Important Silver Statuette of the Enthroned Goddess Cybele with Lion Cub

Culture: Roman

Period: 2nd-3rd century A.D.

Material: Silver

Dimensions: 5.5 cm high; 83.1 gram

Price: 28 000 Euro

Ref: 3724

Provenance: Auctioned with Maître Maurice Rheims on 11 and 12 June 1959, lot 148. There acquired for 29 000 Francs by the collection Nicole and Jean-Michel Thierry. Thence in the family estate. With a copy of the relevant catalogue pages and purchase notes. Accompanied by a French antiquities passport.

Condition: Intact

Description: Solid small silver statuette of goddess Cybele, the powerful mother goddess, or “Magna Mater”, who, starting from Phrygia, was worshipped in Greece and later in the Roman Empire until the early Christian period. Cybele wears a crown in form of a city wall and is seated on a magnificent throne with an abundantly decorated backrest. She holds a big tympanon, a round tambourine, in her left hand. In the right one she presents an omphalos bowl. Cybele is covered in a figure-hugging chiton, whose detailed pleats cascade to her feet, with a himation over it. In most depictions of an enthroned Cybele she is pulled by a carriage of lions. The present important statuette depicts her with a lion cub, which rests on her lap and looks at the viewer. See for this depiction a terracotta statuette in the Louvre with the accession number CA 1797. For the Cybele cult see: Altay Coşkun „Über den Hintergrund der Verbreitung des Kybele-Kultes im Westen der Mittelmeerwelt. Neuere Forschungen zum phrygisch-hellenistischen Pessinus“. In: “Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia”. Published online on 18 December 2020.