An inscribed votive silver plaquette or token dedicated to a goddess,
perhaps Demeter. The inscription ΤΑΣ ΘΕΟ ΕΜΙ ΗΙΑΡΟΝ does not name
the goddess, but the formula is typical of dedications to Demeter.

Mid 6th century BC. From the Southern Sanctuary of the Greek colony
Poseidonia (Ποσειδωνία) in Magna Graecia, southern Italy, later known
as Paestum (Παῖστον, Paiston). Weight circa 17 grams.

One of the best known rural sanctuaries in the territory of Poseidonia was one dedicated to
Demeter near a place today known as Albanella, 13 km northeast of the city. A rectangular
sacred enclosure, dated to the 5th century BC, was bounded by walls of irregular masonry.
Finds at the site included votive pottery and the remains of sacrificed piglets.

Terracotta statue of an enthroned deity, perhaps Demeter.

From Sicily. Late 6th - early 5th century BC.

Holes in the head and earlobes indicate
that jewellery was attached to the figure.

Bronze figurine of a seated female holding fruits, possibly Demeter.

Around 470 BC. From a sanctuary thought to have been dedicated to
Demeter and Persephone Karpophoroi (Καρποφοροι, Bringers of Fruit) at
Agios Sostis (Άγιος Σώστης), Mount Lykaion, Arcadia, Peloponnese, Greece.

The entablature of the Ionic treasury was decorated with a frieze on all four sides, each with a long relief depicting a mythological theme. The pedimental relief at the rear of the building, the east side, parts of which have survived, depicts Zeus intervening in the struggle between Apollo and Herakles when the latter attempted to steal the oracular tripod from Apollo's temple at Delphi.

The theme of the frieze relief below the east pediment is the Trojan War (see Homer), divided into two scenes. The scene on the left (south) side is an assembly of the Olympian gods. Those who sided with the Trojans (Ares, Aphrodite, Artemis and Apollo) are seated to the left, and the supporters of the Achaeans (Greeks) on the right (Athena, Hera and Demeter). The supreme god Zeus is enthroned in the centre, and a now missing part of the scene is thought to have shown the figure of Thetis, the mother of the Greek hero Achilles, pleading with Zeus for her son's safety (see Homer part 2).

The scene on the right (north) side of the relief shows a battle around the body of a fallen warrior between Trojans, fighting from the left and Achaeans (Greeks) on the right. On the far right, the elderly Nestor urges the Achaeans on.

The identifications are those on the museum labels. The names of the characters in the relief were originally painted next to the figures, but most are now partly or wholly illegible. A number of scholars have attempted to reconstruct the inscriptions and identify the figures, leading to much conjecture and debate. According to other interpretations of a faint and fragmentary inscription, the figure usually identified as Demeter may be Thetis or Themis.

See images of the entire east pediment and frieze relief in Homer part 2.

See also a relief of Demeter and Persephone from the north side of the frieze below.

Life-size marble statue of enthroned Demeter, known as "Demeter of Knidos". 350-330 BC.

Excavated in 1858 by the British archaeologist Charles Thomas Newton,
in the sanctuary of Demeter at Triopion (Τριόπιον), Knidos, Caria
(Yazıköy, Muğla Province, Turkey). [1] Height 152 cm.

The top and back of the head as well as the torso and legs of the figure are covered by a himation (cloak). In classical art, a person or deity depicted with the the top of the head covered in this way is usually referred to as "veiled".

Marble statue, perhaps
a priestess of Demeter.

2nd century BC. Excavated in 1858
by Charles Thomas Newton in the
sanctuary of Demeter, Knidos.
[see note 1]

A mature woman wearing a himation
over a chiton. The head was sculpted separately and inserted into the body.

Terracotta head of an old woman, perhaps
Demeter, made at Knidos around 300 BC.

Excavated in 1858 by Charles Thomas Newton,
in the sanctuary of Demeter, Knidos, Caria.
[see note 1]

While Demeter was searching for Persephone
she took on the form of an old woman called
Doso (Δώσω, Giver) and was offered hospitality
in Eleusis by King Keleos and Queen Metaneira.
The object she carries on her head may be the
sacred kiste (cista mystica), which contained
the sacred objects of the Mysteries.

Plaster cast of a "Demeter Cherchel" type statue. Height without base 233 cm.

The marble original in the Altes Museum, Berlin (see photo below) is thought to be a Roman period copy, made around 150 AD, of a lost work of circa 450 BC. It is one of a number of similar, over-lifesized statues of the type named after the two examples discovered in Cherchel (Caesarea Mauretaniae), now in the Archaeological Museum of Cherchell, Algeria.

Colossal marble statue of Demeter.

Pentelic marble. Roman period copy after a Greek original of the 5th century BC.
From the Horti Maecenatiani (Gardens of Maecenas), Rome. Found in 1876 in the
area of the Auditorium. The statue probably stood in a devotional site in the gardens.
Several ancient artefacts have been discovered at this location, including a number
associated with the worship of Dionysus (see the Dionysus page).

Over lifesize marble statue of Demeter.

Early Roman period. From the Peribolos
of Apollo in the Forum of Ancient Corinth.

Over lifesize marble statue
of Demeter or Persephone.

Roman copy of a 5th century BC original.
From the Peribolos of Apollo, Corinth.

Marble statue of Demeter.

Coarse-grained marble. Roman Imperial period.

The figure wears an elegant, tightly clinging garment, slipping at the right
shoulder, typical of statues of Aphrodite and also of portraits of women of
imperial rank. It was restored with arms and a head resembling portraits of
Faustina the Younger (see below), and later the head was replaced with the
present one. The modern identification of the figure as Demeter is based on
the gesture of the outstretched right hand, indicating a product of the earth.

Marble statue of Demeter holding poppies and ears of corn in her raised right hand.

Headless marble statuette of Demeter sitting on
the sacred kiste (cista mystica). From the Sanctuary
of Isis, Dion. Late 4th century BC.

Headless, larger than lifesize marble statue
of Demeter or Kybele enthroned.

Early 1st century BC. Found in Kephalos.

The head was found by Polish archaeologists in Room 18 of the large Roman period palace or villa known as the "Villa of Theseus" in Nea Paphos (Πάφος), during excavations there in 1966-1967. It was matched with the rest of the statuette which had been found in the area before the excavations. The function of Room 18 and adjoining rooms is unknown, but they may have been used for cult practices.

Named after a floor mosaic with a depiction of Theseus in the Cretan Labyrinth, the villa has become well-known for its mosaics. However, a large number of statues of deities and mythical heroes were also discovered in various rooms. Two other statuettes, perhaps depicting Demeter and Persephone, were also discovered in Room 18 (see below).

This small figure depicts a female, apparently in middle age, wearing a crown, probably of corn, a long chiton (tunic) girdled just below the breast, and a himation (cloak) over her shoulders and back. Her wavy hair is parted in the middle and tied in a bun at the back. The arms, lower legs and feet are now missing. Presumably she originally held one or more objects, perhaps as attributes of the goddess. The statuette may have originally been placed in a niche (although no remains of alcoves have yet been discovered in the room) and designed to be viewed from the front. Her seat is merely a block with no carved details, but may represent the sacred kiste (cista mystica).

See: Panayiotis Panayides, Villa of Theseus, Nea Paphos: Reconsidering its sculptural collection. In: Richard Maguire and Jane Chick (editors), Approaching Cyprus, Proceedings of the Post-Graduate Conference of Cypriot Archaeology (PoCA), University of East Anglia, 1st - 3rd November 2013, chapter 14, pages 228-243, particularly pages 231-234. Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2016. At academia.edu.

There appears also to be very little current information about the cult of Demeter and Persephone on Cyprus, and few mentions in ancient literature. Grain-harvesting on Cyprus was known as damatrizein (δαματρίζειν).

In Metamorphoses the Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BC - 17/18 AD) described the festival of first fruits (the Thesmophoria) in Cyprus as a poetic backdrop to his retelling of the mythical tale of the incestuous liaison between Cinyras, king of Paphos (Cyprus), and his daughter Myrrha, during which Adonis was conceived. In Ovid's version, the story is recited by Orpheus, who relates that the "sinful act" occurred while Cinyras' wife Cenchreis was attending the festival, during which women participants abstained from sex:

"The married women were celebrating that annual festival of Ceres, when, with their bodies veiled in white robes, they offer the first fruits of the harvest, wreathes of corn, and, for nine nights, treat sexual union, and the touch of a man, as forbidden. Cenchreis, the king’s wife was among the crowd, frequenting the sacred rites."

The Greek inscription:

Δήμητρι καὶ Κόρηι εὐχὴν
Ἑλλόοικος Ποτείσιος ἀνέθηκε

Transliteration of the text in Cypro-syllabic script, on a single line with dots between the words:

ta-ma-ti-ri · ka-se · ko-ra-i · e-lo-wo-i-ko-se ·
po-te-si-o-se · a-ne-te-ke · i-tu-ka-i

To Demeter and Kore, Helloikos the son of Poteisis dedicated this as a vow.

Inscription I.Kourion 26 (also ICS² 182)
at The Packard Humanities Institute.

See:

research.britishmuseum.org/...
(British Museum Collection Online)

The dating of the inscription to the second half of the 4th century BC is based on the style of the Greek lettering.

During the same excavation fragments of marble statues and a large number of terracotta figurines of male and female votaries, horse-riders and charioteers were also discovered at the site. The finds date from the 4th century BC to the end of the Hellenistic period. Coins found also dated to these periods but include Imperial and Late Roman types.

A fragment of a smaller than lifesize marble head (see photo, right) was believed by the excavators to be part of a statue which stood on the base, but was recorded as a representation of "Aphrodite (Knidian type)". Somehow it ended up being registered by the museum with marble heads from Ephesus in 1972, but in 2009 it was identified as the head from Kourion by Dr Peter Higgs, who believed it to be a Hellenistic portrait, probably of the 2nd century BC.

If Dr Higgs' belief is correct, and if the excavators were right in claiming the head belonged to the base, it raises a number of questions concerning the identity of goddess or person depicted, the date of the inscription and the survival of the Cypro-syllabic writing system into the Hellenistic period.

One of the fragments, previously kept in the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme of the National Museum of Rome, had probably been discovered in 1867, during excavations at the sanctuary of the Magna Mater by Carlo Lodovico Visconti (1818-1894).

The altar is thought to be a Neo-Attic work, made in Athens between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD. On the front of the altar Zeus sits on a throne facing right, and above him is the inscription Δωδεκάθεον (Dodekatheon, "of the twelve gods").

The work may be eclectic, with the figures sculpted in imitation of a number of Greek sculptors of various periods. It has been suggested that as many as five of the figures, including Zeus, may be copies of those on the frieze on the east pediment of the Parthenon (see below). There has been little debate about the iconography of the relief or the identity of the deities.

The figures in the photo above are to the left and behind Zeus. The seated goddess has also been interpreted as Hestia (῾Εστία, goddess of the hearth), but the objects in her right hand appear to be ears of corn, with her left hand she holds her veil as in other depictions of Demeter (see above and below), and sits on a cylindrical object which may be the sacred kiste (see above).

Left of her is Hermes, naked except for a chlamys cloak, and with a petasos hat behind his head. On the right stands Apollo, holding a kithara (lyre), and to the right of him is his sister Artemis.

