★ Priestess of Brauronian Artemis. ★

Priestess of Brauronian Artemis.
AE Greek statuette. Priestess of Artemis Brauronia (c. 4th–1st centuries BC)
Bronze statuette of a young girl wearing pointed shoes and as an outer garment, a himation pulled up over the head. Bearskin on the back of her head and a row of braids. Piercing above the head indicates that this bronze statuette is part of a jewelry or some sort of an implement (incense burner, mirror, distaff etc).
Many sources refer to young Athenian girls called άρκτοι (bears), who served Artemis by “acting the she-bear” at Brauron, and indeed at other sanctuaries of Artemis.
'I bore the holy vessels
At seven, then
I pounded barley
At the age of ten,
And clad in yellow robes,
Soon after this,
I was Little Bear to
Brauronian Artemis'
(Aristophanes, Lysistrata, Lines 641-647)
This ritual was known as the bear festival or the arkteia. The arkteia was an initiation period for young girls to become women, where they would remain at the sanctuary for a period of time and participate in the various rites and rituals.
Weight: 51.09 g.
Diameter: 53.83 mm.