BONE PLAQUE WITH GODDESS, C7 BCE. NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM, ATHENS The cult of the Meter Megale, the Greek form of the Magna Mater, was connected with the worship of Demeter and Persephone, and Artemis. An exhibition in the Forum and Palatine explores this cult from its Phrygian origins to its Roman final form. The Great Mother was a source for many other divinities. Here we see her as an archaic Potnia Theron (the "Lady of Animals"), holding a bird by the neck in each hand, with a bird perched on each shoulder. She wears her hair falling over her shoulders, and her dress has a bell skirt and tight bodice with long sleeves. This bone ornament was part of a fibula left as an offering at the major shrine of Artemis Orthia in Spartan territory. This version of Artemis demanded human blood sacrifice like her Phrygian ancestress, but in the form of a flogging ritual for the young men of Sparta, who had to run the gauntlet of whips to get a prize of cheese on the altar.

For #ReliefWednesday we're in the Uccelliere or birdhouses in the #FarneseGardens on the #Palatine hill in #Rome to look at some extraordinary #relief work from #archaic #Greece that ties the worship of #Artemis to the much more ancient cult of the #MagnaMater. #AncientBluesky 🏺