The first examination of the relief was written by the Italian archaeologist and art historian Giovanni Becatti (1912-1973), published in 1942 [4]. It had been compared to that on a marble puteal (well head) in the Madrid Archaeological Museum, depicting gods around enthroned Zeus at the birth of Athena (see Athens Acropolis gallery page 13), which in turn had been connected with the scene as depicted on the east pediment of the Parthenon. However, rejecting this connection, Becatti believed that eleven of the twelve figures on the altar were copied from statues of the Olympian gods by Praxiteles which stood in the sanctuary of Artemis Soteira (Artemis Saviour) in Megara, central Greece. No traces of these works have yet been discovered by archaeologists, and the only ancient source concerning the group is a brief mention by Pausanias, who did not describe the statues, merely reporting the claim of his local informants that they were "said to be" by Praxiteles:

"... For this reason they had an image made of Artemis Saviour. Here are also images of the gods named the Twelve, said to be the work of Praxiteles. But the image of Artemis herself was made by Strongylion."

Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book 1, chapter 40, section 3. At Perseus Digital Library.

In an article published in 1949, the American classical art historian Rhys Carpenter (1889-1980) examined Becatti's claim that eleven of the figures were Praxitelean, and concluded: "Unfortunately, it seems to me to be entirely certain that they are not." [5] Instead, he saw characteristics of works by sculptors such as Lysippos and Polykleitos in some of the figures, and preferred to look to the Parthenon relief as a model.

The gods on the altar were identified by Becatti as:

1. Athena, 2. Zeus, 3. Hera, 4. Demeter or Amphitrite,
5. Poseidon, 6. Aphrodite, 7. Ares, 8. Hephaistos,
9. Hermes, 10. Hestia, 11. Apollo, 12. Artemis.

See a drawing of the relief below.

However, some of the identifications have been made on thin grounds. Becatti thought that the faceless figure 4 (see photo, above right) may be either Demeter or the Nereid Amphitrite (Ἀμφιτρίτη), the consort of Poseidon, because she stands next to the sea god, despite the fact that she is not counted among the twelve Olympian gods. Although Demeter stands next to Poseidon in a relief from Smyrna (see below), it is a very different type of work; Poseidon is seated, and Artemis stands to his right. Figure 4 can not definitely be identified as Demeter on the basis of iconography or attributes: whatever she may have been holding in her raised right hand is now missing; her clothing and pose can be ascribed to depictions of other goddesses; and there is no standard relative positioning of the gods in other comparable groups [6].

Figure 10 has been identified as Hestia, in part by comparison with the female sitting on a rock on the Madrid puteal, who is thought to be Klotho (Κλωθώ, one of the three Moirai or Fates). It has also been suggested that the fact that Hermes stands next to the figure indicates she is Hestia, with whom he was sometimes associated, although the same can be said for Demeter (see below: here,   here,   here,   here and here).

Very few Greek statues of Hestia are mentioned by ancient authors or inscriptions, and even fewer surviving sculptures are known with certainty to depict her. Even the famous "Giustiniani Hestia" (Torlonia Museum, Rome, Inv. No. MT 490) may actually be Demeter or Hera. There are none that can be directly compared with this figure.

The broken part of the altar has been restored with plaster, but only seven gods and part of an eighth have been preserved. They have been identified as (left-right):

The "Lovatelli Urn" (Urna Lovatelli) was named after Ersilia Caetani Lovatelli (1840-1925) who first published details of the vessel in the article: Di un vaso cinerario con rappresentanze relative aimisteri de Eleusi. In: Bullettino della Commissione archaeologica comunale di Roma 7, 1879, pages 5-18.

The side of the finely sculpted urn is decorated all around with narrative scenes concerning the initiation of Herakles into the Eleusinian Mysteries (see drawing below). To the left of the main scene Demeter is shown seated and holding a long torch, with ears of corn in her hand and hair. The god Iakchos stands in front of her, touching the head (or feeding) a snake in her lap. Demeter turns her head to see Persephone (Kore) approaching from behind.

In the main scene the initiate Herakles sits with a lionskin covering his head and shoulders, while a priestess holds a wicker screen (liknon) above his head. To the right a hierophant (priest), holding a bowl and a jug, accepts the sacrificing of a piglet, placed on a low altar by a male figure (also Herakles?).

Terracotta statuette of Demeter
veiled and holding a long torch.

Roman period, 1st - 2nd century AD.
From Egypt. Provenance unknown.

Civic Archaeological Museum, Milan.
Inv. No. E 1998.03.451.

There are holes in the earlobes for earrings and she wears a necklace with pendants. Below the polos is a headband tied at the front with a Herakles knot, a feature of several similar busts and statuettes from Sicily (see photos below). Also typical of this type of figure is the hairstyle: parted in the middle, the hair is swept up and back from around the face; sometimes as here, grown to below the nape of the neck, sometimes shoulder-length. In this case there are also plaits falling from behind the ears to the shoulders, as seen also on deptions of other gods such as Artemis, Apollo, Dionysus and Hermes.

One of several busts (see photos below) of various sizes and other terracotta votive offerings from the cave sanctuary known as "Demeter's Holy Cave" or San Biagio's cave sanctuary, on the cliff-face outside the city wall at the east of Agrigento. The sanctuary may have been founded by native Sicilians before the arrival of the Rhodian and Cretan Greek colonizers from Gela, further east along the south coast of Sicily, around 582-580 BC (Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 6, chapter 4), and was in use until the sack of the city by the Carthaginians in 406 BC.

Above this sanctuary, on the top of the cliff, stood the temple of Demeter and Persephone, built 479-472 BC by Theron (Θήρων), the tyrant of Akragas, as part of a building programme following the Greek defeat of the Carthaginian invasion at Himera in 480 BC. The foundations and lower walls of the Doric temple, 13.3 x 30.2 metres, can still be seen beneath the Norman church of San Biagio (see image below), built in the 12th or 13th century with stone from the ancient building. The eastern hill of the Akragas acropolis, known as the Rupe Atenea (Rock of Athena), was also the location of temples of Athena and Zeus Atabyrios (Διὸς Ἀταβυρίος), whose cult was brought from Rhodes by the founders of Gela (Polybius, Histories, Book 9, chapter 27).

The cult of Demeter and Persephone at Akragas (Ἀκράγας) was referred to by the Theban poet Pindar (Πίνδαρος, circa 522-443 BC) at the beginning of one of his odes for a victor at the Pythian Games in Delphi. He wrote that the city, which was named after ther River Akragas, was the abode of Persephone (here written Φερσεφόνας, Fersefonas):

"I beseech you, splendour-loving city, most beautiful on earth, home of Persephone; you who inhabit the hill of well-built dwellings above the banks of sheep-pasturing Akragas: be propitious, and with the goodwill of gods and men, mistress, receive this victory garland from Pytho in honor of renowned Midas, and receive the victor himself, champion of Hellas in that art which once Pallas Athena discovered..." [7]

Pindar, Pythian 12, For Midas of Acragas, winner of the aulos-playing contest, 494 or 490 BC. At Perseus Digital Library.

The cave sanctuary, discovered by chance in the late 19th century, consists of a monumental fountain-reservoir in front of a rock face into which three tunnels had been dug. Two of the tunnels carried water to the city's water supply network, known as "dei Feaci" (of the Phaeacians), dated to the 5th century BC. It is thought that the local water deity Persephone-Nestis, mentioned by the philosopher Empedocles who lived in Akragas, may have been worshipped here.

Among the many objects found, dated to between the 8th or 7th and 4th centuries BC, were Geometric and Proto-Corinthian pottery, oil lamps, libation bowls, jugs and wine cups (skyphoi), "piglet offering figures" connected with propitiatory fertility rituals (see photo right) and ceramic sculptures, mostly depicting females, perhaps Demeter and Kore.

The sanctuary was first investigated by Pirro Marconi in 1926, by which time a great number of artefacts had already been looted and sold on the black market, and many smuggled out of Sicily. Some found their way to museums of Agrigento, Palermo and Siracusa. The objects in this group had been dug up by "grave robbers" and sold to antiquities smugglers, but were for some reason delivered in boxes to the Palermo museum on Christmas 1888.

Terracotta figurine of a goddess wearing
a polos and holding a sacrificial piglet.

4th century BC. From the city of
Megara Hyblaia (Μέγαρα Ὑβλαία), Sicily.

Terracotta figurine of a goddess wearing
a polos and holding a sacrificial piglet.

From Syracuse (?)

A marble statuette of a goddess,
perhaps Demeter, wearing a polos
and holding a long torch.

1st century AD. Found in the sanctuary
of Demeter in the city of Rhodes.

A ceramic figurine of a young female
(Kore?) draped in a himation (cloak),
holding a tray of fruits.

4th century BC. Found in the sanctuary
of Demeter in the city of Rhodes.

Both objects were found in the 1980s during a rescue excavation at the northeast end of the city of Rhodes (at the northern tip of the island), in what is now the New Town, near the ancient city walls. The excavation was concentrated on the Karayannis-Georgiadis properties at the junction of Kaouli Street and Amerikis Street, an area now occupied by hotels, near the National Theatre, and around 50 metres from the Hellenistic wall.

Only part of the extensive ancient sanctuary discovered there could be excavated, as the rest lies beneath modern buildings. A bronze ladle inscribed with a dedication to Demeter (see photo below) and several other finds of votive objects typical of the worship of Demeter and Persephone at other locations in East Greece (Troy, Pergamon, Priene, Kos and Lindos) convinced the archaeologists that this sanctuary was dedicated to these goddesses.

The finds included figurines thought represent of the Kore (Persephone), as well as worshippers carrying pigs (choirophoroi), water (hydrophoroi) and children (kourotrophoi). There were also hundreds of miniature olpae (jugs) and around three thousand oil lamps (see photo below). No temple has been found, and it has been suggested that the sanctuary may have been a thesmophorion (see part 1).

Remains were found of rectangular structures, three of which were not in alignment with the ancient street grid designed on the urban planning principles of Hippodamus of Miletus (although he probably did not take part in the design of Rhodes) when the city was founded in 408 BC. It is thought that the sanctuary was probably in use from the city's foundation until the early 2nd century BC.

The finds from the sanctuary are part of the collection of the Rhodes Archaeological Museum, but a few are currently (2022) part of the extended exhibition "Ancient Rhodes - 2400 years", in the Palace of the Grand Master, Rhodes.

As with much of the archaeological activity on Rhodes since the 19th century, very little information about the excavation of the sanctuary of Demeter has been published.

Prior to the discovery of this sanctuary, very little evidence had been found for the civic worship of Demeter on the island. More particularly, no inscriptions mention priests of the goddess, leading to the suggestion that her cult may have been led here by women who were not mentioned in the epigraphic records.

Marble funerary stele with a relief of a woman, perhaps a priestess of Demeter.

Found at the caravan bridge at Smyrna (Izmir, Turkey). Hellenistic period,
around 150-100 BC. Coarse-grained, blue-greyish white marble.
Height 155 cm, width 65 cm, depth 14 cm.

Metapontion (Μεταπόντιον; Latin, Metapontium), on the gulf of Tarentum, southern Italy, was a colony of Achaea in the Peloponnese, founded around 700-690 BC.

At the end of the first century BC Strabo reported the legend that the city had been founded by Greeks from Pylos, southwestern Peloponnese, at the time their aged king Nestor returned from the Trojan War. The Metapontians apparently prospered from the fertility of the land and could afford to send a "golden harvest" (θερος χρυσοῦν) as a votive offering to the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi. This is taken to have been ears of grain made of gold.

