Late 4th-early 3rd century BC. A marble statuette of the goddess Cybele, wearing a tall, cylindrical headdress (polos) on her head, sitting on an unadorned throne, her hair in a chignon, fastened around the forehead a broad band or a coif of net-work (kredemnos) sometimes also called stlengis, made of metal, sometimes of leather, adorned with gold, represented by the small circlets around the band; wearing a chiton and a peplos, a piece of heavy cloth (a cloak) folded over at the top, pinned at the shoulders; himation draped over her left arm and across the lower part of her body; resting her feet on a footstool, holding a clothing offered by the devotees, a small lion resting on her knees. For a similar seated statuette see the seated Cybele in the Paul Getty Museum, inventory number 71.AA.335, in Ji?í R., Antiquities in the J. Paul Getty Museum: A Checklist; Sculpture I: Greek Originals, Malibu, 1979, p.24, no.94; Susan, E., Cutting Too Close for Comfort: Paul's Letter to the Galatians in Its Anatolian Cultic Context, London, 2003, p.142 n.75. 5.3 kg, 21cm (8 1/4"). From a collection formed before 1990, acquired on the London art market. In Greek and Roman art, Cybele, the Mother of the Gods, (the Asian Mother Goddess and the Syrian goddess Atargatis) is depicted with various attributes, each signifying a different role. She frequently wears a mural crown, a turret headpiece representing the walls of a city, since she was a protectoress of cities. The lion, sacred to the goddess, symbolises her power over wild animals. Lions usually appear crouching on the right and left sides of her throne, or resting upon her womb like here, and sometimes she is shown riding in a chariot drawn by lions. Cybele's cult was founded in the Near East, but became popular outside this area, especially in Athens, and later in Rome, where it was often criticised for bloody rituals, including the castration of its priests. In ancient Rome, the Galli (Latin singular Gallus, and Galloi in Greek), translated as both 'cocks' and 'Galatians,' were the eunuch priests of Cybele, quoted in the Golden Ass of Apuleius.