Youthful Boiotian protomes: technique and ideology*

Abstract

This paper discusses Boiotian terracotta bust-protomes of the Classical period. It focuses on the youthful male type, represented by three surviving examples belonging to two mould series. These protomes are technically intriguing because they were constructed by combining female and bearded male types to create secondary prototypes. This intricate process was driven not only by technical considerations but possibly also by religious and ideological reasons: to convey the androgynous quality of a young initiate of Dionysos, whose identity was intentionally blurred with that of the god during the time of transition from adolescence to adulthood. Depositing a youthful protome in the grave of a prematurely deceased could have helped place him under the protection of the god of transitions, who would guide him from life to death and hopefully to a blessed afterlife.

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(*)I am very grateful to Arthur Muller for valuable suggestions on issues related to technique. Many thanks also to Violaine Jeammet, Sonia Klinger, Martin Maischberger, Frederik Vingaard Rasmussen, Vicky Sabetai, Kay Sunahara, Pavel Titz, Jamie Uhlenbrock, René van Beek, and Alexandra Villing for useful comments or assistance with obtaining photographs and permissions to publish them. Finally, I thank the two anonymous reviewers for the very helpful comments.