Dedications in the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Cyrene

Abstract

Yes, Asclepius, statues. Do you see how even you give way to doubt? I mean statues, but statues living and conscious, filled with the breath of life, and doing many mighty works; statues which have foreknowledge and predict future events by the drawing of lots, and by prophetic inspiration, and by dreams, and in many other ways; statues which inflict diseases and heal them, dispensing sorrow and joy according to men's deserts.Asclepius24a (3rd century AD Hermetic Dialogue, trans. W. Scott)In the 1971 and 1978 seasons, the University Museum of Philadelphia Expedition to Cyrene excavated two fragmentary limestone statues of seated females in the extramural Sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone in the Wadi bel Gadir. One of these two life to over-life size statues (Statue I) was found within the early Imperial S8 Sacred House and the other (Statue II) was retrieved from the broken vaulted roof of Tunnel A, down the slope directly to the north of this house. Both statues may be dated, on grounds of style and archaeological context, to the first half of the first century AD. By virtue of their large size, findspots, and unusual construction, a case may be made that these statues were intended to represent one or both of the Sanctuary's two goddesses, Demeter and Persephone, and used for special rituals, possibly associated with the thesmophoria festival known to be celebrated here.Statue I (Fig. 1) is fragmentary, only the lower part of a draped female seated on an oval chest (carved in two joining blocks) is preserved, as well as some non-joining fragments of her veiled head and shoulders. The oval chest is entwined by a snake. One block of Statue II remains (Fig. 2), consisting of the right half of a female figure's lower body and part of the chair, possibly a backless one, on which she is seated. This figure holds a plate in her lap filled with fruits, breads, and a piglet's head. It seems reasonable to conjecture that the two statues represent Demeter and/or Persephone. Statue I is seated on an oval chest, probably thekiste, in which the sacred objects of the goddesses were kept. The sacral importance of the chest is underscored by the snake which wraps itself around it. Statue II holds a plate of offerings, among which is a piglet's head (the sacrificial victim used for the Thesmophoria).