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Lot Essay
Engraved on this thin pale amethyst oval ringstone is the draped bust of a winged goddess wearing a peacock headdress. She has long curly locks of hair framing her neck, the so-called Libyan tresses. In the field before her the gem is inscribed for its owner Amyntas, meaning "defender," which was a royal Macedonian name.
The motif of a peacock headdress is unusual, and according to Boardman and Wagner (op. cit., p. 132), it is connected to the goddess Hera. When Zeus fell in love with Io, a priestess of Hera, the jealous goddess transformed her into a cow and placed her under the watch of the hundred-eyed monster Argos. Feeling sorry for Io, Zeus sent Hermes to kill the monster, but before he completed the task, Hera transferred Argos' eyes to the tail of a peacock in order to honor her faithful servant.
The iconography may be derived from Ptolemaic images of the goddess Isis, who sometimes wears a vulture headdress above Libyan tresses. Two other gems depict a goddess wearing a peacock headdress, perhaps Hera or her priestess, but neither is winged like the present example (see no. 116 in G. Richter, Catalogue of Engraved Gems and pl. 26,19 in A. Furtwängler, Die antiken Gemmen).
The motif of a peacock headdress is unusual, and according to Boardman and Wagner (op. cit., p. 132), it is connected to the goddess Hera. When Zeus fell in love with Io, a priestess of Hera, the jealous goddess transformed her into a cow and placed her under the watch of the hundred-eyed monster Argos. Feeling sorry for Io, Zeus sent Hermes to kill the monster, but before he completed the task, Hera transferred Argos' eyes to the tail of a peacock in order to honor her faithful servant.
The iconography may be derived from Ptolemaic images of the goddess Isis, who sometimes wears a vulture headdress above Libyan tresses. Two other gems depict a goddess wearing a peacock headdress, perhaps Hera or her priestess, but neither is winged like the present example (see no. 116 in G. Richter, Catalogue of Engraved Gems and pl. 26,19 in A. Furtwängler, Die antiken Gemmen).