All pictures by me. 

Red-figure column-krater with Hermes pursuing a woman (top photo) and two men and a youth (bottom photo)

Attributed to the Syracuse Painter

Athens, Greece, c. 470-460 B.C.

red-figure ceramic

LACMA

Athenian 'Snake Goddess' Gets New Identity

SEATTLE - A mysterious “snake goddess” painted on terracotta and discovered in Athens may actually be Demeter, the Greek goddess of the harvest.

Once linked to the worship of the dead, the goddess is flanked by two snakes on a slab of terracotta about the size of a piece of notebook paper. She has her hands up above her head, which has given her the nickname “the touchdown goddess” thanks to the resemblance of the pose to a referee’s signal. The goddess is painted in red, yellow and blue-green on a tile, with only her head molded outward in three dimensions. This unusual piece of art was found amid a jumble of gravel and other terracotta fragments in 1932 in what was once the Athenian agora, or public square. Read more.

References to a powerful woman named Aspasia, the live-in partner of the ancient Greek statesman Pericles, appear in the writings of Plato, Aristophanes, Xenophon and other classical Athenian authors. It is thought that she was born in the Ionian colony of Miletus around 470 B.C. and moved to Athens, where she became a hetaera—a type of courtesan who received an education in order to keep intelligent, sophisticated men company—and possibly ran a brothel. She then moved in with Pericles and bore him a son; according to Plutarch, the prominent politician loved her so much that he kissed her every morning and evening until the day he died. Because Aspasia was a foreigner, Athenian law prevented the couple from marrying.

Ancient sources relate—derisively, at times—that Pericles frequently consulted his companion about political and military matters. Plato even joked that Aspasia, described as a skilled orator and engrossing conversationalist in her own right, ghostwrote Pericles’ most famous speech, a funeral oration delivered during the Peloponnesian War. Though we may never know the extent of her influence, Pericles achieved ambitious building projects and presided over a golden age of democracy during their relationship. According to some accounts, Aspasia outlived her famous lover and was later linked to another Athenian bureaucrat, Lysicles.

Statue from Antikythera Shipwreck exhibit, National Archaeology Museum, Athens

The exhibit also contains a mechanism recovered in 82 pieces that scholars are calling the world’s first computer.

Greek archaeology students: Please send us to Iraq

ATHENS - Greek archaeology students hit by state funding cuts are making an online appeal for donations to join excavations in Iraqi Kurdistan, the state-run Athens News Agency said on Monday.

In a posting on donation site www.indiegogo.com, the group of Athens University students ask for help to cover the 500-euro ($632) plane fare.

“Without wishing to sound like a cliche, everyone knows that times are tough right now,” the students said in their posting.

“The university cannot cover the cost of our airplane tickets,” they said. “So please donate and send us there.”

The university of Athens has three ongoing projects in what was once ancient Mesopotamia, including a topographical survey for the location of the battle of Gaugamela between Alexander the Great and Darius III of Persia in 331 BC. Read more.

* Theatrical mask from Dipylon-Athens. Marble from Pentelis mountain. 2nd b.C century.

* Θεατρική μάσκα από το Δίπυλο Αθηνών. Ταυτίζεται με τον τύπο”ηγεμόνος θεράποντος” (πρώτου δούλου) της Νέας Κωμωδίας. 2ος αιω. π.Χ

Priceless ancient Greek statue rescued from goat-pen

ATHENS- Greek police recovered an ancient statue that was illegally excavated and hidden in a goat pen near Athens, and arrested the goat herder and another man who were allegedly trying to sell the work for €500,000 ($667,000).

The marble statue of a young woman dates to about 520 BC and belongs to the kore type, a police statement said Wednesday. Police photos showed the 1.2-metre work to be largely intact, lacking the left forearm and plinth.

Although dozens of examples of the kore statue and its male equivalent, the kouros, are displayed in Greek and foreign museums, the type is considered very important in the development and understanding of Greek art. New discoveries in good condition are uncommon.

Archaeologists who inspected the find estimated its market value at €12 million ($16 million), a police official said. Read more.

Greek museums to increase security after thefts

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s Culture Ministry says it is taking extra security measures at museums across the country after two major thefts in as many months netted antiquities andpaintings by 20th-century masters.

The ministry said Thursday that a task force set up to review security at museums and archaeological sites recommended increasing surveillance at archaeological museums, improving guard training and upgrading closed-circuit TV and fire detection systems.

Last Friday, two armed robbers broke into a museum in ancient Olympia, birthplace of the Olympic Games, making off with 76 bronze and pottery artifacts dating from the 14th to the 4th centuries B.C. and a 3,200-year-old gold ring.

In January, burglars snatched paintings by Pablo Picasso and Piet Mondrian from the National Gallery in Athens. (source)