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Plaque with "Athena"

Π33017
Reddish-brown clay
Mended from two fragments, restored on lower right. Worn surface
Height: 20.5 cm. Width: 10.5 cm.
Smari
Sanctuary of Athena on the Acropolis
Archaic period:
650-630 BC:
Gallery:
XVII
Case:
167
Exhibition thematic unit:
Geometric - Archaic - Classical period (10th - 4th c. BC). The Sanctuaries. From Minoan cult to the amalgamation of religious beliefs
Sanctuaries
Description
Irregular four-sided plaque stressing the vertical dimension, with the right side following the length of the image. There are two suspension holes near the upper corners. Relief depiction of a female figure in right profile, according to the conventions of Daedalic art, in which the body must nevertheless be shown frontally. The figure is wearing an unusual head covering, perhaps a simple conical helmet with a long crest, a long, ground-length chiton (tunic) with deep vertical folds, and an elaborate epiblema (shoulder-mantle). Her right arm is bent in front of her chest, hand holding an small, indistinct object, probably a fruit, while she holds a flower in her extended left hand. According to the excavator of the sanctuary, the female figure is identified as the goddess Athena, although clear iconographic indications supporting this interpretation are absent, based on later pictorial types of the goddess. It is interesting, in any case, that examples of the same plaque or minor variations of it are also known from sanctuaries in the Lasithi area (Agios Georgios and Plati) and Lato.
Bibliography:
D. Hatzi-Vallianou, "Η λατρεία της Αθηνάς στην Ακρόπολη Σμαρίου", Πεπραγμένα Η΄Κρητολογικού συνεδρίου (Ηράκλειο 9-14 Σεπτεμβρίου 1996), Heraklion 2000, 511-515, 535 photo 10δ.
Author:
K. S.


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