Tag: museo archeologico
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An Offering to the Goddess
This terracotta figure from Siracusa’s archaeological museum is one of hundreds of examples of statuettes found around the island of Ortigia that is attributed to the cult of Demeter and Kore (Persephone). I find this divine figure especially interesting because more recent images of Santa Lucia, the patron saint of Siracusa who is celebrated in…
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Mother Goddess
During our tour these past days, we spent a provoking morning in Siracusa, first at the archaeological park, and then at one of Europe’s best archaeological museums, the Museo Archeologico Orsi. Pictured here is one of the museum’s star pieces, a “Mother Goddess,” dated to be from 550 BC and made of local limestone. Found…
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Summer and the Divine Feminine
The end of August and beginning of September in Sicily is a period that marks many feasts in honor of various feminine saints, celebrations that are linked to ancient rites that expressed gratefulness to the earth for the bounty of the harvest. The ancient Greeks, who started to settle in Sicily in the 8th century…
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Ancient Greek-era Lekythos in Sicily
This ancient Sicilian-Greek-era lekythos caught my eye because of the drummer and flute player depicted in its design. A lekythos is a specific shape of Greek pottery–narrow with one handle–that was used for storing olive oil c. 500 BC. They commonly showed men practicing rituals or daily tasks because it was a vessel used primarily…
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Ancient Greek Drums in Sicily
This ancient lekanis dipicts women holding drums (Why I was interested in it!). Lekanides were ceramic vessels often used by women to store items or serve food (The lid could be overturned and used as a second serving dish.). I don’t know the age of this one (Unfortunately, I didn’t make a note when I…