Terracotta Models of Sandaled Feet: Votives from the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore on Acrocorinth

by Sonia Klinger

Hesperia, Volume 87, Issue 3
Page(s): 429-449
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.87.3.0429
Year: 2018
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ABSTRACT:

This article presents four previously unpublished terracotta models of sandaled feet from the Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore on Acrocorinth. Dated to the late 6th or early 5th century B.C., they are attributed to a local Corinthian workshop, most probably the Potters' Quarter, where three other similar models were produced. Evidence deriving from the sanctuary's other offerings, and from study of footwear in ancient texts and art, suggests that their main association is with female journeys connected to nuptial symbolism. This interpretation also allows me to propose that the models are a type of bridal sandal (nymphides), the first attested in Corinth and the first associated with an Archaic sanctuary.