Athens News Agency: News in English, 07-03-02

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Ancient statue of Hera found near Mt. Olympus

[01] Ancient statue of Hera found near Mt. Olympus

According to Prof. Dimitris Pantermalis, who has supervised the digs at Dion for the past 37 years, the 2nd-century BC sculpture is very likely the missing half of a rare double statue that once decorated a temple dedicated to Zeus, father of the Olympian gods.

A chance discovery unearthed during excavations of a paleochristian rampart in the city centre, where it had been used as building material, the headless statue is seated on a throne. It is carved in the same position, form and style as a statue of Zeus, also headless, that was found four years earlier in the bed of the Vafyros River near Dion.

Pantermalis said it represents the first double statue found in Greece and makes Dion the only area where depictions of important ancient Greek deities have been found together. He noted that a reference to a similar double statue of Zeus and Hera at ancient Olympia is made by the ancient writer Pausanias but has not yet been found.

The discovery indicates that the ancient Macedonians at Dion offered sacrifices to both Zeus and Hera, who according to Greek mythology was Zeus' official wife and the goddess of marriage, he added.

Dion is situated on the foothills northeast of Mount Olympus, the tallest mountain in Greece, whose summit was considered by the ancient Greeks to be the home of the 12 most important gods in the Hellenic world's Pantheon. Archaeological excavations in the area have so far unearthed the remains of an ancient Macedonian city, two theatres, a gymnasium and several ancient temples.

Among these are several sanctuaries dedicated to ancient Egyptian deities like Sarapis, Isis and Anubis, whose cults spread to ancient Greece during the Hellenistic era after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great, the ancient Macedonian king and conqueror.

Caption: One of the artifacts on display during a conference in Thessaloniki on archaeological excavations in the Macedonia and Thrace provinces of northern Greece, Friday, March 2, 2007. ANA-MPA / N. Arvanitidis.

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