This is a Roman adaptation of a lost but reconstructible Greek statue. It represents a goddess, like the well-known Greek statue that represented the city of Antiokheia (Antioch/Antakia). She is seated on a rock – on the Greek sculpture this referred to the Sipylos, the mountain of Antiokheia. Under the feet of Antiokheia there was a swimming figure – here missing – which personified the city’s river, the Oronthes. This iconographic scheme, first connected to Antiokheia, was later used for representing other cities in the Mediterranean and also other goddesses.
Marble analyses conducted by Danielle Decrouez (Geneva, Museum of Natural History) and Karl Ramseyer (University of Bern, Institute of Geological Sciences) have shown that the statue was made of Luna (Carrara) marble. Click here for the detailed results.
