Figurine of an Armed Warrior Goddess
Unknown · Late Bronze Age, circa 1550 to 1150 BC
A goddess in bronze, twelve centimetres tall, bristling with weapons. She carries a double-headed axe, a curved knife and a sword, arms that the museum lists one by one as if taking inventory of an arsenal. The figure stands upright, compact and alert, and the small scale makes the weapons seem even more prominent. Look at how the metal has been cast in one piece and then finished, with the arms and their weapons clearly defined against the body. The goddess is in good condition, a survivor of three thousand years.
The figurine comes from the Syrian coast, without a precise site, and was purchased by the Louvre in nineteen fifty-two. Warlike goddesses were part of the Levantine pantheon in the Late Bronze Age: at Ugarit the poems tell of Anat, sister of Baal, who wades through blood on the battlefield and laughs as she fights, and Astarte was also armed with weapons. A statuette like this could stand in a household shrine or be offered in a temple as a prayer for protection. It shows that the divine feminine of this world was not only about fertility but also about violence and victory.
Did You Know? The goddess Anat of the Ugaritic poems is described wading through blood on the battlefield, and armed figures like this one evoke her.
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