When the Persians invaded Athens in 480 and 479 BCE, the Acropolis was set on fire and all the sculptures on it flattened. This female figure is one of those that reappeared when excavated, virtually where they fell, in the late nineteenth century.
In an act of dedication to the gods the figure holds an offering in her left hand, maybe a fruit. The marble from which the sculpture was made is from the island of Naxos, two hundred kilometres east of Athens. The oval shape of her head and the parallel folds of the clothing she wears are also in the eastern Greek island style
Athens Acropolis Museum 677
Lippold: Griechische Plastik, 44 (n.2)
Payne & Young: Archaic Marble Sculpture from the Acropolis, 12
Buschor, E: Altsamische Standbilder, 24-
Stewart: Greek Sculpture, 119, pls. 114-6
Karakasi: Archaic Korai (2003), 115
Acropolis Athens
