There are visible traces of the original white, red, and black pigmentation on the figure’s body. All sculpture in ancient Greece would originally have been painted with a polychromatic colour scheme. Unfortunately, exceedingly few examples of statues and statuettes have survived to the modern day with their original paintwork intact. Here, however, we can see the remnants of paint clearly – a rarity as far as the ancient sculptural tradition is concerned.
The chiton and himation worn by the figure are the typical civic garb of ancient Greece. If she is a goddess, she is anthropomorphic on account of the clothing; if she is human, her godlike attributes immensely elevate her status. The statuette thus poses important questions pertaining to the ways in which Greeks related to their gods, and how they treated their fellow humans.
