A clay group of the agora of Pella
Abstract
This article concerns a clay group: a male figure lying on a kline and a female figure sitting on it. The group was found in the well of the room 3 in the east stoa of the Agora of Pella. The male figure is beardless, he wears a semicircular crown, and he holds a pomegranate or an apple in his right hand, which he extends towards the female figure. The female figure sits on the lower part of the kline and holds in her right hand an object, which is not pre served (probably a mirror).
The figurine belongs to the well known iconographie type of νεκρόδειπνον and it is closely related to three clay groups: one from a grave in Vergina, one from Lesvos and another from Olynthos, partly preserved. According to the typological examples and the archaeological evidence, it is dated in the last quarter of the 4th c. B.C. or in the beginning of the 3rd c. B.C.
Its interpretation has been problematic. It has been argued that it presents the godly couple of Aphrodite and her young partner Adonis. The complex has chthonic character, but, also, it symbolises the fertility, the fruitfulness, and the regeneration of the nature. This interpretation is supported by a series of iconographie remarks. The identification of the male figure as Adonis is an additional evidence of the already proposed worship of the god in Pella.
Article Details
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Πουλακάκης Ν. (2004). A clay group of the agora of Pella. Makedonika, 34(1), 273–308. https://doi.org/10.12681/makedonika.876
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