Circular Altar with Hermes and Pallas Athena

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

Preserving two figures (plus a faint foot) striding across a curving surface, this fragment constitutes approximately 1/6th of a large circular altar or statue base. Its full circumference accommodated 12 figures—likely the Olympian deities. Athena—with spear, helmet, and stylized aegis, or breastplate—is with either the smith god Hephaistos, holding a hammer, or the messenger god Hermes, with his staff. Now lost are Zeus, Poseidon, Demeter, and others. The eclectic carving style includes stylized drapery with zigzag and swallowtail folds, recalling the Archaic period (600–480 BCE), on tall and slender figures characteristic of later times. Beyond the twelve Olympian deities, Greeks and Romans worshipped numerous other gods and goddesses.