Faculty of Classics - University of Cambridge

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Argive Heraeum - female head

Possibly Hera from the west pediment.

One of a large number of sculptural fragments from the temple, of which nothing else survives. According to Pliny the gold and ivory cult statue of Hera in the temple was made by Polykleitos, a native of Argos.

Hera was the wife and sister of Zeus, and was goddess of marriage. Her festival took place in Argos, of which she was patron, where her important cult probably originated before spreading to the rest of ancient Greece

Material: 
Marble
Location of Original: 

Athens, National Museum 1570

Size: 
0.27m
References: 

Waldstein: The Argive Heraeum I, frontispiece and pl. XXXVI

Date: 
c.420 BCE
Sculptor: 
Polykleitos (school of)
Provenance: 

Found on site of the Heraeum in the Argive Plain

Number: 
202a

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