Plaque of the Goddess Cybele

The goddess Cybele is depicted frontally with her hands cupping her breasts on this parabolic relief plaque. The relief is thinnest at the edges and thickest at the center, near the goddess’s hands. Cybele is veiled, and her headdress is decorated with six griffin protomes. Her hair, visible beneath the veil, is pulled up from her face, and three long and tightly coiled locks fall on either shoulder. She wears a mantle over a peplos and a bracelet on each wrist. Three to four digits on each hand are depicted. A raised linear border encircles the plaque. There is a band with alternating rosettes and lotuses on the bottom. The main campus is bordered on the bottom side by a raised bar and around the curved area by an egg-and-dart pattern. On the upper portion of the back is an incuse or incised circle. Within the circle, incuse, is a nude female, torso turned frontally and legs to the right in profile, riding a horned animal, perhaps a goat, to the left.

Lisa M. Anderson