Demeter of Knidos
Seated figure of the goddess of fertility and the seasons.
The sanctuary of Demeter at Knidos, in south western Turkey, was laid out around 350 BCE, at the same time as the city. It consisted of a long terrace with spectacular views, on which were displayed many votive sculptures, including this one of Demeter herself on her throne.
She is unusually well preserved, but her throne would have had elaborate arms, and her hands would have held a libation bowl or a torch, two common attributes of Demeter
London, British Museum 1300
Purchased 1875-6 by the Fitzwilliam Museum from Brucciani. Transferred to the Museum in 1884
Lippold: Griechische Plastik, 260 (n.8), pl. 93.4
Walston: Catalogue of Casts in the Museum of Classical Archaeology (1889), 74, no.352
Ashmole: Journal of Hellenic Studies LXXI (1951), 13-, pls. 1-12
Rhys Carpenter: Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome XVIII (1941), 71
Burn: Greek and Roman Art (1991), 72
Excavated in the temenos of Demeter at Knidos in 1858