"Next in order is Metapontium, at a distance of 140 stadia from the sea-port of Heraclea. It is said to be a settlement of the Pylians at the time of their return from Ilium under Nestor; their success in agriculture was so great, that it is said they offered at Delphi a golden harvest."

Strabo, Geography, Book 6, chapter 1, section 5. Edited by H. C. Hamilton and W. Falconer. George Bell & Sons, London, 1903. At Perseus Digital Library.

The city appears to have been destroyed long before the time of Pausanias, in the mid second century AD.

"How it came about that the Metapontines were destroyed I do not know, but today nothing is left of Metapontum but the theatre and the circuit of the walls."

Charles Fellows travelled through southwestern Anatolia in 1838, 1840, 1842 and 1843, discovering and exploring several ancient Lycian cities. During his first journey he discovered the ancient Lycian capital Xanthos (Greek, Ξάνθος; Lycian, Arnna), which he described as "my favourite city", and from where he later took artefacts, including the surviving parts of the famous Nereid Monument, for the British Museum (see Museum boom part 1 at The Cheshire Cat Blog).

He noted the customs and ways of life of local people as well as the plants and crops in the area. Although the bearded wheat grown in Anatolia reminded him of depictions and symbols of Ceres, he did not report on any evidence of the worship of Demeter and Persephone in Lycia. An entry from his journal, written 19th April 1838, while he was in Xanthos, Lycia (at the village of Kınık, Antalya Province, southwest Turkey):

"The only wheat grown in Asia Minor is bearded, and this is the peculiar kind represented in the figures of Ceres and upon ancient coins."

Pheneos (Φενεός) was a city in Arcadia, northeastern Peloponnese, Greece. Today it is in the Prefecture of Corinthia. It stood at the foot of Mount Kyllene, the mythical birthplace of Hermes, was an important cult centre for the god, and the location of an annual festival of the Hermaea. It also had sanctuaries for Demeter and Asklepios.

The reverse side of the coin shows Hermes carrying the infant Arkas, and the inscription ΦΕΝΕΩΝ (see the photo of another coin of this type on the Hermes page).

Herodotus was the first known author to identify Demeter with the Egyptian goddess Isis. He, and later others, recognized parallels in the myths of the two deities, both of whom were associated with fertility, the underworld and the cycles of life, growth, decline and death. Like Demeter, Isis undertook a long search for her closest companion, her brother and husband Osiris, who had been killed by their brother Seth. She finally recovered his body and brought him back to life, restoring order and cosmic balance. Greeks living in Egypt and the Levant (Syria) adapted local beliefs and practices, mixing them with their own to suit their religious and cultural preferences, and, particularly from the Hellenistic period, the cults of syncretic deities such as Isis-Demeter, Zeus Ammon and Serapis were spread around the Greco-Roman world.

For further information about the relief and the sanctuaries of Demeter and Isis at Dion, see:

Dion: the garden of the gods at The Cheshire Cat Blog.

Marble statue of Isis-Demeter wearing a crescent moon topped by two ears of corn.
The frontal pose and garments resemble those of types of statues of Isis.

First half of the 2nd century AD. Proconnesian marble. Provenance unknown.

Marble statue of Fortuna-Isis restored as Faustina the Younger dressed as Ceres.

2nd century AD. Bigio morato marble. The head, hands
and legs are modern restorations. Height 192 cm.

Faustina the Younger (or Faustina Minor, Annia Galeria Faustina Minor,
circa 130-175 AD) was the daughter of Emperor Antoninus Pius and
Faustina the Elder. She became empress as the wife of Marcus Aurelius.

Flat-bodied "board-idols", "plank Idols" or "plank figures" (σανίδες, sanides, from plank, board, piece of wood; sanidomorpha, plank-shaped) were made in various forms around the Aegean from prehistoric times. Pappades (Παππάδες; from παππας, pappas, priest) are types of plank figures made in Boeotia between around 625 and 550 BC, during the Archaic period. Their name is due to the fact that many of the figures wear a polos (e.g. the figure on the far right in the photo above) similar to the tall cylindrical hats worn by modern Greek Orthodox priests. Most pappades have been found in tombs, and the majority for which the provenance is known are from Tanagra.

The worship of Demeter and Persephone (Kore) was particularly popular in Sicily. In and around Gela, on the south coast, there were several major sanctuaries dedicated to the goddesses at which a large number of terracotta votive offerings and lamps have been found. The lamps suggest that rituals took place in semi-darkness.

One of three similar, well-preserved portable altars with reliefs of extraordinarily fine quality, discovered with fragments of others at the Bosco Littorio archaeological site in December 1999, during excavations by Lavinia Sole under the direction of Sopraintendente Rosalbe Panvini. The other two altars have reliefs depicting Medusa carrying Pegasus and Chrysaor, and Eos abducting Kephalos. All three are exhibited in the excellent Gela museum.

These light-weight altars, probably made in the same workshop, had apparently never been used, and may have been made for sale or export to customers who for some reason never received them. The site at the Bosco Littorio, on the coast of Gela, south of the acropolis (Lindioi) and west of the mouth of the Gelas river, is thought to have been an emporium due to finds of objects related to trade, including transport amphorae and imported vessels from Attica and Chalcis (Euboea) in Greece. The buildings at the site have been dated to the early 6th to early 5th centuries BC, and the altars appear to have been abandoned there around 480 BC, when the buildings of the area were violently burnt and destroyed.

The bodies of the altars, made of clay slabs, are hollow and perforated by large holes (see the photo on the Medusa page), making them lighter and easier to transport. These are among several portable altars found in Sicily (see, for example, a portable altar from Selinunte on the Medusa page). The reliefs, which were made separately then attached to the bodies before firing, were originally highly coloured, with red used as a background colour, and a yellow pigment which became almost vitrified (glass-like) during firing.

On this altar, three standing female figures are shown in stiff, frontal poses, typical of the Archaic period, and the braided locks of the figure in the centre are reminiscent of Daedalic style of the 6th century BC. Each wears a polos and a long-sleeved peplos. The central figure also wears a cloak, her hands resting on the braids which hang over the front of each shoulder. The other two, both probably made from the same mould, have formally styled hair with locks tied behind the ears with bands, then spiral down behind the shoulders. Their arms are at their sides and they each hold a wreath or garland in one hand. If the figures were made in the same mould, then the wreaths must have been modelled by hand after moulding.

Described as "triade divinità" (triad of female divinities), the figures have been interpreted as a triad of chthonic (underworld) goddesses. The central figure is thought to be Demeter, one of the other two Persephone, and the third possibly Hekate, Aphrodite or Artemis. The figures have been compared to those on a metope from Selinunte (see Part 1), whose identity is also uncertain.

The relief of a lean lioness attacking a bull in the upper register may further inform the debate over whether such depictions where influenced by Persian Achaemenid iconography, known from the monumental reliefs at Persepolis. It has been argued that the motif belongs to a Greek tradition which predates the arrival of the Persians in the Greek world by several centuries (see, for example, illustrations on Stageira gallery page 30). It has been suggested that the lioness killing the bull to feed her young is a symbolic echo of a priest sacrificing a bull to a deity to ensure the spiritual and physical welfare of the community.

On the sides of the altars are lotus blossoms painted in brown and black, now barely visible. The lotus flower was associated with female sexuality and fertility, birth and rebirth, and, like the poppy, with Demeter and Persephone (see Part 1). The flowers are also thought to have been used as ingredients in narcotic preparations consumed during ritual worship of the goddesses.

During my recent visit to the Gela museum the altar was in London, so I was unable to photograph it. This is a press photo for the fascinating exhibition, Sicily: Culture and Conquest, at the British Museum, 21 April - 14 August 2016. Photo © Regione Siciliana.

See: Dirk Booms and Peter Higgs, Sicily: Culture and Conquest, exhibition catalogue, pages 58-62. The British Museum, London, 2016.

The pedimental sculptures of the Parthenon were made of Pentelic marble by Pheidias and his pupils 438-432 BC. According to Pausanias (Description of Greece, Book 1, chapter 24, section 5), the theme of the east pediment was the birth of Athena, and that of the west pediment the contest between Athena and Poseidon for the patronage of Athens.

Each of the sculptures is actually a free-standing statue, executed in the round, rather than the type of reliefs known from the pediments of other temples (see for example the high relief of Dionysus from the Temple of Apollo in Delphi). They are remarkably detailed and finished, particularly considering that they stood so high on the Parthenon that many parts would not be visible to the viewer on the ground. An entire pediment can be seen only when standing some distance from the building; the view of the figures from the angle shown in the photo above was not possible when they were in place. Even the details such as drapery of the backs of the figures, although not of the same quality as the fronts, are finished to a surprisingly high degree.

The figure on the left rests her left forearm on the right shoulder of her companion, whose arms are raised. It has been suggested that she may surprised or disturbed by the swiftly moving figure to the right, who may be Artemis or Hebe, the cup-bearer of Zeus. The reclining nude male figure to the left of the pair has been identified as Dionysus.

Ariccia (or Aricia), in the Alban Hills, 25 km southeast of Rome, was founded around 9th - 8th century BC, according to legend by Archilochos, a Siculian (Sicilian) chief. From the late 6th century BC until 338 BC it became one of the most important members of the confederation of 30 settlements and tribes of Latium, known today as the Latin League. In the first century BC Cicero (106-43 BC) described the municipium of Ariccia as "very old" and "federated", that is semi-independent and allied to Rome.

The large number of terracotta votive objects discovered at the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore, including many depictions of deities and worshippers, indicate the strong influence of the art and culture of Magna Graecia and Sicily.

The centre of the museum display is a triangular dais on which stand three ceramic statues of enthroned goddesses: the godddess on the left has not been identified, in the centre is Demeter, and on the right Kore holding a piglet. Behind this triad are a headless female statuette, a bust of Kore and a bust of Demeter (not in photo, see photos below). To the right of the dais, a glass case displays votive ceramic heads from the sanctuary.

Ceramic statue of Demeter sitting on a richly decorated throne.
She wears a long chiton (tunic), a cloak, a diadem with ears
of corn and jewellery, and holds ears of corn in her right hand.

From the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore, Ariccia, Lazio, Italy.
Rosy-beige clay. End of the 4th - first half of the 3rd century BC.

Ceramic statue of Kore, enthroned and holding a votive piglet in her left hand.
She wears a chiton, a cloak and jewellery similar in style to that of Magna Graecia.

From the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore, Ariccia, Lazio, Italy.
Reddish clay. End of the 4th - first half of the 3rd century BC.

The Arcadian city Lykosoura (Λυκόσουρα) on Mount Lykaion and its sanctuary of Demeter and Despoina (Δέσποινα, usually translated as the Mistress, see note in Part 1) are considered to have been very ancient. The only ancient source on the location, Pausanias, reported the claim that it was the oldest city in the world.

"A little farther up is the circuit of the wall of Lycosura, in which there are a few inhabitants. Of all the cities that earth has ever shown, whether on mainland or on islands, Lycosura is the oldest, and was the first that the sun beheld; from it the rest of mankind have learned how to make them cities.

On the left of the sanctuary of the Mistress is Mount Lycaeus. Some Arcadians call it Olympus, and others Sacred Peak. On it, they say, Zeus was reared."

Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book 8, chapter 38, sections 1-2. At Perseus Digital Library.

