A helmeted female brandishes a shield in her left hand and a (now-lost) miniature spear in her right. She menaces whoever filled the drinking horn she adorned in 2nd-century BCE Maresha. From her array of armaments, she is clearly marked as Athena.
The oval shield with its long vertical spine is not, however, Athena’s traditional shield. The shape and the spine extending from the boss mark it as Celtic. Yet Maresha lies in southern Israel, far from any Celts. Where would a local craftsman see such a shield? On Ptolemaic coins, many of which have been found at Maresha.[1] Ptolemy II minted shield-coins to commemorate his military victories in Anatolia over Celts. On these coins, the shield appears alone, without a wielder. It is an emblem of defeat: either the wielder is dead or has abandoned his shield.
This Celtic shield sends a different message. Athena is hardly defeated. She wields the shield as armor, hers to hold aloft as she decorates this festive drinking horn.[2] The liquid would arc out through the small hole at the base where horn and figure meet. Athena appears above, facing the drinker, an armed goddess bearing down. Yet though seemingly aggressive, here Athena is a partner; the drinker will have welcomed her presence. Perhaps she is here to ensure a full portion – or act as a goad to make the user drink up!
[1] Ariel, Donald T. “The Coins” in Excavations at Maresha Subterranean Complex 169 ed. Ian Stern (2019) 335-6, in particular coins A15-19.
[2] Erlich, Adi. “Clay Rhyta from Maresha (Pls I-IV).” Transeuphratène 37 (2009): 81-88. For the commemorative purposes of the shield on Ptolemaic coins, see Kimberly Cassibry, “The Tyranny of the Dying Gaul: Confronting an Ethnic Stereotype in Ancient Art.” The Art Bulletin 99, no. 2 (2017): 9ff.
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