31-36

The Kore of Hierapetra

• Αποστολάκου, Σταυρούλα

A trial excavation was carried out in 1980, at the locality Viglia Hierapetras —where ancient Hierapytna is believed to have been located — in the area identified as the site of the city’s ancient theatre. The excavation has brought to light, among other finds, the marble statue 833, now forming part of the Archaeological Collection of Hierapetra.The statue, which is fairly well preserved, represents a standing female figure. The inserted head and neck are missing and so are the right arm from the shoulder and the left forearm. The figure is dressed with a chiton and a long himation, which wraps the body tightly, forming an extensive diagonal fold at the breast and a somewhat rounded mass of folds compressed between the left elbow and the left hip.The attire and posture of the figure point to a well-known statuary type of the 4th century B.C., encountered in a series of Attic reliefs depicting mostly Eleusinian deities, and in a number of statues that have preserved the attributes held by the figure. The most famous among the latter are the Kore of Vienna (Euterpe) and the Kore of Florence (Urania). This type of standing female figure with the characteristic dress and posture was apparently created, from earlier models, in the mid-4th century B.C., to represent the divine Kore. Later, in the Classical age as well as in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, the type was repeated with minor or major modifications, forming various groups of copies that no longer had the initially exclusive association with the Eleusinian divinity. Hence, it was also used to depict other goddesses, such as Artemis, Hygeia, the Muses, or even celebrated poetesses and public personages.A comparison of the Hierapetra copy with copies of the various groups of similar type, assigns it to the group of the Kore of Vienna (Inv. No. 157) and of the Muse of the Palazzo Margherita, with slight differences in details of the dress, workmanship and chronology.In the absence of any external evidence, the Hierapetra Kore has been dated in the early Antonine period on the basis of its stylistic features: the pronounced interplay of light and shade, the straight small borings on the himation, the flat rendering of the wavy folds of the chiton on the shoulder, the overall conception of the work as a painting rather than as a sculpture.No external evidence, excavation find or epigraphical testimony exists to help identify the figure, and the site of its discovery makes difficult an association with the Eleusinian deity. On the other hand, the recess for inserting the head suggests that this was probably the portrait statue of a benefactress or other celebrated woman of that age.

• History and Archaeology

• Αρχαιολογία
• Excavations (Archaeology)
• Decorative arts

Πίνακες 2-5, βλέπε τέλος τεύχους, Το άρθρο περιέχεται στο τεύχος: Μέρος Α'-Μελέτες