Demeter and Despoina were worshipped there according to the archaic Arcadian chthonic rites, thought to be quite different from those of the Eleusinian cult, and perhaps closer to those of the oriental Kybele or Magna Mater (Great Mother).

Pausanias wrote that when the Arcadians united (forming a synoikism) to found the city of Megalopolis (Μεγαλόπολις) around 370 BC because of the fear of Spartan expansion, the inhabitants of several Arcadian settlements were forced to move there. Those who dissented were either massacred or fled the Peloponnese. The Lykosourians refused to give up their city but were spared because they took refuge in the sanctuary of Demeter and Despoina (Description of Greece, Book 8, chapter 27, sections 1-6). Later the Eleusinian cult spread through Arcadia, probably after being introduced to Megalopolis.

Although the location of Lykosoura was identified by the British traveller Edward Dodwell in 1806, the first excavations there were undertaken by the Greek Archaeological Society in 1889, 1890 and 1895, directed by Panagiotis Kavvadias (Παναγιώτης Καββαδίας, 1850-1928) and Konstantinos Kourouniotis (Κωνσταντίνος Κουρουνιώτης, 1872-1945), who also founded the small museum at the site. During the excavation of the Doric temple of Despoina (see plan below) over a hundred fragments of a group of four larger than lifesize statues were discovered [10].

Guy Dickins of the British School at Athens reconstructed the composition of the statues with the aid of the description of the group by Pausanias (see below). His reconstruction appeared to be largely confirmed a few years later by the publication by the Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais (Βαλέριος Στάης, 1857-1923) of a Roman Imperial period coin minted by nearby Megalopolis (7 km to the east), which had been locked away in the Athens museum (see photo, below right). On the obverse side of the coin is the head of Julia Domna (170-217 AD), second wife of Emperor Septimius Severus (reigned 193-211 AD), and on the reverse what is thought to be a representation of the Lykosoura statue group.

The group was around 5.6 metres high, including the 8.4 metre long, T-shaped limestone pedestal. Although Pausanias described the statues he saw as "made from a single piece of stone", this group was constructed of several separately worked pieces joined by iron and lead dowels and cement. Modern scholars have concluded that he may have been misinformed by his local guides, which has led to the question of whether he was also misled into believing the group was by Damophon. Konstantinos Kourouniotis commented:

"One imagines that Pausanias derived the story about the single block of marble, from which the group of Demeter and Despoina was constructed, from servants of the temple who were in the habit of playing on the credulity of tourists in order to enhance the miraculous nature of their sanctuary." [see note 9]

The statues were orginally brightly coloured (polychrome). In the centre Demeter and Despoina were seated together on a wide throne, covered with a cloth and decorated with figures of female Tritons on the backrest and arms. The Korybantes were depicted on the base of the throne, and the Kouretes on the footstool (not shown in Dickins' reconstruction). Demeter sat on the viewer's left, holding a long torch in her right hand, and with her left arm resting on the right shoulder of Despoina, who held a sceptre in her left hand, and in the right hand, which rested on her lap, the cista mystica. The height of the Demeter figure is estimated to have been around 4 metres. Guy Dickins (Damophon of Messene II, pages 396-397, see note 9) remarked on the similarities of the seated pair with that of the figures on the East Pediment of the Parthenon (see above).

The other two statues were at a slightly smaller scale, around 3.3 - 3.8 metres tall. Left of the throne stood Artemis, wearing a nebris (deerskin) and a quiver, holding a torch in her right hand and two snakes in the left. At her side was a female hunting dog. To the right stood the Titan Anytos (Ἄνυτος), wearing armour and holding a spear. According to the Arcadian myth related by Pausanias, Artemis was the daughter of Demeter, and Despoina was raised by Anytos.

Since Dickins' reconstruction, further fragments of the group have been discovered, and a number of scholars have attempted to reappraise and reconstruct the composition anew. Among the surviving fragments are also parts of Despoina's folded veil, finely decorated with horizonzal bands of reliefs imitating embroidery, depicting eagles with winged thunderbolts (symbols of Zeus), Tritons and Nereids with sea horses and dolphins (associated with Poseidon), Nikes (or Nikai) carrying censers, and dancing figures with animal heads or masks. The iconography of this decoration has led to further speculation over the nature of the cult practiced at the sanctuary.

"The actual images of the goddesses, Mistress and Demeter, the throne on which they sit, along with the footstool under their feet, are all made out of one piece of stone. No part of the drapery, and no part of the carvings about the throne, is fastened to another stone by iron or cement, but the whole is from one block. This stone was not brought in by them, but they say that in obedience to a dream they dug up the earth within the enclosure and so found it. The size of both images just about corresponds to the image of the Mother at Athens.

These too are works of Damophon. Demeter carries a torch in her right hand; her other hand she has laid upon the Mistress. The Mistress has on her knees a staff and what is called the box, which she holds in her right hand. On both sides of the throne are images. By the side of Demeter stands Artemis wrapped in the skin of a deer, and carrying a quiver on her shoulders, while in one hand she holds a torch, in the other two serpents; by her side a bitch, of a breed suitable for hunting, is lying down.

By the image of the Mistress stands Anytus, represented as a man in armour. Those about the sanctuary say that the Mistress was brought up by Anytus, who was one of the Titans, as they are called. The first to introduce Titans into poetry was Homer *, representing them as gods down in what is called Tartarus; the lines are in the passage about Hera's oath. From Homer the name of the Titans was taken by Onomacritus, who in the orgies he composed for Dionysus made the Titans the authors of the god's sufferings.

This is the story of Anytus told by the Arcadians. That Artemis was the daughter, not of Leto but of Demeter, which is the Egyptian account, the Greeks learned from Aeschylus the son of Euphorion. The story of the Curetes, who are represented under the images, and that of the Corybantes (a different race from the Curetes), carved in relief upon the base, I know, but pass them by.

The Arcadians bring into the sanctuary the fruit of all cultivated trees except the pomegranate. On the right as you go out of the temple there is a mirror fitted into the wall. If anyone looks into this mirror, he will see himself very dimly indeed or not at all, but the actual images of the gods and the throne can be seen quite clearly."

* Homer, The Iliad, 14.279.

Guy Dickins was not overly impressed with Damophon's skill or orginality as an artist, considering him to have borrowed from the schools of Pheidias, Praxiteles and Lysippos, and to have been influenced by the sculptors of Pergamon. On the other hand, he admitted some qualified admiration for the reliefs on the himation, which he presumed were made by Damophon himself.

"Damophon's style then was academic and eclectic, borrowing from all sources of inspiration and in general using up over again well-known groups and poses. His execution is even more interesting for its extraordinary inequality. His heads are on the whole very good. The Demeter is a dull piece of work, but both the Anytos and the Artemis show some fancy and some power of original expression. The girl is demure and cheerful, the giant benevolent and rather sly.

But when we come to examine the execution of the fragments of the bodies and limbs which survive at Lycosura, we find a very hasty and poor technical ability. The arms and legs are nearly shapeless. They are colossal, but practically formal in design, and details of muscles and sinews are almost entirely omitted. The drapery makes some effort to follow Pheidian designs, but it is poorly carved and without effect.

Only in one direction does the artist show any skill, and that is in the great embroidered veil worn by Despoina. This is an extraordinary tour de force, not for its sculptural effect, which is purely formal, but for the reproduction of a complicated embroidered design in very low relief. A border of tassels with bands of design about it and large embroidered figures of Victory [Nike] above the bands is rendered with consummate art. We have a frieze of sea-monsters, nymphs, and Erotes according to a common Hellenistic design, a curious local dance of beast figures in human dress, a dance paralleled by some small terra-cotta figures found in the same shrine, and the larger figures of Victory above carrying candelabra.

It is interesting to see the total want of proportion in the artist's mind, who could devote so much time and originality to a comparatively unimportant piece of decoration, while treating the main lines of his drapery with carelessness and monotony.

It is probable that we have here a procedure to be noticed in the Demeter of Cnidos a head done with great care and placed on a torso of inferior execution. While Damophon worked the heads of all the figures and the drapery of Despoina, he must have left the rest of his group to a band of journeymen assistants. We know from inscriptions that Damophon had two sons, Xenophilos and another whose name is lost. It is, therefore, possible that Xenophilos and Straton, the Argive sculptors, were his sons. Their subjects were similar, and their Asklepios, as shown on a coin, is identical with Damophon's."

Guy Dickens, Hellenistic sculpture, Fig. 48, pages 61-62. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1920. At the Internet Archive.

The temple was discovered during excavations by Panagiotis Kavvadias July-November 1889, around 100 metres west of the ruins of a chapel of Agios Athanasios. It is prostyle-hexastyle, that is with a row of six Doric columns across the front only. The stylobate (platform), oriented east-west, is 11.15 metres wide and 21.35 metres long. The pronaos (front porch) at the east end lead to the cella (inner chamber) in which the cult statues stood, and which had a mosaic floor. Thought to have been built in the 4th century BC, the temple was repaired several times during the Roman period.

"The ground-plan of the temple has been clearly made out, and it is seen to be a Doric hexastyle-prostyle, twenty metres long by ten broad, the cella being thirteen metres long. In the walls of the cella, the lower courses are of masonry of local stone, the upper courses are of unburnt brick. The temple was oriented from east to west, and had a marble portico at the entrance, which seems to have been filled with votive offerings, the bases of which are extant."

Like the head of the statuette of Demeter from Paphos above, the statuettes were found by Polish archaeologists in Room 18 of the "Villa of Theseus" in Nea Paphos, during excavations in 1966-1967.

The two female figures stand side by side in similar poses, each with the body, arms and legs as well as the back of the head covered by a himation (cloak). The figure on the right is made of white marble and is slightly taller. The left-hand figure is made of dark grey marble, and her himation is covered with a regular pattern of stars in relief. In her right hand she holds a fruit, perhaps a pomegranate, and at the top of her clenched left hand is a rounded object (a fruit, a loaf, a cake?). The facial features of the figures are similar, although the right-hand figure appears to be older and her head larger.

As with many sculptures of the Classical to Roman periods found on Cyprus, it been questioned whether they were made on the island or imported. And as with many such ancient sculptures, the questions also arise of whether they are original creations or copies of other works; do they depict individuals (as portraits) or are they more generalized or idealized personifications.

The identities of the figures has been debated by a number of scholars. The exhibition labelling identifies them as Demeter and Persephone ("Dubbelbeeld van Demeter en Persephone"), but several other suggestions have been made: Demeter and Isis (Isis Ourania or Isis-Aphrodite); Aphrodite Urania and Aphrodite Pandemos; double Nemesis, showing two aspects of the goddess night/death and day/birth/life. It has also been argued that they may be priestesses or worshippers (votaries).

Small bronze figure holding
a torch and a pomegranate,
probably Persephone.

Greek, around 560 BC.
Probably from Athens.

Fragment of a terracotta plaque showing Persephone
seated (beside Hades, now missing).

Made in Medma, southern Italy, around 470 BC.
Height 14 cm.

Bronze mirror support in the form of a
female figure holding a pomegranate, and
with a lioness standing on each shoulder.

Made in Magna Graecia (southern Italy)
around 500 BC, perhaps in Croton.

Bronze mirror support in the form of a
female figure holding a pomegranate.

Made in Campania, Magna Graecia
(southern Italy) around 480 BC.

