Cypriot Votive figure with kid or lamb: (Cypro-Archaic) 7th-6th century BC.

Terracotta, hollow votive figure carrying a kid or lamb with long ears as an offering with sash or strap across the body from the right shoulder. Is the latter meant as part support for the quadruped? As usual the animal is depicted too small in relation to the main figure, which seems from the head to be male yet has tiny breasts. Other examples of this are known but may simply be mistakes due to mass production of the separate parts. He wears a pointed helmet or cap, though its edge is only indicated by the brow line as in some ‘snowman’ warrior figures. The body hollow and cylindrical and tapering downward with out-turned foot, is wheelmade but the remainder hand made. Arms at sides, then bent forward at elbows (left forearm very abbreviated, fingers not differentiated). It is more common for votive figures carrying a quadruped to be male and this is also a theme in archaic stone sculpture. If the figure was from a country shrine, as at Aya Irini, the elongated height may have been intended to make it visible among a crowd of other votives.

Preservation: mend in the lower part. Most of the out-turned base, the strap at the front and right fore-arm all missing.

Probably from the South and centre/South (Amathous – Kition – Idalion area)

cf. V Karageorghis: The Choroplastic Art of Ancient Cyprus III, Pl.VII (4), p.5; Pl.XXI (1), p.45