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Chryselephantine statue
Among the amazing ivory and gold finds made by
French archaeologists in 1939, within a repository beneath the paving stones of the
Sacred Way, in front of the Stoa of the Athenians.
They were precious votives of wealthy Greeks from Asia Minor (some perhaps from the
famous king of Lydia, Croesus) which were destroyed in some conflagration and were
buried in a pit, since it was forbidden to remove them from the area of the sanctuary.
The majority are works of the 6th century BC, though some are of earlier
date (7th century BC) and others slightly later (until the middle of the 5th century
BC).
In antiquity chryselephantine statues had a wooden core to which were
attached the exposed parts of the face and body, made of ivory, and the garments
and hair, which were of gold.
The middle case contains fragments supposedly belonging to a statue
which constituted the central figure of the votive, a seated male on a throne, perhaps
Apollo. The face with its marked features is preserved, framed by gilded ringlets,
the gilded phiale for libations, parts of the naked feet and two gold plaques from
the elaborate dress of the figure. Each plaque is divided into eight squares and
in each division, hammered with astonishing dexterity, is a mythical beast or wild
animal, such as griffins, lions, bulls, pegasoi et al.
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