Headless kourotrophos statuette
Γ44
White marble
Missing head and hands of kourotrophos and most of child's body
Preserved height: 48 cm.
Knossos
Roman period:
120-140 AD:
Gallery:
XXVIICase:
Not in caseExhibition thematic unit:
Sculpture. Hellenistic period (3rd-2nd c. BC) Roman period (1st c. BC-3rd c. AD)Description
Small statue of a standing female figure of the kourotrophos type. She is wearing a richly pleated peplos with apoptygma overfold, and closed shoes. Standing with her weight on her left leg, with her right leg relaxed, she is holding a small child (Zeus?) to her left side. The child is unfortunately largely lost today, as it was made from a separate piece of marble, as we see from the mortise for the iron dowel. The identification of the statue type is contested. It has been associated with the famous Eirene bearing Plutus, the work of Cephisodotus, the father of Praxiteles, but most scholars tend to view it as representing the goddess Eileithyia, the protector of pregnant women and children, whose cult was very popular in Crete. In any case, this is a quality sculpture imitating an Attic model; it may have been a votive offering to a shrine of the goddess at Knossos.Bibliography:
B. Schweitzer, Εἰλειθυία κουροτρόφος, Leipziger Winckelmann Programm 1933, 1-4. N. Platon, A Guide to the Archaeological Museum of Heraclion, Athens 1964, 152. E. La Rocca, "Eirene e Ploutos", Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 89, 1974, 132. S. Pingiatoglou, Eileithyia, Würzburg 1981, 83, no. 7. Th. Hadzisteliou-Price, Kourotrophos. Cults and Representations of the Greek Nursing Deities, Leiden 1978, 61 no. 564, fig. 47. Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae III (1986), 694 s.v. Eileithyia, no. 91 (contribution by R. Olmos). A. Delivorrias, "Γαῖαν παμμήτειραν ἀείσομαι ἠυθέμελον", in S. Pingiatoglou - Th. Stefanidou-Tiveriou (eds), Νάματα. Τιμητικός τόμος για τον καθηγητή Δημήτριο Παντερμαλή, Thessaloniki 2011, 33–43. D. Sourlas, "In Search of Eileithyia and Aphrodite Pandemos: Two New Classical Reliefs from Athens", in H. Frielinghaus – Jutta Stroszeck (eds), Kulte und Heiligtümer in Griechenland. Neue Funde und Forschungen, Möhnesee 2017, 170.Author:
K. S.Photographs' metadata