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In the first large-scale depictions during the early archaic period ( 640 – 580 BC ), the artists tried to draw one's attention to look into the interior of the face and the body which were not represented as lifeless masses, but as being full of life.

The Greeks maintained, until late in their civilization, an almost animistic idea that the statues are in some sense alive.

This embodies the belief that the image was somehow the god or man himself.

A fine example is the statue of the Sacred gate Kouros which was found at the cemetery of Dipylon in Athens ( Dipylon Kouros ).

The statue is the " thing in itself ", and his slender face with the deep eyes express an intellectual eternity.

According to the Greek tradition the Dipylon master was named Daedalus, and in his statues the limbs were freed from the body, giving the impression that the statues could move.

It is considered that he created also the New York kouros, which is the oldest fully preserved statue of Kouros type, and seems to be the incarnation of the god himself.