Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/173

 FIGURES OF DIVINITIES. 151 had raised Cypriot art out of the barbarism we see here (Vol. I. Fig. 144). There is, too, a whole series of monuments in which the goddess mother is shown seated upon a throne and holding her child across her knees (Fig. loi). 1 This goddess no doubt presided over child- birth ; Ariadne-Aphrodite was especially honoured at Amathus as the patroness of women in labour. 2 Several small groups in stone or terra-cotta have been found in Cyprus ; they must have been ex-votos, to record some happy delivery. In one example, now in the Louvre, we see a seated woman with another woman fainting FIG. loo. Statuette from Alambra. Height 7| inches. From Heuzey. upon her knees, while a third kneels before them with a baby in her arms (Fig. iO2). 3 Another variant on the same type shows us the goddess com- pletely naked with her hands upon her breasts and apparently 1 Attention was first drawn to this type by M. Vidal-Lablache (Statuette Cypriote du Musee d'Alfones, in the Revue arch'eologique, second series, vol. xix. p. 341). Cf. HEUZEY, Catalogue, p. 183. To the same order of ideas belong certain figures of cows suckling their calves, which were found near those of the nursing goddesses (CESNOLA, Cyprus,^. 158). 2 PLUTARCH, Theseus,, xx. 4, 8 HEUZEY, Figurines antiques de Terre Cuite du Musee du Louvre, plate ix. fig. 7. Catalogue, p. 170. DOELL, Die Sammlung Cesnola, plate iv. fig. i.