Statue Of Athena

Description

The goddess wears sandals and a chiton over which a pleated blouse reaches her hips. Her chest is covered with an aegis—a goatskin decorated with a Medusa head. The rendering of the sleeves and helmet betrays a lack of familiarity with Greek garments; it looks like armor with the sleeves of the chiton underneath, and the helmet has an almost baroque outline with the separately worked crest. On her left arm the goddess wears a round shield with a Medusa head (a well known element to ward off evil). In her raised right hand she once held a spear. The position of her feet, and the garment swirling back reminds us of the many other statues of victory from the same workshops.

The native population presumably saw this statue as the goddess Allat, the equivalent of Athena. The base has a Greek votive inscription: “For the health of our ruler,” not mentioning the emperor by name. The rendering of the eyes indicates a date around the turn of the first century

  • Excavated from: Hawran, Areeqa (عريقة)

  • Acquisition: June 1947

  • Date: Ca. A.D. 100

  • Material: Black basalt

  • Item Dimensions: Total height: 158 cm, Base: 29.5 × 9 × 32 cm, Letter height: 2–3 cm

  • Archaeological Mission:

  • National Museum Of Damascus (2011) – Damascus 4219/5216

  • Index code Dam 009/3

  • IGLS.307

Excavation Site Location

  • Abdul-Hak, Sélim, and Andrée Abdul-Hak. Catalogue illustré du département des antiquités gréco-romaines au Musée de Damas. Damascus: Direction générale des antiquités de Syrie, 1951, 57, no. 3, plates 24 middle 25.
  • Abel, Armand. “La statuaire hawranienne, une branche provinciale de l’art romain.” Annales de la Société royale d’archéologie de Bruxelles 49 (1956–1957): 1–10, 5.
  • Drijvers, H. J. W. “Romeinen in Syrië.” Phoenix 26 (1980): 73–93, 84, fig. 28.
  • Klengel, Horst. Syria antiqua: Vorislamische Denkmäler der Syrischen Arabischen Republik. Leipzig: Edition Leipzig, 1971, fig. p. 102.
  • Zouhdi, Bachir. Musée national de Damas: Département des antiquités syriennes aux époques grecque, romaine et byzantine. Damascus: Direction générale des antiquités et des musées, 1976, 115, no. 2, fig. 48.
  • Sartre-Fauriat, Annie, and Maurice Sartre. Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie. Tome XVI, L’Auranitide. Vol. 2, Suweidāʾ (Dionysias) et la bordure ouest du Jebel al-ʿArab, nos 304 à 474. Bibliothèque archéologique et historique 220. Beirut: Presses de l’Ifpo, 2020, no. 307.
  • Image credits: DGAM, Ebla To Damascus An exhibition from the  Directorate General of Antiquities and museums: Syrian Arab Republic. Edited by Harvey Weiss –  Smithsonian institution Travelling Exhibition Service Washington, D.C, 1985 – Book Published with the assistance of the J.Paul Getty Trust.

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