"The Goddess of Tarentum", a marble statue of an enthroned goddess,
perhaps a cult statue of Persephone as the queen of the Underworld.
Hera and Aphrodite have also been suggested.

475-450 BC. From Tarentum or Locri, southern Italy.

"The Berlin Goddess", a marble kore statue of a standing female, wearing
a red polos and long garment, holding a pomegranate in her right hand.
Thought to be the funerary statue of a woman from a wealthy family
represented as "the bride of the Underworld god Hades", i.e. Persephone.

580-560 BC. From a rural cemetery at Keratea, Attica, Greece. Height 190 cm.

Marble statue of Persephone.

Work of the school of Agorakritos of Paros, circa 420-410 BC.
Found on the hill of Mounychia, Piraeus. Pentelic marble. Height 77 cm.

The goddess would have originally held a torch in each hand.

National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Inv. No. 176.

The figures have a pinkish tone, with added white, now worn, on the head, body and arms of Persephone, a thyrsos and the Ionic column on which it rests, to the left of the scene. The tops of three other Ionic columns and part of an architrave can be seen behind the figures. Persephone is seen from the knees upwards, her lower legs being still below the earth. Her body is shown frontally and she appears to be naked, apart from a himation (cloak) draped over her left shoulder. With her lowered right hand she holds one end of the garment, her left hand is raised, and her head is turned to her left. The three naked Satyrs (one on the left, two on the right) appear to be dancing, each with one arm raised. The museum labelling describes them as being startled by Persephone's appearance.

The scene of Persephone's annual return to above the earth from her obligatory stint with Plouton in the Underworld is referred to as the anodos (ἄνοδος, the way upwards), as opposed to her descent to Hades, the kathodos (κάθοδος, the way down). She is sometimes depicted as being brought back to the surface by Plouton in a chariot (see image below).

The painting on the other side of the vase shows draped youths.

Marble statuette of Persephone from Kos.

4th century BC.

Marble statuette of Persephone
wearing a high polos and holding
a pomegranate flower.

Around 350-300 BC. Excavated in
1858 by Charles Thomas Newton,
in the sanctuary of Demeter,
Knidos, Caria. [see note 1]

The pomegranate played an important
role in the cult of Persephone, since she
had eaten its seeds in the Underworld.

Marble statue of the "Small Herculaneum Woman" type,
perhaps depicting Persephone.

Late 2nd - early 1st century BC. Possibly from the sanctuary of Demeter
and Persephone at Derveni, the site of the ancient Mygdonian city
Lete (Λητή), near Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece.

Copy of a statue made in the workshop of the Athenian sculptor
Praxiteles in the late 4th century BC. The type is named after
the many copies found in Herculaneum, Italy.

See also: a votive plaque dedicated to Hades below,

a statue of Persephone and Demeter

and an offering table dedicated to Demeter from Derveni, in Part 1.

From 600 to 265 BC the Carthaginians (known to the Romans as Punici, Punics) and Greek colonists fought bitterly for dominance in Sicily, after which the Romans continued fighting Carthage for the control of the western Mediterannean. In some cases Sicilian Greek colonies sided with the Carthaginians against rival Greek cities and tyrants. The Carthaginians only began minting coins around the time of the Second Sicilian War (or Greco-Punic War, 410-340 BC) in order to pay for mercenary armies. From around 410 to 307 BC they gained control of several areas in the west of the island and part of the north coast, and established mints, including one at Panormos (Greek, Πάνορμος; Punic, Ziz; today Palermo).

Sicilian Greek die engravers, perhaps those whose home cities had been destroyed or taken over during the wars, designed coins for the Carthaginans, adapting motifs used in Greek cities such as Syracuse (see examples on the Nike page) as well as elements of Punic iconography. Tanit, the chief goddess of Carthage, was portrayed in the same way as the Greek nymph Arethousa or as Persephone. Notably, these Sicilo-Punic coins are usually referred to as multiples of the Greek drachma, based on the weight of around 4.3 grams. The Carthaginian or Punic shekel typically weighed around 7.2 grams in silver and 7.5 grams in gold, and probably preceded the Tyrian shekel of Phoenicia (see Big Money at The Cheshire Cat Blog), which developed around 300 BC.

Although the heads on the coins have been identified as being based on depictions of Persephone, they are very similar to those on Greek coins thought to show Demeter (see photo above). The head of Persephone appeared on Syracusan coins, particularly on tetradrachms issued around 310-304 BC by Agathocles of Syracuse (Ἀγαθοκλῆς, tyrant of Syracuse 317-289 BC, and king of Sicily 304-289 BC). The heads are similar to this one and are labelled ΚΟΡΑΣ (her name in the genitive case). When Agathocles landed in Africa in 310 BC, during his campaign against Carthage, he is said to have sacrificed to Demeter and Kore and dedicated his fleet to the goddesses before burning all sixty ships (Diodorus Siculus, Historical Library, Book XX, chapter 7).

The reverse side of these types of coins usually showed Pegasus (see Medusa), a horse or a horse's head, often with Punic inscriptions. The reverse of the Sicilo-Punic dekadrachm above shows Pegasus flying to the right and the Punic legend B'RST ("in the territories"). Some scholars have dated coins of this type to the period of the First Punic War with the Roman Republic (264-241 BC). See, for example:

Ancient Coinage of Sicily, Punic. At wildwinds.com.

The cult of Demeter and Persephone was officially recognized in Carthage itself around 396 BC. According to the Sicilian historian Diodorus Siculus (Διόδωρος Σικελιώτης, 1st century BC) worship of the goddesses was initiated there in order to "propitiate the gods who had been sinned against", after their general Himilco had plundered the temples of Demeter and Kore in Syracuse (see part 1) during his unsuccessful siege of the city in 396 BC [11].

The use of Greek iconography on Sicilo-Punic coinage is an indicator the complex relations of the ethnic groups on the island, a subject which has only recently been examined in depth. See, for example:

Archaistic marble head of a kore.

Found in the Domus of Fortuna
Annonaria (V,II,8), Ostia.

Archaistic marble head of a kore.

Late 1st century BC or early 1st century AD.
Found in the Tomb of Julia Procula (Tomb 97),
necropolis of Portus on the Isola Sacra, Ostia.

In front of the cave, which perhaps represented the gates of Hades, the small 4th century BC Temple of Plouton replaced the 6th century BC Peisistratid temple which may have been destroyed during the Persian invasion of 480-479 BC.

Although Plouton was a central figure in the myth of Demeter and Persephone, his role in the Mysteries themselves is considered to have been relatively minor.

"We put the urn aboard ship
with this inscription:

This is the dust of little
Timas who unmarried was led
into Persephone's dark bedroom

And she being far from home, girls
her age took new-edged blades
to cut, in mourning for her,
these curls of their soft hair"

In Homer's Odyssey (Books 10-11), Hades was the house of "mighty Hades and dread Persephone" in which the ghosts of dead mortals wandered aimlessly like shadows in the joyless, murky darkness. It lay beyond "deep-flowing Oceanus, that bounds the Earth". The divine sorceress Circe (Κίρκη) gave Odysseus directions to the Undeworld entrance.

"'Son of Laertes, sprung from Zeus, Odysseus of many devices, let there be in thy mind no concern for a pilot to guide thy ship, but set up thy mast, and spread the white sail, and sit thee down; and the breath of the North Wind will bear her onward. But when in thy ship thou hast now crossed the stream of Oceanus, where is a level shore and the groves of Persephone – tall poplars, and willows that shed their fruit – there do thou beach thy ship by the deep eddying Oceanus, but go thyself to the dank house of Hades. There into Acheron flow Periphlegethon and Cocytus, which is a branch of the water of the Styx; and there is a rock, and the meeting place of the two roaring rivers.'"

One of several fragmented mould-made pinakes depicting scenes from the myth of Persephone and Hades, dated to the first half of the 5th century BC, excavated from a votive deposit at Francavilla di Sicilia, in the valley of the Alcantara river, around 50 km south of Messina, northeast Sicily. The site was part of an unknown Greek settlement thought to have been associated with the nearby ancient colony of Naxos. The plaques have been compared to those discovered by Paulo Orsi and others at the sanctuary of Persephone of Manella at Locri Epizefiri, Reggio Calabria, southern Italy.

The theme of a god or mortal abducting a female was a recurring subject of Greek and Roman literature and art. The culprits include Hades, Zeus, the Dioskouroi, Pelops, Theseus and Paris. Abductors were often depicted using a chariot as a getaway vehicle, particularly in the case of Hades abducting Persephone (see photos below). The identity of the pair in this relief is unknown, but Echelos and Basile, and the local eponymous goddess or heroine Brygindis (Βρυγίνδις) of the Rhodian deme Brygindara, have been suggested. On the left stands the dedicator of the relief.

The larger upper fragment of the relief was purchased on the art market in early 1903. Shortly after Friedrich Freiherr Hiller von Gaertringen (1864-1947) went to the village Afantou (Αφάντου), on the northeast coast of Rhodes, the location of ancient Brygindara, and purchased the other three fragments from the owners. The stele had been used as a doorstep for many years.

The composition is similar to that of a relief found in 1893 at Neo Phaleron, Attica, depicting a couple on a quadriga, inscribed with the names of the hero Echelos and Basile or Iasile (see below). The style of both reliefs has been compared to that of the Parthenon frieze.

Reinhard Kekulé, who published the relief from Afantou in 1905, stated that the stele was made of Pentelic marble and the work of an artist from Attica, and that it depicted, like the Phaleron relief, Echelos and Basile. Later authors, including Carl Blümel (Die klassisch-griechischen Skulpturen der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, Berlin, 1966, pages 59-60), concluded that the marble was not from Attica and that the relief was more likely to have depicted Brygindis. However, only the name of this local goddess or heroine is known from short dedicatory inscriptions, and nothing is known of myths or legends concerning her, or whether she was abducted.

See: Reinhard Kekulé von Stradonitz (1839-1911), Echelos und Basile: attisches Relief aus Rhodos in den Königlichen Museen. 65. Winckelmannsprogramme der Archäologischen Gesellschaft zu Berlin. Georg Reimer, Berlin, 1905. At the Internet Archive. Includes plates of both reliefs and a contribution by Hiller von Gaertringen on ancient Brygindara. Confusingly, the first page has a plate of another relief with a similar subject, without a caption.

The barely legible names of Hermes, Echelos and Basile or Iasile are inscribed on the epistyle on this side of the stele, and on the other side is a dedication to Hermes and the Nymphs. The tall poros (limestone) base on which the stele stood is inscribed with the name of the dedicator Kephisotodos (Κηφισόδοτος or Κεφισόδοτος), son of Demogenes, who also dedicated an altar.

Κηφισόδοτος Δεμογένος
Βουτάδες ἱδρυσατο
καὶ τόν βωμόν.

Kephisodotos son of Demogenes
of Boutadai founded [this]
and the altar.

Inscription IG I³ 986 A, IG II² 4546 l. 1-3.

The relief on the other side of the stele shows six figures, perhaps deities, standing in a row, apparently in discussion. Since the discovery of the stele there has been much debate over the significance of the reliefs and the figures represented, as well as the contents of the damaged and now incomplete inscriptions.

