Image Details

Courtesy of Thomas A. Schuman, Jr.

“Ivory and silver” decorated the favorite chair of Odysseus’ wife, Penelope. Homer’s references to ivory were once thought to be anachronistic because no archaeological evidence of ivory from before the eighth century B.C. had appeared in Greece. Excavations at Mycenae, however, revealed intricately carved ivory sculptures like this one, which dates to 1400–1200 B.C. It was found in the lower city and depicts two female figures—perhaps goddesses—protecting a young child. They kneel with their arms around each other, circling the child between them.