Based on a gold and ivory statue by the Greek sculptor Pheidias or Agorakritos of the late 5th century B.C.
The cult of Kybele, the mother goddess of Anatolia, had been brought to Athens by the fifth century B.C. A statue of the enthroned goddess accompanied by lions and holding a cymbal stood in the Metroon, a prominent building in the Agora–the marketplace–of Athens. Over one hundred small marble copies such as this have been found in the Agora.
