The Mother of the Gods and a Hellenistic Bronze Matrix

A bronze matrix in the Metropolitan Museum of Art can be dated by stylistic analysis to the second or first century B.C., and assigned on iconographic grounds to a workshop in the area of Smyrna. The matrix, which was cast from a wax model, yields information on the technique of matrix hammering and offers important evidence for the syncretism in the late Hellenistic period of the Mother, Artemis, Hekate, and Demeter. Because it was purchased in Egypt and has a close parallel in a plaster relief in Cairo, the matrix testifies to the extensive commerce in metalwork, including workshop aids, during the Hellenistic period. Reliefs made in the matrix were intended for votive use or to be worn as agalmata, and are thus analogous to the silver shrines of Ephesos described in Acts, and are precursors to the protethidia worn by Roman priests of Cybele

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Bronze · Hellenistic Period · Linguistics · Matrix (chemical analysis) · Period (music) · Syncretism (linguistics) · Terracotta · Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies · Ancient Egypt and Archaeology · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · History · Philosophy

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