Deity figure

These small, painted ceramic figures were offerings to the fertility goddesses, Demeter and Persephone. Demeter, goddess of the grain crops, was the Greek version of the Earth Mother. Her daughter Persephone, according to myth, was stolen by Hades, lord of the underworld. When Demeter mourned her daughter, the land withered and died. Persephone was released to the upper world, but since she had eaten several pomegranate seeds during her captivity, she had to return to Hades for the winter months. This kind of life/death/rebirth fertility myth has parallels in the Near East and Egypt. These attractive mold-made figurines come from Boeotia, the country north of Attica, which produced a large volume of ceramic offering figures in the Archaic period.