athens. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
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