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The mystery of ancient civilizations teases you with the unknown. Unearthed artifacts whether they are masterworks of art or simple every day tools excite your imagination as you wonder what life was really like thousands of years ago. The recently discovered statue of the Greek Goddess Hera in the ruins of the ancient Greek city of Dion serves as an excellent example of the thrilling visions that we can see from the ancient world.
The marble statue of Hera was reported by archeologist Dimitris Pantermalis to be 2,200 years old. Preliminary analysis of its stone and craftsmanship has matched it to a statue of Zeus discovered in the same ruined city in 2003. Pantermalis speculates that the Hera and Zeus statues are a matched set, which would mark the first time two statues of different gods from the same Greek temple were recovered.
Images of the Hera statue as shown in numerous media reports show a female figure seated on a throne dressed in loose garments. Unfortunately the head is missing, but the life-sized figure still conjures images of the Goddess Hera presiding over worshippers in a grand and beautiful temple with Mount Olympus commanding the horizon.
The ancient city of Dion has been identified as a major religious center for the ancient Macedonians. According to a March 1, 2007 article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer about the Hera statue, Alexander the Great gave offerings at her temple before launching his legendary invasion of the Persian Empire.
Although the Hera statue post-dates the era of Alexander the Great, she was placed in a venerable temple where once walked such heroes of history. At the feet of the Hera statue, supplicants with simple or complicated problems must have given offerings of food and fine goods. Women wishing for their Greek sons to return home safely from war likely prayed to the statue. And priests surely schemed in the shadows of their marble Gods for power and prestige.
When studying ancient cultures, it is easy to let your imagination wander. There are always more questions than answers when information is coming from scattered ruins and scraps of written records. Where history must yield to the unknown, literature takes over. Authors conceive of grand sagas as intricate and entertaining as the mythology of ancient civilizations, like the Greeks, to serve the role of telling stories about people and places in the distant past. The fantasy genre is particularly inspired by the gaping holes of history. Think of all the lost civilizations and unknown ancient intrigues that have no way to be told except through modern muses whispering their stories to fantasy and historical fiction genre authors.
Tremendous inspiration lies among the ruins of ancient civilizations. Of all the myths and heroic adventures that have survived to the modern era, stop to consider how many good stories crumbled with the temples and are buried with Disappear Hera.
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