Echelos (Ἔχελος) was the eponymous hero of Echelidai (Ἐχελίδαι), a district in the Attic deme of Xypete (Ξυπέτη), northeast of Piraeus. He is known from a decree found on the north slope of Areopagos, Athens (inscription IG² 4545 48). He was honoured at a hieron near Piraeus, and a statue of him stood near the hippodrome in Phaleron. The identity of Basile or Iasile is unknown, although a number of theories have attempted to associate the name Basile with that of a Nymph or other deity, for example Basileia, sister of Rhea and daughter of Ouranos and Titaia (Ge). The name Basile (Queen, Mistress) was also an epiphet of Persephone.

Image source: J. N. Svoronos (Ioannis Nikolaou Svoronos, Iωάννης Ν. Σβορώνος, 1863-1922), Das Athener Nationalmuseum, German edition by W. Barth, Textband 1, No. 9, Inv. No. 1783, pages 120-136; and Tafelband 1, Tafel 28. Beck & Barth, Athens, 1908. At the Internet Archive.

Pausanias related a local belief that Plouton descended to the Underworld with Persephone near Lerna in Argolis, northeast Peloponnese:

"On returning to the straight road, you will cross the Erasinus and reach the river Cheimarrus [Winter-torrent]. Near it is a circuit of stones, and they say that Pluto, after carrying off, according to the story, Kore, the daughter of Demeter, descended here to his fabled kingdom underground. Lerna is, I have already stated, by the sea, and here they celebrate mysteries in honour of Lernaean Demeter."

Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book 2, chapter 36, section 7. At Perseus Digital Library.

In the version of the myth summarized by the Roman mythographer Hyginus (see the note in Homer part 2), Persephone's father was Zeus, and it was he who suggested to his brother Plouton that he should abduct the Maid. The Underworld god then took his niece off in his four-horse chariot while she was on Mount Aetna in Sicily, gathering flowers with Aphrodite, Artemis and Athena.

"Pluto asked from Jove [Zeus] that he give him in marriage Ceres’ daughter and his own. Jove said that Ceres would not permit her daughter to live in gloomy Tartarus, but bade him seize her as she was gathering flowers on Mount Etna, which is in Sicily. While Proserpina [Persephone] was gathering flowers with Venus [Aphrodite], Diana [Artemis] and Minerva [Athena], Pluto came in his four-horse chariot, and seized her. Afterwards Ceres obtained from Jove permission for her to stay half of the year with her, and half with Pluto."

On the frame above the relief is a very worn inscription in Greek:

Έτους ΔΞΣ

The year 264 (ΔΞΣ in Greek numerals), corresponding to 116 AD, according to the dating system beginning on the first day of the month of Dios (October) 148 BC, introduced following the Roman defeat of the rebellion of Andriskos (Ἀνδρίσκος, also known as the Pseudo-Philip, pretender to the Macedonian throne, arguably the last Macedonian king) at the Second Battle of Pydna and the establishment of the Roman province of Macedonia.

The inscription on the frame below the relief is better preserved, and states that the work was dedicated to Theodaemon by Hadaios, son of Paramonos, who served as his priest.

Θεόν Θεοδαίμονα
Αδαίος Παραμόνου ιε-
ρητεύων ανέθηκεν

Two divine couples sit at low tables laden with food offerings in a naiskos (ναΐσκος, small temple). On the left a naked boy as a wine pourer (oinochoos), shown at a smaller scale than the divine figures, stands next to a large krater and holds an oinochoe (wine jug) in his right hand.

On the right a bearded male, wearing only a himation (cloak) over his lower torso, reclines on a kline (couch), resting on his left elbow. In his left hand he holds a dish or container, and in his raised right hand he has a rhyton (drinking horn) or cornucopia. Left of him sits a female figure holding an object with both hands. On the architrave above their heads is inscribed θεᾶι (Theai, the Goddess) and θεῶι (Theoi, the God), identifying them as Persephone (Kore) and Plouton (Hades) dining in the Underworld.

At the left hand table sit two female figures. The figure on the left sits on a large basket or box, probably the sacred kiste (cista mystica), which contained the hidden sacred objects of the Eleusinian Mysteries. With her right hand she holds a sceptre, the top of which rests on her right shoulder, and with her left hand she holds part of the garment on her left shoulder. The figure on the right holds a long torch in her left hand, and with her raised right hand she places a diadem on the head of her companion.

Unfortunately, the two female figures are not identified by inscriptions, but are generally thought to be Demeter (left) and Persephone in a different "incarnation", either before her abduction by Plouton, or during her annual return to the world above the earth. However, there are differences in the hairstyle, face and clothing of the "Persephone" figures at each table, and the female sitting with Demeter may be another goddess, perhaps Hekate.

A bearded man with long hair, wearing a polos and a himation around the lower part of his body, reclines on a kline (couch), resting on his left elbow. In his raised right hand he holds a rhyton (drinking horn), and in his left a phiale (libation bowl). A woman sits to the left of him at the foot of the kline, facing him and holding a small container (perhaps a box or basket of sweets) in her left hand. One of her feet can be seen resting on a wide footrest. A table laden with food offerings stands before the couch. They are approached from the left by five worshippers, a woman and four men, shown at a smaller scale. On the extreme right a small naked boy as a wine pourer (oinochoos) stands next to a large krater. The scene is framed by two pillars supporting a roof, an architectural setting usually referred to as a naiskos (small temple).

Although the main figures in this relief and the one immediately below have been identified as Hades (Plouton) and Persephone in the context of the Eleusis sanctuary, several other similar reliefs discovered elsewhere (e.g. the reliefs from Corinth below) have been interpreted as representing a deceased hero in a nekrodeipno scene (νεκρόδειπνο, funerary banquet or symposium in honour of a deceased person; named Totenmahlreliefs by German archaeologists). [12] A similar 4th century BC relief in the Museo Gregoriano Profano, Vatican Museums, Inv. No. 1348, is also described as depicting Hades, Persephone and worshippers. See: arachne.uni-koeln.de/item/objekt/22114.

The scene of Persephone and Hades on a kline is also known from the tondo of an Attic red-figured kylix, circa 440-430 BC, said to be from Vulci, Etruria (Lazio, Italy). Now in the British Museum, Inv. No. GR 1847.9-9.6 (Vase E82).

Jacob Spon and George Wheler travelled together through Italy, Turkey and Greece in 1675-1676. At the end of his account of their visit to Athens in 1676 (A journey into Greece, Book V), Wheler mentioned his collection of "marbles", including reliefs and inscriptions, many of which had originally been discovered and collected by Jean Giraud, the British Consul in Athens. He gave most of the inscriptions to the University of Oxford soon after his return to England, and they were added to the collection known as the Marmora Arundeliana & Seldeniana (based on the former collections of Lord Arundel and John Selden), now in the Ashmolean Museum. Other pieces he at first kept himself, but later, probably in 1683, he also donated many of them, including the three reliefs, to the Oxford museum.

Wheler did not mention where the reliefs were found, but since he discusses them in his account of Athens, they presumably came from in or near the city. He believed the male figure wearing a polos was Serapis because of other representations of the god he had seen elsewhere. For him it was then reasonable to assume that the female figure was Isis. He and Spon also believed that a caryatid they saw at Eleusis (see part 1) and reliefs now known to depict Kybele were depictions of Demeter.

He described the similarities and differences between the three reliefs, and suggested that they were ex-votoes, offerings made in fulfillment of promises made to deities in thanks for the granting of requests and the answering of prayers.

"I have three basso-relievo's, representing Isis and Serapis sitting on a couch. Isis is clothed with a long vest, girded together below her paps, and a loose mantle about her shoulders; She reacheth her right hand down, as receiving something; and in her left she holds a square box with the lid open.

Serapis sits half naked, holding a cornucopia in his right hand, and a plate in his left, with his head covered with a kind of cap sitting much higher than his head. Before them stands a table to receive the offerings, on which are things of divers figures, round, three square, and half round.

Upon one of the basso-relievoes there is a bag, which seems to be a bag of money; whereof Isis takes out to put in her box. On the right hand of two of them, are a man, and a woman, and children; I suppose, coming to worship, or to sacrifice. For on this I give the figure, there is a little boy with a present in his hand, and a beast by him, I take to be a hog; but it is somewhat defaced.

On this also is a Horses head, as hung up in a corner of the room; but not on the rest. Isis, and Serapis are represented in all three much alike: Only in one of them, Isis holds no box; but collects her money in her lap: But in the other figures they all differ. This seems to be a man, and his wife, and three children; being two sons, and a daughter. The second hath a man, and his wife, and three sons. The third, a man, and one son. Whence I judge them to be memorials of the payments of vows, made to those idols in times of sickness or distress: Such as the Roman Church usually now make, and pay to the saints, and hang up in their churches."

George Wheler, A journey into Greece in company of Dr Spon of Lyons, Book V, pages 405-408, illustration on page 406. William Cademan, Robert Kettlewell, and Awnsham Churchill, London, 1682. At Googlebooks.

Only one of the reliefs (see photo above) is usually on display in the Ashmolean Museum, probably because it is the best preserved. The third is Inv. No. ANMichaelis. 146. 4th - 3rd century BC. Height 28 cm, width 41 cm. There is no horse's head, and the male deity/hero does not wear a polos. His female companion holds a fillet rather than a box. On the left stands a bearded worshipper in a cloak, and on the right is a naked wine-pourer.

The invoice numbers are based on the numbering in Ancient marbles in Great Britain by Adolf Michaelis (1835-1910), which provides detailed descriptions of many ancient artefacts at that time in various British collections and museums. Michaelis believed that Nos. 145 and 146 were made of Pentelic marble, although so far I have found no recent confirmation of this.

The Roman mythographer Hyginus summarized one or more versions of the myths concerning Demeter and Triptolemos:

"When Ceres was hunting for her daughter, she came to King Eleusinus, whose wife Cothonea had borne the boy Triptolemus, and pretended she was a wet nurse. The queen gladly took her as nurse for her son. Since Ceres wanted to make her charge immortal, she fed him by day with divine milk, but by night secretly hid him in the fire.

In this way he grew more than mortals are wont to grow, and so, when the parents wondered at it, they watched her. When Ceres was about to put him in the fire, the father was terrified. In her anger, she struck down Eleusinus, but on Triptolemus, her foster-son, she conferred everlasting honour, for she gave him her chariot yoked with Serpents to spread the cultivation of grain. Riding in it he sowed grain throughout the earth.

When he returned, Celeus bade him be killed for his benefactions, but when this was known, by Ceres' order he gave the kingdom to Triptolemus, who called it Eleusis from his father's name. He also established sacred rites in honour of Ceres, which are called in Greek Thesmophoria."

Hyginus, Fabulae, sections 100-149, section 147, Triptolemus. At the Theoi Project.

Hyginus mentioned another tale from the Triptolemos myths when discussing the various mythological explanations for the origins of stellar constellation Ophiuchus:

"Ophiuchus, who, by our writers, is called the Serpent-holder, is stationed above Scorpio, and holds in his hands a serpent which coils about his body.

Many have called him Carnabon, king of the Getae, who lived in Thrace. He came into power at the time when it is thought grain was first given to mortals. For when Ceres was distributing her bounties to men, she bade Triptolemus, whose nurse she had been, go around to all the nations and distribute grain, so that they and their descendants might more easily rise above primitive ways of living. He went in a dragon car, and is said to have been the first to use one wheel, so as not to be delayed in his journey.

When he came to the king of the Getae, whom we mentioned above, he was at first hospitably received. Later, not as a beneficent and innocent visitor, but as a most cruel foe, he was seized by treachery, and he who was ready to prolong the lives of others, almost lost his own life. For at the order of Carnabon one dragon was killed, so that Triptolemus might not hope his dragon car could save him when he realized an ambush was being prepared.

