Statuette of Hecate?

Statuette of a female in archaistic style, combining classical and archaic features. Both the head and the body are ancient but did not belong to each other and were probably restored together to make the statue a collectable piece. She wears a girded peplos with a long overfold. Above her waist the drapery is in a series of V shaped curves, below the waist in rigid verticals which finish in zig zags. The statue is symmetrical and linear, the only motion suggested by the forward right foot. The drapery is different in each of the legs: on the right it is stretched but on the left the folds reveal the leg. The right hand pulls the drapery and the left one curves below the breast, hodling an attribute that is now lost. Both hands are long and elegant. Bartman interpreted her pose and costume (although missing the attributes of the polos and the torch), as similar to statues of Hecate, popular across the Mediterranean. However Hecate was represented in a triad rather than a single statue and there is no evidence of this statue being cut down from a triad. The original type for the representation of Hecates probably derived from the Alcamenes' statue of 425 BC in the Athenian Akropolis. The goddess retained her apotropaic and spiritual power in Roman times. Evidence for this is the painted sancturary scene on a wall of the Second Style cubiculum of Boscoreale. The style of the head is archaistic with several rows of bulbous curls arranged in rows and encircling the head like a halo. Long shoulder locks descend from behind the ears. Her eyelids are heavy and give her a rather primitive appearance while the mouth is curvaceous.