DOI chapter:
Division A: The Agora and adjacent buildings lying to the west and north of the Acropolis, from the city gate to the Prytaneion
DOI chapter:Section III
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61302#0218
46
MYTHOLOGY AND MONUMENTS
DIV. A
made the relief drew his inspiration from it, certainly in such
matters as pose and attributes. The “ Great Mother ” is here
represented seated. She wears a modius (a head-dress common
to the other earth goddess, Demeter) and long veil ; her feet rest
on a footstool, as was customary in the representation of deities of
high rank ; in her right hand a bossed phiale, in her left the
tympanon or cymbals. A small, attributive lion rests in her lap.
The relief has, in common with the statue of Pheidias, the seated
position, the tympanon, and the lion ; but in the statue of
Pheidias the lion was beneath the chair. The somewhat
grotesque notion of the lion in the lap belongs to an earlier,
more symbolic manner. On the pillar on the one side is a youth
holding an oinochoe in the right hand and in the left an object
shown in the plate as a caduceus but in the original uncertain.
He is an attendant of the Mother’s, to whom a name cannot as
yet with certainty be given, but he is a constant feature in the
votive reliefs. On the other pillar is a woman figure with torches.
This relief is of special interest because of the inscriptions. On
the left-hand pillar (z.<?., to the left of the goddess) is written
“ Manes to the Mother ” (ΜΑΝΗΣ MHTPI), to the right
“and Mika to the mother of the gods” (KAI MIKA MHTPI
ΘΕΩΝ), so that there is not a shadow of a doubt to whom
the reliefs are dedicated. It should be noted that the title is
simply Mother of the Gods ; there is no mention of Rhea or
Cybele. The form of the letters points to the fourth or, at latest,
third century B.C. ; but the formal type of the stiff-seated goddess,
the attributive lion, and the rigid gestures tell of a type form
conceived at least a couple of centuries earlier. The relief is
coarsely executed, the work, no doubt, of a cheap relief-maker.
It was dedicated probably by some poor couple of the lower
classes.
The second relief (fig. io), from the Museum at Berlin
(No. 691), found in the Peiraeus, has been chosen because the
lion seated beneath the chair and the superior grace and beauty
of the style bring it nearer to our conception of the work of
Pheidias. It is, of course, post-Pheidian (fourth century). The
old attributes of tympanon and phiale are retained but held with
added grace, and the youth and maiden are brought into one
group with the goddess. Comparing it with Attic grave reliefs, it
may be placed about 400 B.C. A craftsman working at that date
could scarcely have been uninfluenced by the temple statue of
Pheidias.
MYTHOLOGY AND MONUMENTS
DIV. A
made the relief drew his inspiration from it, certainly in such
matters as pose and attributes. The “ Great Mother ” is here
represented seated. She wears a modius (a head-dress common
to the other earth goddess, Demeter) and long veil ; her feet rest
on a footstool, as was customary in the representation of deities of
high rank ; in her right hand a bossed phiale, in her left the
tympanon or cymbals. A small, attributive lion rests in her lap.
The relief has, in common with the statue of Pheidias, the seated
position, the tympanon, and the lion ; but in the statue of
Pheidias the lion was beneath the chair. The somewhat
grotesque notion of the lion in the lap belongs to an earlier,
more symbolic manner. On the pillar on the one side is a youth
holding an oinochoe in the right hand and in the left an object
shown in the plate as a caduceus but in the original uncertain.
He is an attendant of the Mother’s, to whom a name cannot as
yet with certainty be given, but he is a constant feature in the
votive reliefs. On the other pillar is a woman figure with torches.
This relief is of special interest because of the inscriptions. On
the left-hand pillar (z.<?., to the left of the goddess) is written
“ Manes to the Mother ” (ΜΑΝΗΣ MHTPI), to the right
“and Mika to the mother of the gods” (KAI MIKA MHTPI
ΘΕΩΝ), so that there is not a shadow of a doubt to whom
the reliefs are dedicated. It should be noted that the title is
simply Mother of the Gods ; there is no mention of Rhea or
Cybele. The form of the letters points to the fourth or, at latest,
third century B.C. ; but the formal type of the stiff-seated goddess,
the attributive lion, and the rigid gestures tell of a type form
conceived at least a couple of centuries earlier. The relief is
coarsely executed, the work, no doubt, of a cheap relief-maker.
It was dedicated probably by some poor couple of the lower
classes.
The second relief (fig. io), from the Museum at Berlin
(No. 691), found in the Peiraeus, has been chosen because the
lion seated beneath the chair and the superior grace and beauty
of the style bring it nearer to our conception of the work of
Pheidias. It is, of course, post-Pheidian (fourth century). The
old attributes of tympanon and phiale are retained but held with
added grace, and the youth and maiden are brought into one
group with the goddess. Comparing it with Attic grave reliefs, it
may be placed about 400 B.C. A craftsman working at that date
could scarcely have been uninfluenced by the temple statue of
Pheidias.