Greek terra-cotta statuettes : their origin, evolution, and uses / By Marcus B. Huish.

  • Huish, Marcus B. (Marcus Bourne), 1845-1921.
Date:
1900
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Greek terra-cotta statuettes : their origin, evolution, and uses / By Marcus B. Huish. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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2. Bottles, plates, and saucers in earthenware or bronze to contain the food and drink of the deceased. These again were often mere toys, the bottles not having any interior. 3. A piece of bronze money to pay Charon for transport across the Styx, often found between the teeth. The money for the most part ranged over the two centuries before the Christian Era. 4. Statuettes. Contrary to the usually received tenets, the explorers at Myrina arrived at the following interesting opinions, which assist the controversy as to the raison d'etre of these objects :— 1. It was difficult not to see some relationship between the sex and the age of the occupant and the objects placed in the grave. In that of a woman were found nothing but statuettes of women and of such divinities as Aphrodite, Eros, Demeter, and Nike. In that of a man would be found, in practically equal proportions, statuettes of either sex, but amongst those of divinities would be Dionysos, Heracles, and Atys. In those of children the large number of representations of Eros or of children would be unmistakable, but there would also be those of men and women. In addition to this, the statuettes often clearly agreed in age with that of the child, and the toys and the games were probably those which it had enjoyed during life. 2. One often found in the same grave objects which apparently had come from the same maker. This was proved, not only by the colour of the clay and the character of the statuettes, but by there often being repetitions of the same one, showing they had been selected without much care at a single factory (see Plate XL 111.). The .statuettes sometimes could be formed into a set, although not so disposed in the grave (see Plates XLIV. and XLV.).