‘The Swan Goddess’

The statuette once formed the side arm of a valuable musical instrument, probably a seven-stringed kithara some 45 cm in length. The woman (height: 14.5 cm) stands in a rigidly frontal position on the body of a winged sphinx, with long straight hair that was gathered around the opening of the sounding box. She is wearing a headdress that extends high into the air (polos) and which merges into a swan’s neck with a curved head. The swan contained the crossbar to which the strings were attached. The woman’s long robe runs along the curves of her breasts in parallel folds, which run along the lower body in perfectly straight lines. The belt ends in three tassels while smooth fabric rests over her shoulders and arms like a veil. Her hands were fashioned separately and are now lost; perhaps they held a flagon and bowl. Wearing an Archaic smile, the woman’s face is impressive for its hollowed out brows and pupils, which were originally emphasised by inserts of coloured glass. Her long ears are adorned with disc earrings. Her hair, parted above the forehead, is artfully braided to form three thick braids that fall far down her back. The design of the cylindrically shaped female body with its rigid posture and ‘smiling face’, the decorative surfaces with the luxurious folds of the robe and the artfully styled hair find their nearest echo in ivory statuettes that were found on the site of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus on the west coast, as well as in the Tumulus D excavations in Elmali to the north of Antalya on the south coast of Turkey. They have been interpreted as depictions of a deity – probably the Anatolian mother goddess Cybele. The same interpretation must also apply to the Berlin figure, which also features polos, veil and disc earrings, especially as she stands on a mythical creature. The luxurious instrument, from which she has been detached, perhaps served as a musical accompaniment in cult festivals. Like the other ivory and silver statuettes, this figure belongs to the art of Asia Minor with its clear Oriental influences. Between the 9th and 7th century BCE, this region experienced a period of intense cultural exchange, first under Hittite, Phrygian and then Lydian rule, also shaped by contact with the Greek colonists on the coast. Private funerary rites or official votive offerings in the large sanctuaries reflect these changes, which ultimately lead in the 6th century BCE to formal designs with a stronger Ionian character, of the kind we know from the votive offerings from the temple of Hera on Samos, for instance.