Figurine With Wings and Lyre 300 – 100 BCE

Myrina was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Asia Minor, in the region of Aeolis, and became one of the best-known centers for the production of Hellenistic terracotta figurines. The city’s name was linked in ancient tradition to the legendary queen Myrina, and its workshops produced a remarkable variety of figures, ranging from deities and winged beings to women, children, and theatrical types. These objects circulated widely in the Greek world and were valued not only for their beauty, but also for the cultural meanings they carried.

Music, wings, and Hellenistic imagination

The combination of wings and lyre gives this figure a distinctly poetic and symbolic character. Such attributes suggest associations with music, divinity, performance, or the realm of myth, even if the precise identity of the figure cannot always be established with certainty. This ambiguity is part of what makes Hellenistic terracottas so compelling. Rather than presenting rigid or purely formal types, they often evoke mood, presence, and suggestion. Here, the raised arm, the lightness of the pose, and the inclusion of the lyre create an impression of animation, as though the figure belongs to a world of sound and movement rather than silence and stillness.

This sense of liveliness is central to Hellenistic art more broadly. In contrast to the more measured calm often associated with earlier Classical sculpture, Hellenistic artists frequently explored movement, expressive gesture, and emotional immediacy. Even in a work of such modest size, these artistic ambitions are clearly present.

Terracotta in daily and sacred life

Terracotta figurines were ubiquitous in ancient Greek society and could serve many different functions. They appeared in houses, sanctuaries, tombs, and local shrines, where they might act as offerings, ornaments, memorial objects, or expressions of personal devotion. Their relatively accessible material meant that they were more widely available than monumental works in marble or bronze, and they formed an important part of the visual culture of everyday life.

From the late fourth century BC onward, figurines of the wider Tanagra tradition helped shape the development of this art form. These works were admired for their naturalistic modeling, elegant drapery, and their ability to convey fleeting moments of human presence. The figurine from Myrina belongs to this broader Hellenistic taste for refinement, intimacy, and grace, showing how a small clay object could carry both artistic sophistication and cultural meaning.

The craft of making figurines

The production of terracotta figurines required both technical precision and artistic flexibility. Such works were usually made in molds, often with separate molds for different parts of the body so that artisans could combine elements and create varied poses or gestures. After the molded sections were joined, the surface was refined by hand, allowing the maker to sharpen details and give the figure an individual character.

Once fired in a kiln, the figurine would often be covered with a white slip and then painted in naturalistic colors. Reds, oranges, pinks, purples, and other tones could be used to animate the surface, meaning that the original appearance was far more colorful than many surviving examples suggest today. What remains is therefore only part of the object’s original visual effect, but enough survives to show the sensitivity of its design and the skill of its makers.

A surviving work of cultural memory

This terracotta figurine is now in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, where it was given by Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Wade. Its journey from an ancient workshop in Myrina to a modern museum collection speaks not only to its survival, but also to the lasting value placed on objects of this kind. Fragile in material yet enduring in significance, it preserves a record of Hellenistic artistry that might otherwise have been lost.

More than a decorative object, the figurine stands as a testament to the imaginative world of ancient Greece. Through its form, attributes, and craftsmanship, it reflects a culture in which art could be intimate in scale yet expansive in meaning, capable of uniting devotion, beauty, mythology, and daily life within a single carefully made image.