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Bronze centaur figurine

Χ3141
Metal (Bronze)
Almost intact, missing part of left leg
Height: 5.8 cm.Length: 6 cm.
Syme
Sanctuary of Hermes and Aphrodite
Early Archaic period:
c. 620 BC:
Gallery:
XVII
Case:
165
Exhibition thematic unit:
Geometric - Archaic - Classical period (10th - 4th c. BC). The Sanctuaries. From Minoan cult to the amalgamation of religious beliefs
Sanctuaries
Description
Bronze centaur figurine. The forelegs are human, while the head is particularly angular, with slanted almond-shaped eyes and a curled beard. The figurine is highly naturalistic with solid volumes, characteristics of the late Daedalic style. It may represent the centaur Chiron, the famous trainer and teacher of heroes. Many votive offerings from the Syme Sanctuary are associated with rites of passage of adolescents who had to prove their skills and apply all they had been taught in order to enter the world of adulthood. This figurine is also linked to such rites, as Chiron taught the arts of war, hunting and music, considered necessary to the moral and physical formation of youths and their assimilation in the social framework of the Cretan city-state.
Bibliography:
Lebessi Α., “Ιερόν Ερμού και Αφροδίτης παρά την Κάτω Σύμην Βιάννου”, Αρχαιολογικά Ανάλεκτα εξ Αθηνών VI 1973, 104-114. Michaud J.P., "Chronique des fouilles en 1972", Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique XCVII (1973) 398, fig. 324. Lebessi Α., “ Ιερόν Ερμού και Αφροδίτης εις Σύμην Κρήτης”, Πρακτικά Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρίας 1972, 193-203. Verlinden C. Les statuettes anthropomorphes crétoises en bronze et plomb, du IIIe millénaire au VII siècle av J-C., Louvain-la-Neuve, 1984, 228. Lebessi A., “The relations of Crete and Euboea in the tenth and ninth centuries B.C. The Lefkandi Centaur and his predecessors.”, in Evely D.-Lemos I.S.-Sherratt S. (eds.), Minotaur and Centaur. Studies in the archaeology of Crete and Euboea presented to Mervyn Popham, Oxford, 1996, 149-150, pl. 53c. Lebessi Α., Το Ιερό του Ερμή και της Αφροδίτης στη Σύμη Βιάννου ΙΙΙ. Τα χάλκινα ανθρωπόμορφα ειδώλια, Athens, 2002, 24ff.
Author:
S. P.


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