The Paramythia Hoard or ''Paramythia Treasure'' is the name of a

Greco-Roman The Greco-Roman world , also Greco-Roman civilization, Greco-Roman culture or Greco-Latin culture (spelled Græco-Roman or Graeco-Roman in British English), as understood by modern scholars and writers, includes the geographical regions and co ...

hoard A hoard or "wealth deposit" is an archaeological term for a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground, in which case it is sometimes also known as a cache. This would usually be with the intention of ...

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

figurines and other objects found in Paramythia, north-west Greece in the late 18th century. Of the original nineteen objects found in the hoard, fourteen are now in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

British Museum Collection
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Discovery

In the 1790s, nineteen bronze sculptures were discovered by Albanian farmworkers near the village of Paramythia,

Epirus Epirus () is a Region#Geographical regions, geographical and historical region, historical region in southeastern Europe, now shared between Greece and Albania. It lies between the Pindus Mountains and the Ionian Sea, stretching from the Bay ...

, Greece. Soon after their discovery, the hoard was dispatched to

St Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, to become part of

Catherine the Great Catherine II. (born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 172917 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter I ...

's collection. After her death, the original hoard was dispersed to various European collections. Eventually fourteen of the statuettes reached the British Museum from two sources. Twelve statuettes were bequeathed by the museum trustee and philanthropist Richard Payne Knight, while two more were donated by the widow of the antiquary John Hawkins in 1904. The whereabouts of the remainder of the hoard is unknown.

Original purpose and description

The statuettes probably formed part of a public or domestic shrine or

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religion, religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, Church (building), churches, and other places of worship. They are use ...

for local worship, known as a

lararium Lares ( , ; archaic , singular ) were Tutelary deity#Ancient Rome, guardian deities in ancient Roman religion. Their origin is uncertain; they may have been hero-ancestors, guardians of the hearth, fields, boundaries, or fruitfulness, or an ama ...

. The figures were all made through the lost wax technique and are for the most part miniature versions of ancient Greek and Roman

deities A deity or god is a supernatural being considered to be sacred and worthy of worship due to having authority over some aspect of the universe and/or life. The ''Oxford Dictionary of English'' defines ''deity'' as a God (male deity), god or god ...

, reflecting the contemporary taste for classical and

hellenistic In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

art. They include a bust of

Aphrodite Aphrodite (, ) is an Greek mythology, ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, procreation, and as her syncretism, syncretised Roman counterpart , desire, Sexual intercourse, sex, fertility, prosperity, and ...

, a figure of

Odysseus In Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology, Odysseus ( ; , ), also known by the Latin variant Ulysses ( , ; ), is a legendary Greeks, Greek king of Homeric Ithaca, Ithaca and the hero of Homer's Epic poetry, epic poem, the ''Odyssey''. Od ...

riding a ram, Castor the horse tamer, the gods Mercury (two versions, one of which is a mask),

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined a ...

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...

(two versions),

Serapis Serapis or Sarapis is a Egyptian Greeks, Graeco-Egyptian god. A Religious syncretism, syncretic deity derived from the worship of the Egyptian Osiris and Apis (deity), Apis, Serapis was extensively popularized in the third century BC on the ord ...

and

Neptune Neptune is the eighth and farthest known planet from the Sun. It is the List of Solar System objects by size, fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 t ...

, a Lar, a disk in the shape of the sun-god

Helios In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Helios (; ; Homeric Greek: ) is the god who personification, personifies the Sun. His name is also Latinized as Helius, and he is often given the epithets Hyperion ("the one above") an ...

and part of a bronze mirror case. Based on the quality of their manufacture and style, the statuettes from the hoard are estimated to date from the second half of the 2nd century AD, although some of the objects from the hoard may have been made earlier. Unfortunately most of the figures have lost their gold and silver gilding and accessories.

Gallery

Image:Paramythia Hoard (2).JPG, Seated statuette of the Egyptian god Serapis Image:Paramythia Hoard (3).JPG, Bronze disc with the head of Apollo Helios Image:Paramythia Hoard (4).JPG, Statuette of Apollo the sun-god, who would have been originally stringing his bow Image:Paramythia Hoard (5).JPG, Figure of Mercury seated on a rock Image:Paramythia Hoard (6).JPG, Bronze statuette of the god Neptune or Jupiter Image:Paramythia Hoard (7).JPG, A small bronze sculpture of Venus loosening her sandal Image:Paramythia Hoard (8).JPG, Bronze statuette of Venus with a dove on her head

Bibliography

*L. Burn, The British Museum Book of Greek and Roman Art (British Museum Press, 1991) *S. Walker, Roman Art (British Museum Press, 1991) *J. Swaddling, 'The British Museum hoard from Paramythia, north-western Greece: classical trends revived in the 2nd and 18th centuries AD' in: Bronzes hellénistiques et romains (Lausanne, Diffusion De Boccard, 1979), pp. 103–106

References

{{British Museum Ancient Greek and Roman sculptures in the British Museum Treasure troves of late antiquity Bronze sculptures in London Greek artifacts outside Greece Ancient Roman metalwork Archaeological discoveries in Epirus (region) 1790s archaeological discoveries

Discovery

Original purpose and description

See also

Gallery

Bibliography

References