Limestone statue of a bearded man wearing a wreath and carrying votive offerings. Artist unknown; ca. 475-450 BCE. From Cyprus; now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Tetradrachm of the polisof Rhegion (present-day Reggio Calabria) in Bruttium, south Italy. On the obverse, a lion’s head; on the reverse, the head of Apollo, crowned with laurel. Artist unknown; minted between 410 and 387 BCE. Photo credit: Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com
An Apulian Red-figured Column Krater, attributed to the Painter of the Truro Pelike. Circa 350-330 B.C.
Painted in front with a standing woman and a seated youth, and on the back with two youths flanking a plant, the details in added white and yellow. Height 44.2 cm.
Submitted by Hardman for admission to the Royal Academy. She needed to produce an “undraped antique statue” despite the fact that women were still not allowed into “undraped” life drawing classes.
It was told that she has some anger management issues… (We also would like to state that she is strictly forbidden to access the liquour cabinet. “I don’t care how many lifes you lived and how many relatives you dismembered, little miss, you’re now 12 and you’re now grounded.” cit.)
Notes: The background image is inspired by a Lucan krater from around 400 b.C., now at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The dressMedea is wearing, tho, is the reconstruction of a traditional garment worn in the Colchis/Caucasian area in ancient times, in the Archaeological Museum of the Republic of Alania, in Vladikavkaz.
Medea was the princess of Colchis -the coastal area of the modern Georgia-, daughter of king Aeetes who was the son of Helios, and thus brother of Circe and of the Minoan Queen Pasifae. She helped Jason (read as: she did all the work and Jason took credit) in conquering the golden fleece her family had in the garden, guarded by a dragon. She also agreed to help the Argonauts flee from Colchis, on the promise Jason would have married her. Because true love can do everything, included forgive the fact that the blushing bride dismembered her own brother to distract her father and escape. But nobody’s perfect, and once back to Greece and Jason crowned king, the pair lived happily ever after… Or at least, for few years. Then, Jason remembered he was a douchebag: he decided to take another wife, younger, Greeker and without a bodycount of her own, informing Medea of the happy news in a flawless way. With an eviction note for her and their two sons. Medea chose to be elegant about it: she killed the two kids, murdered the second wife while she was at it, and left Corinth on her chariot trained by dragons, in an unmistakable “Fuck you, sir”. After that, tho, she tried to redeem herself: she fled to Athens, married again with king Aegeus and she really put some effort to free Greece from Theseus. She tried to poison him, but was discovered and exiled all over again. She took a definitive residence in what is now Turkey, in the region that from her took the name Media, and Theseus was now free to go rampant and become the scarcely encomiable hero we all know.
The treasures of Hera : Greek antiquities from Crotone, in southern Italy’s Calabria
In Crotone there was one of the most important sanctuaries in Magna Graecia (the area of southern Italy populated by Greek settlers from the eighth century BC). It was dedicated to the goddess Hera, wife of Zeus and queen of the gods, who was venerated here as the protector of women, as well as a type of Mother Nature.
Excavations in Crotone in 1910 uncovered a treasure trove of gold, silver and bronze votive offerings to the goddess, which provide insight into the people and traditions of the time.
The most outstanding piece is a glistening gold diadem, or tiara, shaped out of a band of gold leaf and decorated with both a braid pattern and foliage garland. Interestingly, coins used in Crotone from the fourth century portrayed a crowned head of Hera.
To this day, the diadem still maintains its golden glow and is quite a treat to stumble upon in the museum.
Greek funerary wreath, 320-300 BC, gold and glass paste.
Evidence of wear and repair suggest that [the funerary wreath] was worn before being included in a burial. The gold circlet is hinged in the front with a Herakles (square) knot, a popular motif that was believed to have magical qualities.
Courtesy & currently located at the Getty Villa, Malibu. Photo taken by vlasta2.
The treasures of Hera : Greek antiquities from Crotone, in southern Italy’s Calabria
In Crotone there was one of the most important sanctuaries in Magna Graecia (the area of southern Italy populated by Greek settlers from the eighth century BC). It was dedicated to the goddess Hera, wife of Zeus and queen of the gods, who was venerated here as the protector of women, as well as a type of Mother Nature.
Excavations in Crotone in 1910 uncovered a treasure trove of gold, silver and bronze votive offerings to the goddess, which provide insight into the people and traditions of the time.
The most outstanding piece is a glistening gold diadem, or tiara, shaped out of a band of gold leaf and decorated with both a braid pattern and foliage garland. Interestingly, coins used in Crotone from the fourth century portrayed a crowned head of Hera.
To this day, the diadem still maintains its golden glow and is quite a treat to stumble upon in the museum.
Beautiful Women of Ancient Medma in Rosarno, Calabria, Italy
Medma, Rosarno? For most travelers to Italy, these names will not ring any bells. The former was an ancient city-state of Greater Greece and the latter is its modern-day counterpart in Calabria. Medma’s terracotta is exceptionally beautiful. You can see a few pieces in the collection of the British Museum, or visit the archeological museums in Rosarno and Reggio, and have your fill.
The terracotta figurines from Medma are particularly striking. The sculptures were fashioned from a local clay that has lent their characteristic reddish color. Medma had close ties with Locri Epizephyrii, a colony established in the 7th century BC by women from Locris in central Greece. Handsome ladies, no doubt.
MEDMA HISTORY
The Locrians founded Medma (or Mesma) in the 6th century BC. Locri lies over the mountains along Calabria’s eastern coast on the Ionian Sea and Medma is on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western shore at what would have been less than a day’s walk back in the day. The present city is called Rosarno and its center sits on a hill overlooking the Gulf of Gioia Tauro. Today, state highway 682 goes west across the peninsula from just north of Locri.
From the dimensions of the excavations of the area, Medma would have been able to accommodate over 4,000 citizens in its heyday during the Greek period. The town was mentioned by Roman writers. However, it is thought that the population eventually moved and founded nearby Nicotera some time in the 2nd century AD.
Excavations have uncovered numerous artifacts as well as structural remains of the city. Judging from the craft of the terracotta and bronze pieces discovered in the necropolis and sanctuary areas, Medma had a distinctive and sophisticated lifestyle with particular emphasis on the exaltation of beauty. Interesting to note that Locri Epizephyrii, the founding city-state, was a matriarchal society that was unique in the Greek world.
MEDMA’S LADIES
The wealth of terracotta includes many female heads and busts. These votive offerings would have been divine representations or stylized images of the donors, themselves. Various hairstyles frame the noble faces set off by classic earrings or a modest crown. What are they all thinking behind those half smiles?
The enigmatic expressions date these sculptures between the late 6th to the 5th century BC. The following terracotta figures with a rigid, frontal stance, one seated on a throne and the other standing, offer winged creatures that bring to mind the cults of Aphrodite and Persephone.
Another standing female figure from the Archaic Period balances the high cylindrical head covering of a goddess with a wreath in her left hand and a pomegranate, the symbol of fertility, in her right.
MEDMA ARCHEOLOGICAL MUSEUM IN ROSARNO
Numerous ancient objects from Medma are on display in the archeological museum in Reggio Calabria, and in 2014 the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Medma-Rosarno opened in the city of Rosarno, which is in the Province of Reggio Calabria less than an hour’s drive north of Reggio. More information can be found on the Museo Medma’s Facebook page.
