Image Details

A maternal Astarte appears in these three, 6-inch-high statuettes from Tel Dor. This later development in the traditional representation of the fertility goddess shows her wearing a drape and an Egyptian wig. In this form, she is depicted pregnant, as in the left- and right-hand examples, or nursing a child, as in the center example. Figurines made in this later style incorporated new Greek production techniques, resulting in hollow bodies cast by a mold in front, with their backs sealed by smooth strips of clay.