Big Eleusinian Relief

Big Eleusinian Relief in the Classical sculptures collection of the National Archaeological Museum in Athens

The Big Eleusinian Relief, found at Eleusis, Attica, ca. 440-430 BC, is the largest and most significant votive relief surviving from Greek antiquity. Dedicated to the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Eleusis, it represents the Eleusenian deities in a scene of mystic ritual. Demeter offers ears of wheat to the hero Triptolemos, son of the Eleusenian king Keleos, to bestow food on mankind. Persephone blesses Triptolemos with her right hand. (A Roman copy is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York.) Pentelic marble. Height 2,20 m., width 1,52 m (ca. 7’2″ by 5′).

National Archaeological Museum in Athens

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