But Ceres is said to have come there, and restored the stolen chariot to the youth, substituting another dragon, and punishing the king with no slight punishment for his malevolent attempt. For Hegesianax says that Ceres, for men’s remembrance, pictures Carnabon among the stars, holding a dragon in his hands as if to kill it. He lived so painfully that he brought on himself a most welcome death.

Others point out that he is Hercules, killing in Lydia near the river Sagaris a snake which kept destroying many men and stripping the river banks of grain. In return for this deed, Omphale, the queen of that region, sent him back to Argos loaded with gifts, and because of his bravery he was placed by Jove among the constellations.

Some, too, have said that he is Triopas, king of the Thessalians, who, in trying to roof his own house, tore down the temple of Ceres, built by the men of old. When hunger was brought on him by Ceres for this deed, he could never afterward be satisfied by any amount of food. Last of all, toward the end of his life, when a snake was sent to plague him, he suffered many ills, and at last winning death, was put among the stars by the will of Ceres. And so the snake, coiling round him, still seems to inflict deserved and everlasting punishment."

Hyginus, Astronomica, Book 2, sections 1-17, 2.14 Serpent-holder. At the Theoi Project.

The so-called "Triptolemos" marble head of
a young man, identified as Triptolemos; the
only known head of this type. The features
resemble those of portraits of Antinous,
Emperor Hadrian's deified favourite.

Roman period, 120-140 AD, perhaps a
copy of a Greek Classical type. Allegedly
found near Herculaneum, Italy, in 1750.
Height 34.7 cm, width 22.5 cm, depth 26 cm.

Purchased in Italy in 1755 by Markgräfin
Wilhelmine von Bayreuth, who left it in her
will to Frederick the Great in 1758/1759.
Separated from its Baroque bust, it entered
the Königliche Museum, Berlin in 1830.

The largest of five kraters, which had been used as cinerary urns, discovered in a field, the site of a burial complex at Agrigento (ancient Akragas), Sicily in 1841 by Domenico Cardillo (the owner of the field), Gerlando Alletto and Giovanni Gentile. The kraters were given as a gift to King Ferdinand II of Bourbon who donated them to the Museum of the Royal University of Palermo.

The other side of the krater shows Zeus arbitrating in a dispute between Achilles and Memnon.

Fragment of a votive relief depicting
Triptolemos and Demeter.

From Eleusis. Early 4th century BC.

As in the relief above, Triptolemos is seated with his
left arm raised. In front of him is a wheel with a serpent
coiled around the hub. Demeter stands behind him,
wearing a peplos and a himation (cloak) an edge of
which she over her left shoulder with her left hand.
Demeter is also shown in this pose on the
Rhetoi Decree relief from Eleusis (see Part 1).

A multicoloured ceramic figurine
of a female figure lifing the edge
of her himation with her right hand.
Other goddesses, including Aphrodite
and Hera, are also shown in this pose.

This figure is likely to be of the
Aphrodite "in the gardens" type.
Her left shoulder and breast are
bare, and the pedestal is decorated
with relief erotes. The colours. have
been well preserved: the long brown
hair, pink chiton and blue himation.
On the back is the incised name of
the manufacturer Monomachos.

1st century AD. From Derveni
(ancient Lete), Macedonia.

A marble bust thought to depict Eubouleus,
(Εὐβουλεύς, Good Counseller), a god
connected with the Eleusian Mysteries.

Around 330-320 BC. Found in 1883
in the "Ploutonion" at Eleusis by
Demetrios Philios (see part 1).

National Archaeological Museum,
Athens. Inv. No. 181.

A marble bust of Eubouleus
or Alexander the Great.

Unfinished 2nd century AD copy of a work
of the 4th century BC. Discovered in 1959
by Dorothy Burr Thompson in the Athens
Agora. Thasian marble. Height 61 cm,
height of base 12 cm, width 39 cm.

The identity of Euboleus is unknown, and was a matter of conjecture even by the time of Pausanias, who mentioned an Argive legend and an Orphic poem which named him as the brother of Triptolemos (see note in Part 1). Other ancient sources refer to him variously as the son of Demeter or Zeus, or as Pluto. George E. Mylonas suggested he may have been "the Chthonian (or underworld) Zeus, an aspect of the Father of Gods and Men that is somewhat rare". [14]

According to one version of the myths, Eubouleus was a swineherd who happened to be tending his pigs at the "chasm of Kore" (χάσματι τῆς Κόρης), the place where the earth opened up for Plouton's chariot during the abduction Persephone to the underworld, and he and his pigs were also swallowed into the earth. An early example of collateral damage. The story is mentioned in the scholion on Lucian's Dialogues of the Courtesans (see note in Part 1) as "the more fabulous explanation" for the casting of piglets into the chasms (χάσματα) or megara during the Thesmophoria.

A small number of sculpted heads of this type have been speculatively identified as Eubouleus. This is perhaps due to the fact that the first of the type (photo, above left) was found at Eleusis, in the "Ploutonion", also referred to as "the Sacred Precinct of the Mirthless Stone", although other examples have been found at various locations around Attica. The bust was presumed to depict a god connected with the Eleusinian Mysteries, but did not appear to match the iconography of depictions of Triptolemos. Iakchos (Ἴακχος; Latin, Iacchus) has also been suggested. It was associated by archaeologists Otto Benndorf and Adolf Furtwängler with a headless herm in the Vatican Museums, Rome inscribed Εὐβουλεύς Πραξιτέλους (Eubouleus of Praxiteles). It has also been attributed to Leochares and Euphranor, and compared with portraits of Alexander the Great, and particularly the "Inopos" statue from Delos. It has also been suggested that the bust could be an idealized portrait of Demetrios Poliorketes, king of Macedon (294-288 BC).

An inscribed base for a statue of Eubouleus (inscription IG II² 4615) was also found in the "Ploutonion", near to where the bust was found, and similarly dated to around 330-320 BC. However, the two are not thought to belong.

A similar marble head of the same type found in Athens was made in the 2nd century AD. National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Inv. No. 2650.

A Roman period herm bust, also identified as Euboleus, is in the Palazzo Nuovo of the Capitoline Museums, Rome. Inv. No. MC 505. Height 61.5 cm. Previously in the Albani Collection.

A marble base or pier with Archaistic reliefs on three sides, left to right:
Persephone carrying a torch; a male deity identified as Zeus Chthonios
(or Plouton?) holding a phiale (libation bowl) and a rhyton (drinking horn);
and Demeter holding poppies and ears of corn.

From the Forum of Ancient Corinth. Roman period, 1st century AD.

Corinth Archaeological Museum. Inv. No. S-74-27.

Drawings and prints of this relief were made during the 17th century, and were included in a book published in Rome in 1693 by Pietro Santi Bartoli (1635-1700), containing prints by Bartoli and other artists of ancient artworks at that time in city.

In the centre, Proserpina, accompanied by Venus (Aphrodite), kneels to gather flowers in a basket when she is surprised by Pluto. On the right, he takes her down to the Underworld in his chariot, chased (or assisted?) by Diana (Artemis). Two baskets of flowers are shown overturned on the ground. Hermes, with his caduceus, stands at the far right to show the way, and part of a rock face indicates the entrance to Hades.

On the left, Ceres (Demeter), holding a torch, searches for her missing daughter, riding in a chariot drawn by two large, winged serpents, led by helmeted Minerva (Athena) who points to the place where Proserpina disappeared. The serpent-drawn chariot is presumably the one in which Triptolemos was sent on his mission (see above).

This scene probably depicts the annual return of Persephone from Hades, often referred to as the anodos (ἄνοδος, the way upwards), rather than her abduction by Plouton and her descent to the Underworld, the kathodos (κάθοδος, the way down). There is no sign of resistance on Persephone's part, and the pair in the chariot appear to look at each other tenderly. Demeter, holding a four-armed Eleusinian torch, runs to the chariot, eager to greet her daughter. She is followed by a flying Eros or Hymenaios (Ὑμεναιος), the god of marriage ceremonies, holding a wreath and a bowl. Left of the chariot Hekate runs with two long torches. On the far left, a wreathed young male sits on a rock holding out a bowl and a branch of laurel or myrtle. He is shown in a way similar to depictions of Apollo and Dionysus (see for example an Apulian vase on the Dionysus page), but may be an Eleusinian deity, perhaps Triptolemos.

At the time this drawing was made, in the mid 19th century, the amphora was in the Fittipaldi Collection in Anzi, southern Italy. Although it was discussed in a number of publications, I have so far found no recent mentions of it. The Fittipaldi Collection was later sold off and is now dispersed among several collections and museums.

As the source of the illustration, Kekulé cited: Monumenti dall' Instituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica, Volume VI, Plate XLII; Annali, Rome, 1860, pages 309 onwards (Stephani).

See also:

Richard Foerster (1843-1922), Der Raub und die Rückkehr der Persephone (Philologus supplement, Band IV), No. 8, pages 243-245. Albert Heitz, Stuttgart, 1874. At the Internet Archive.

Johannes Adolf Overbeck (1826-1895), Griechische Kunstmythologie II, Zweiter Band, dritter Theil, viertes Buch: Demeter and Kora (1878), No. 7, page 597. Illustration in Overbeck's Atlas, Tafel XVII, 27. Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig, 1873-1978. At the Internet Archive.

1. The discovery of the Demeter of Knidos statue

The site of the ancient Carian city of Knidos (Κνίδος; Latin, Cnidus) is on the Datça peninsula at Yazıköy, in the Datça district, Muğla Province, Turkey, south of Bodrum. The sanctuary of Demeter was on an elevated area 74 metres long and 40 metres wide at the east of the city. Newton referred to the sanctuary as the Temenos of Demeter, Persephone, and Pluto Epimachos (Πλούτων Ἐπίμαχος, open to attack), after his discovery of an inscribed base of Parian marble dedicated to Demeter, Persephone, Pluto Epimachos and Hermes, by Sostratos, son of Lachartos (British Museum, Inv. No. 1859,1226.45, Inscription 811).

See: Sir Charles Thomas Newton (1816-1894) and Richard Popplewell Pullan (1825-1888), A History of Discoveries at Halicarnassus, Cnidus and Branchidae.

Volume II, Part 2, Chapter XV: Temenos of Demeter, Persephone, and Pluto Epimachos. Day and Son, London, 1863. At the Internet Archive.

2. The discovery of a bronze sculpture near Bodrum

On 9 August 1953 the statue became caught up in the net of a sponge fisherman (variously named as Achmet Erbil or Ahmet Erbin) from Bodrum, at a depth of 75 metres, off the coast of Arap Adasi, near the Knidian peninsula, south of Bodrum. He left it on the beach of the village of Bitez, just to the west of Bodrum.

It was brought to the attention of Geore Ewart Bean (1903-1977), a British professor of Classics at Istanbul University, who happened to be in Bodrum at the time on one of his many tours of archaeological sites in Turkey. Having examined the sculpture, he arranged to have it transported to the museum in Izmir. His account of the find appeared in The Illustrated London News on 7 November 1953, and his sister Margaret Bean gave a talk about it on BBC radio in 1954.

"Last August some Turkish sponge-fishers brought up in their nets the head of a Greek bronze statue, probably a statue of Demeter of the fourth century BC. It is agreed by all to be among the most important artistic finds of recent years. Miss Bean and her brother, an archaeologist, were the first people, besides the villagers of Bitez, to see the fishermen's catch."

