[THREAD] Details of an incredible bronze statuette of Poseidon, recently on display at the NAM, #Athens!

An exceptional example of the Lateran Poseidon, it was found with 17(!) other bronzes in the Athenian neighborhood of Ambelokipi!
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#greece #archaeology #museum #sculpture

Excavated during road construction in 1964, the 17 bronze statues found in the “Ambelokipi Hoard” show us how elite Roman Greek households decorated their gardens & household shrines.

This statue, like many others, is a miniaturized Roman copy of a Hellenistic original.

While most ancient bronze statues were melted down in antiquity, these were intentionally buried in the 3/4 century to hide them during an invasion!

We’re still awaiting a publication of these excavations, but many of the individual sculptures have been cleaned and studied.

This Poseidon copies a famous (lost) 4th century cult statue at the Isthmia Poseidon temple by Lysippos, official sculptor of Alexander the Great!

Like many masterpieces, miniature copies were made in bronze and marble, like these two from the @Musei_Vaticani & the @mfaboston

A copy of this same cult statue was even used in the Temple of Poseidon at Ancient Berytos, modern #Beirut!

We don’t have any evidence of the statue itself, but coins issued by the city proudly display the temple with a very recognizable statue inside!

An example of this type has even been found as far as #Kolhapur, in western #India!

Likely a product of trade with the eastern Hellenistic kingdoms, it seems to have many parallels with this small tabletop bronze found at Pella in Macedonia (: @carolemadge)