page_title: Dea Gravida
section_title: Votive figures
hierarchical_section_title: Dea Gravida / Votive figures
caption_attribution_description: English: from the NationalMuset in Denmark
context_page_description: Dea Gravida or Dea Tyria Gravida was either a goddess or representation of mortal women that were associated with procreation and fertility deriving from Phoenician culture and spreading within the Phoenician circle of influence. Although not much is known about the cult surrounding Dea Gravida, votive terracotta statues have been found throughout the Mediterranean, most notably in Phoenicia and Cyprus. The figure differs from kourotrophic figures that hold babies and are not visibly pregnant.
context_section_description: The votive figures typically show a pregnant female goddesses or woman either seated or standing, often with a hand resting on her abdomen. These figures were made exclusively from terracotta and are typically small. Figures were often depicted as veiled with braided coiled hair pinned to either side of the head, which has led to misleading descriptions as the figures having a "cobra-hood" or "horns". A variant was found in Tripoli, showing the figure holding a cake offering.
  The figures were first made in the Levantine coast in the 8ᵗʰ century B.C.E. and became widespread during the 6ᵗʰ to 4ᵗʰ centuries with the earliest known examples in Cyprus appearing in the 6ᵗʰ century. Depictions of pregnancy and motherhood were uncommon in Near Eastern iconography, as fertility was typically indicated by naked female figures holding their breasts. The most numerous and finest come from Phoenician tombs near Akhziv near ancient Tyre. Some of these figurines are dedicated in Cyprus from the 6ᵗʰ to the 5ᵗʰ century. On Cyprus, large number of figures have only been found in the city-kingdoms of Kition, Lapethos and Amathous, where Phoenician language and culture was dominate. Within Kition, these figures have been found within two urban sanctuaries and on the acropolis of Amthous, where the principal sanctuary of  Aphrodite Kypria is located. A single figure has also been found in a sanctuary in Chytri. Figures have also been found in Lakonia, the sanctuary of Eileithyia Inatia in Crete, and possibly at the sanctuary of Demeter at Corinth. Some of these figures may have had a function as an anatomical teaching model, as some have been found with a square hole in the abdomen where a model fetus was placed.
  The terracotta figures have been divided into three different groupings: those made by hand, those thrown on a potter's wheel, and those produced in a mold. The molded figurines had the greatest outside influence from other cultures. These are used to as votive figures in sanctuaries, as funerary offerings at cemeteries, and sometimes they have been found in the cargo of transport ships.
caption: An example of a Dea Gravida figure (National Museum of Denmark)
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