Terracotta Figurines of Goddesses on Thrones from Borysthenes

Abstract

Figurines of goddesses on the throne were the main coroplastic images of ancient centers of the archaic period. They predominate among figurines from Borysthenes as well. The peculiarities of the image of such goddesses are studied on the example of the collection of similar terracotta figurines stored in the Scientific Funds of the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Most often, they were so homogenous that it is easy to identify the image from very small fragments. But in Borysthenes, a number of peculiar items were found showing a variety of attributes, as opposed to other centers of the Northern Black Sea region. This is a goddess with a child, with varieties: a child wearing a pillius or in the form of a potbellied God; goddess with animal features: with the head of a bear or in the form of a monkey with a baby; a goddess with a paredros wearing a pillius; with a dove in her hands. In the absence of attributes, the headdresses differ, and among them, the high polós was of a cultic significance.
 It is concluded that one should not hasten to correlate the image of the goddess on the throne without attributes with the cult of a definite goddess. The figure of the goddess with her hands on her knees with no distinctive features could be intended for use in various cults. Therefore, there is a need to reconsider the tradition of defining such unattributed images as Demeter’s, typical of the written sources devoted to the Northern Black Sea region. In the archaic period, the number of coroplastic workshops was significantly smaller than in subsequent periods, when attributes had become a more frequent addition to the image. Most of the analyzed items are from the Eastern Mediterranean. Therefore, the decrease in the percentage of the number of Demeter and her daughter images in the subsequent periods took place due to the reduction of images common to many goddesses and their diversity.
 The variety of archaic times images of goddesses on the throne in Borysthenes is an interesting phenomenon, but it should be explained not so much by the exceptional amount of cults but the extensive links with various sanctuaries having their own coroplastic workshops. The cults that used images of the goddess on the throne were associated with the least known Cabeiri (Kabeiroi), as well as Dionysus, Demeter, Artemis, Aphrodite, the Mother of the Gods, and other deities whose attributes remained clear to followers without their image.