A Group of Marble Statuettes in the Ödemiş Museum

Authors : Onur GÜLBAY

Pages : 177-196

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Publication Date : 2015-01-19

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This study comprises seven statuettes which are today preserved in the depot of the Museum of Ödemiş and which, within the framework of the museum’s renovation works, are planned to be displayed among the museum exhibits in the near future. As part of a study entitled The Stone Artifacts of the Ödemiş Museum, supported by the University of Dokuz Eylül Research Fund and now in the preparatory stages, they are here presented for the first time to the scholarly world. These statuettes consist of one god and goddesses: two Venuses, one Hecate, one Diana, one Aesculapius, one Cybele and a Ceres or Priestess. This study aims to present and date the statuettes by comparing their stylistic, plastic and chronological characteristics with similar examples. Although the head and arm section of Diana, the left hand of the second Venus and the right hand of Cybele and, of Aesculapius, the right hand of and the portion below his ankles are lost, the fact that the statuettes are otherwise intact or completed makes them important from the standpoint of condition1. It is thought that the statuettes were very probably used either in a domestic cult or as votive offerings. They are dated to within the first half of the 2nd or beginning of the 3rd centuries A.D. on the basis of their general workmanship characteristics.
Keywords : Ödemiş Müzesi, Mermer Heykelcik, Ev Kültü, Adak Sunusu