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Case with Hygieia

Early Byzantine, 6th century; ivory; 7.5 × 6 × 2.5 (2 15/16 × 2 3/8 × 1 in.). BZ.1948.15
Case with Hygieia

In Greek and Roman mythology, Hygieia is the goddess of healing. She shares this role with her father Asklepios, god of medicine. The lid slides off this ivory case to reveal a series of channels which may have been used to store medicine.

 

Provenance

  • Charles Ratton, Paris (1895–1986); purchased from Ratton by Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, DC, September 1948.

 

Selected Bibliography

  • K. Weitzmann, Ivories and Steatites, vol. 3 of Catalogue of the Byzantine and Early Mediaeval Antiquities in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection (Washington, DC, 1972), 22, no. 10, plate 10.
  • A. Cutler, The Craft of Ivory: Sources, Techniques, and Uses in the Mediterranean World, A.D. 200–1400 (Washington, DC, 1985), 26, 52, 53, fig. 26.
  • I. Kalavrezou and A. E. Laiou, Byzantine Women and Their World (Cambridge, MA, 2003), 282, no. 164.

Museum record

 

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