Head of a goddess, a radio talk by Margaret Bean, BBC Home Service, 25 February 1954.

See:

George E. Bean, "A masterpiece from the sea", The Illustrated London News, 7 November 1953, pages 747-749.

Brunilde Sismonodo Ridgway, The Bronze Lady From the Sea. Expedition magazine, Volume 10, Issue 1, pages 2-9. Penn Museum, September 1967.

Jeremy Green, Report on the Demeter Side Scan Sonar Search and the Aslan Burnu Site Survey, Turkey, 2004. Report Number 188, Department of Maritime Archaeology, Western Australian Maritime Museum, 2004.

3. Alessandro and Francesco Sanguinetti

The brothers Alessandro (1816-?) and Francesco (1800/1804-1870) Sanguinetti, from Carrara, Italy, were pupils of their father Gaetano Sanguinetti (1781-1842), and then of Christian Daniel Rauch (1777-1857) in Berlin. They made several copies of ancient sculptures to replace originals set up in Sanssouci by Frederick the Great and later moved to the Berlin State Museums.

See also a statue of Asklepios by the Sanguinetti brothers at Sanssouci.

Other replicas at Sanssouci include a copy of the Antinous/Agathos Daimon statue, made in 1852 by August Julius Streichenberg (1814-1878).

4. Becatti on the Ostia Dodekatheon

Giovanni Becatti (1912–1973), Un Dodekatheon Ostiense e l'arte di Prassitele. Annuario della Regia Scuola Archeologica di Atene e delle Missioni Italiane in Oriente, XXII, pages 1-53. Rome, 1942.

Giovanni Becatti, Nuovo frammento del dodekatheon prassitelico di Ostia. Bollettino d'Arte III (Luglio-Settembre - XXXVI), pages 193-200. Rome, 1951.

5. Carpenter on the Ostia Dodekatheon

Rhys Carpenter, The Ostia Altar and the East Pediment of the Parthenon, pages 71-74 and plate 10, in: Hesperia Supplements, Volume 8, Commemorative Studies in Honor of Theodore Leslie Shear, pages 71-74 and plate 10 (page 446). The American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA), 1949. At jstor.org.

6. The order of the twelve gods

An Archaistic relief now in the Walters Art Museum depicts a procession of the twelve gods, in a row advancing to the right. The deities have been identified a follows (left to right):

1. Hestia (with sceptre and another object), 2. Hermes (with cap and caduceus), 3. Aphrodite (veiled),
4. Ares (with helmet and spear), 5. Demeter (with sceptre and wheat sheaf), 6. Hephaistos (with staff),
7. Hera (with sceptre), 8. Poseidon (with trident), 9. Athena (with helmet, spear and owl),
10. Zeus (with thunderbolt and staff), 11. Artemis (with bow and quiver), 12. Apollo (with kithara).

7. Pindar, Pythian Ode 12

αἰτέω σε, φιλάγλαε, καλλίστα βροτεᾶν πολίων,
Φερσεφόνας ἕδος, ἅ τ᾽ ὄχθαις ἔπι μηλοβότου
ναίεις Ἀκράγαντος ἐΰδματον κολώναν, ὦ ἄνα
ἵλαος ἀθανάτων ἀνδρῶν τε σὺν εὐμενίᾳ
δέξαι στεφάνωμα τόδ᾽ ἐκ Πυθῶνος εὐδόξῳ Μίδᾳ
αὐτόν τέ νιν Ἑλλάδα νικάσαντα τέχνᾳ, τάν ποτε
Παλλὰς ἐφεῦρε θρασειᾶν Γοργόνων
οὔλιον θρῆνον διαπλέξαισ᾽ Ἀθάνα:

Pindar, Pythian Ode 12 (in Greek), lines 1-8. At Perseus Digital Library.

8. Demeter busts in the Baths of Diocletian

See: Baths of Diocletian, guide, pages 18-19. Ministero dei Beni e della Attività Culturali e del Turismo. Mondarori Electa S.p.A., Milano, 2016 (first edition 2011).

9. The reconstruction of the Lykosoura group

Guy Dickins (1881-1916) wrote the history of his reconstruction in a four part article, which also includes a contribution by Konstantinos Kourouniotis concerning the original construction of the statue group, as well as Dickins' description of Damophon's style and a summary of other works attributed to him.

Guy Dickins and K. Kourouniotis, Damophon of Messene II: The restoration of the group at Lykosura, The Annual of the British School at Athens, Volume 13 (1906/1907), pages 357-404. At jstor.org.

Kourouniotis's contribution, The mechanical construction of the group, including his comment on Pausanias' credulity, pages 384-389.

Kourouniotis comment about locals "playing on the credulity of tourists" conjures images of flocks of culture-tourists from around the Roman Empire, including Pausanias himself, visiting ancient sites in Greece, where their hosts spun yarns and sold them souvenirs such as copies of famous artworks, perhaps like the "Varvakeion statuette" and "Athena Lenormant" miniature replicas of Pheidias' Athena Parthenos (see Pergamon gallery 2, page 14).

Such a scenario would help explain why Megalopolis depicted the Lykosoura statue group on its coins: the sanctuary had presumably become a notable tourist attraction and local source of pride. Like many Roman empresses, Julia Domna was associated with several deities including Demeter/Ceres (see a statue of Julia Domna as Ceres in Part 1), and perhaps the coins were part of a campaign to associate her with the Lykosoura sanctuary. Ironically, if the Lykosourians had not defied the order to abandon their city and move to Megalopolis (assuming the tale told to Pausanias was true), the sanctuary may have ceased to exist.

Following the publication of the coin by Valerios Stais, Dickins defended his reconstruction and examined what evidence the coin offered concerning the statue group.

Guy Dickins, Damophon of Messene: III, The Annual of the British School at Athens, Volume 17 (1910/1911), pages 80-87. At jstor.org.

Dickins' academic career was interrupted by World War I. He served as an infantry captain on the Western Front and died on 17th July 1916 of wounds received four days earlier at Pozieres, during the Battle of the Somme. Before his death he had completed the first of a planned two-volume catalogue of the Acropolis Museum: Catalogue of the Acropolis Museum, Volume I: Archaic sculpture, Cambridge University Press, 1912. The second volume, completed by Stanley Casson and Dorothy Lamb Brooke Nicholson, was finally published in 1921: Volume II, Sculpture and architectural fragments. The manuscript of his unfinished Hellenistic sculpture was published in 1920 by Oxford University Press, with a preface by Percy Gardner.

See: winchestercollegeatwar.com/archive/guy-dickens/. At Winchester College at War.

Although most sources, including the Athens museum, state that the statues were made of Doliana marble, from Doliana (Δολιανά), near Tegea in eastern Arcadia, others claim that Pentelic marble was used. I have so far found no evidence for this claim. The group was not acrolithic (of wood and stone), as some recent authors have stated. The surviving fragments include parts of marble arms, legs, torsos and drapery. The sizes of the statue heads differ in various sources. I have used the heights quoted in the usually reliable University of Köln Archaeological Institute database: arachne.uni-koeln.de

For a short discussion of the reliefs on Despoina's veil, see:

10. Discovery of Lykosoura and early excavations

For accounts of the discovery of Lykosoura and early excavations there, see:

Edward Dodwell (1767-1832), A classical and topographical tour through Greece during the years 1801, 1805 and 1806, Volume II (of 2), pages 394-395. Rodwell and Martin, London, 1819. At the Internet Archive.

William Martin Leake (1777-1860), Travels in the Morea, Volume II (of 3), page 312. John Murray, London, 1830. At the Internet Archive.

Leake visited the area shortly before Dodwell but published the account of his travels around the Peloponnese much later. He did not find the remains of Lykosoura, and acknowledged Dodwell's discovery.

Charles Waldstein (1856-1927), Lykosoura - Temple of Depoina = Persephone, The American Journal of Archaeology and of the History of the Fine Arts, Volume 6, No. 1/2 (March - June 1890), pages 209-211. At jstor.org.

Charles Nicolas Normand (1858-1934), Corpus des monuments grecs: Lycosoura. l'Ami des Monuments et des Arts, Paris, 1892. At the Internet Archive. Written shortly after the first excavations at Lykosoura. Includes illustrations and plans.

11. Himilco, Syracuse, Carthage and Demeter

The temples of Demeter and Kore plundered by Himilco were outside the walls of the Syracusan suburb Achradine. The 5th century BC temple of Demeter dicovered at the Piazza della Vittoria in Syracuse may be one of those mentioned by Diodorus (Demeter and Persephone part 1).

Shortly after Himilco's plunder of the temples the Syracusans gained the upper hand and captured many of the Carthaginian ships, and the besieging army was decimated by the plague. Himilco bribed Dionysius I, the tyrant of Syracuse, to allow him to escape with his fellow Carthaginians, but left most of his army behind. He returned home in disgrace and later starved himself to death.

News of Himilco's defeat and the abandonment of the troops in Syracuse sparked off a revolt among Carthage's allied cities in north Africa. In fear for their lives, the Carthaginians prayed to their patron goddess Tanith for help, and when this brought no relief they concluded that they should assuage Demeter and Kore by offering them statues and practising their rites in the city, with the help of the resident Greeks:

"Himilco seized the suburb of Achradine, and he also plundered the temples of both Demeter and Kore, for which acts of impiety against the divinity he quickly suffered a fitting penalty. For his fortune quickly worsened from day to day, and whenever Dionysius made bold to skirmish with him, the Syracusans had the better of it. Also at night unaccountable tumults would arise in the camp and the soldiers would rush to arms, thinking that the enemy was attacking the palisade. To this was added a plague which was the cause of every kind of suffering."

"The Carthaginians, against whom the gods were clearly fighting, at first gathered in small groups and in great confusion and besought the deity to put an end to its wrath; thereupon the entire city was seized by superstitious fear and dread, as every man anticipated in imagination the enslavement of the city. Consequently they voted by every means to propitiate the gods who had been sinned against.

Since they had included neither Kore nor Demeter in their rites, they appointed their most renowned citizens to be priests of these goddesses, and consecrating statues of them with all solemnity, they conducted their rites, following the ritual used by the Greeks. They also chose out the most prominent Greeks who lived among them and assigned them to the service of the goddesses."

12. Hero reliefs from the Mahdia shipwreck

13. "Hero relief from Corinth, restored"

Oscar Broneer, Hero Cults in the Corinthian Agora. Hesperia, Volume 11, No. 2 (April - June 1942), Pages 128-161 (drawing, Fig. 1 on page 131). The American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA). At jstor.org.

The reconstruction drawing of the relief was made by Dr. Antony E. Raubitschek. At the time the upper left fragment had apparently not yet been found.

"Several fragmentary examples have been found at Corinth, the best and largest of which has the lower half preserved (Fig. 1) ... The missing portions of the Corinth relief have been restored from a similar relief which is now in the Museum at Istanbul, but is said to have come from the Dodecanese Islands." (page 130)

"The reclining male, if we may judge from the single preserved head, is regarded as a divine figure; and the polos, commonly worn by Hades-Pluto, and later by Serapis, labels him as ruler in the realm of the dead. Likewise the woman, seated on the couch or on a separate throne at the foot of the couch, can be none other than the consort of the reclining deity." (page 133)

14. Mylonas on Eubouleus

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