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  Magna Graecia: Greek Art From South Italy and Sicily > About the Exhibition > Agrigento > Statuette of Chthonic Deity with Piglet (about 410-400 BC)
 
 
Statuette of Chthonic Deity with Piglet (about 410-400 BC)
Probably Agrigento
Terracotta, reddish clay with slip, mold-made, hand-finished
Museo Archeologico Regionale di Agrigento, inv. S 926
[Cat. no. 73]

Statuette of Chthonic Deity with Piglet (about 410-400 BC)

This statuette perhaps represents the goddess Demeter or another divinity connected with the Greek underworld (also known as a chthonic deity). The figure wears a polos (headdress) and holds a torch in one hand and a piglet in the other-attributes which may be associated with nighttime rituals sacred to Demeter. Piglets were often sacrificed to the goddess, as evidenced by the large number of such bones found at her sanctuary at Eleusis in mainland Greece.

Page 7 of 8 | On the next page: Head of Female Deity (about 410-400 BC)