Crete, Gortys (Gortyna, Γόρτυς), Demeter or Persephone

This marble figure of a woman, on display in the small museum of sculpture at Gortyna Southern Crete, stands alongside a number of other incomplete sculptures. The statue is headless, but a clue allows us to believe that Demeter or better still the Kore Persephone is represented. In the left hand held across the body is a spray of poppy heads (see detail on accompanying photo), associated both with Demeter's cornfields and with Persephone's underworld in the legend. Tempting to think that the head survives in some other museum of the world.

Gortys, Museum of Sculpture, uncertain date.

Done