The rider here is a warrior equipped with crested helmet and shield. The horse has a topknot, thick tail, and tasseled frontlet on its chest. These features are characteristic of the horses from Kourion that have been found in great number at the sanctuary of Apollo Hylates. Warrior iconography was particularly suitable for a male divinity.
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Title:Terracotta horse and rider
Period:Early Cypro-Archaic II
Date:ca. 600 BCE
Culture:Cypriot
Medium:Terracotta; hand-made
Dimensions:H. 7 1/2 in. (19.1 cm)
Classification:Terracottas
Credit Line:The Cesnola Collection, Purchased by subscription, 1874–76
Object Number:74.51.1778
Cesnola, Luigi Palma di. 1894. A Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Vol. 2. pl. LXXII.655, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1895. The Terracottas and Pottery of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in Halls 4 and 15. no. 467, p. 38, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Myres, John L. 1914. Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus. no. 2093, p. 344, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
McClees, Helen. 1920. "Greek Votive Offerings." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 15(2): p. 37, fig. 2.
Myres, John L. 1933. "The Amathus Bowl: A long-Lost Masterpiece of Oriental Engraving." The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 53(1): p. 35 n. 26, p. 36 n. 32.
Burr, Dorothy and Dorothy J. Thompson. 1933. "A Geometric House and a Proto-Attic Votive Deposit." Hesperia, 2(4): no. 302, p. 616.
Crouwel, Joost H. and Veronica Tatton-Brown. 1988. "Ridden Horses in Iron Age Cyprus." Report of the Department of Antiquities Cyprus (RDAC), : p. 82, pl. XXVI.3.
Karageorghis, Vassos. 1995. The Coroplastic Art of Ancient Cyprus, Vol. 4. no. II(i)b.16, pp. 73–4, pl. XXXVII.2, Nicosia: Foundation Anastasios G. Leventis.
Barnes, Lorna and Ellen Salzman. 1998. "Preliminary Investigations of Surface Decoration on a Group of Ancient Terracottas from Cyprus." Glass, Ceramics and Related Materials : ICOM Committee for Conservation Glass, Ceramics, and Related Materials Working Group, & Institute of Arts and Design Department of Conservation Studies, Alice B. Paterakis, ed. p. 81, Vantaa, Finland: EVTEK Institute of Art and Design, Dept. of Conservation Studies.
Karageorghis, Vassos, Joan Mertens, and Marice E. Rose. 2000. Ancient Art from Cyprus: The Cesnola Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 244, p. 153, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Karageorghis, Vassos. 2006. Aspects of Everyday Life in Cyprus: Iconographic Representations. no. 160, pp. 172–73, Nicosia: Foundation Anastasios G. Leventis.
Karageorghis, Vassos, Gloria Merker, and Joan R. Mertens. 2016. The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art : Terracottas. no. 101, pp. 61–62, 256, Online Publication, [CD-Rom 2004], New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.