#anguiped

After the Renaissance, the two tailed siren was used more in decorative art than as a meaningful figure. However, she keeps her iconic pose, likely inspired from ancient images of the Scythian snake-legged goddess: A young woman with two outstretched tails that she holds with her hands. I find it fascinating that this image remained so unchanged over the centuries, and continue in popularity.

The history of these siren candlesticks, produced in several workshops in Italy in the 1500s, has been chronicled by Alison Luchs in The Mermaids of Venice: Fantastic Sea Creatures in Venetian Renaissance Art, Chapter 5: Table: Bronze Sea Monsters for Private Homes in particular. Let’s admire these lovely, well-preserved two tailed sirens from museums around the world:

Candlestick in the shape of a two tailed siren. Workshop of Severo da Ravenna of Padua, Italy. Circa 1510 - 1530. In the Louvre.

Candlestick in the shape of a two tailed siren. Workshop of Severo da Ravenna of Padua, Italy. Circa 1510 - 1530.  Candleholders might be modern additions. Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Both the sirens in the Louvre and the Philadelphia museum have their tails draped around their arms, similar to this Italian fresco, and they have acanthus leaf skirts, which sirens from ancient times have often worn. Luchs suggests the eagle-claw stands could be related to the sirens' ancient form as bird women.

Candlestick in the shape of a two tailed siren. Workshop of Severo da Ravenna of Padua, Italy. Circa 1510 - 1530. National Gallery of Art. The museum has photos of the siren from two angles, so we can see her long hair streaming down her back.

Candelabra, in the shape of a two tailed siren. Workshop of Severus of Ravenna, Italy, 1500s. National Archeological Museum, Madrid.

While the siren candlestick from the Madrid museum is damaged, the museum does have four photos of the siren, so we can see what it looks like in the round.

From the museum website:

"Candelabrum in the form of a Siren, with a nude torso, with subtle anatomical modeling; it has a forked tail, which it raises and wraps around its arms; it separates these from the body and raises them, forming with the palms of its hands the necessary base to hold two candelabras, now lost. The face of this example resembles the Venus of "Antico" preserved in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. Coppel points out that different versions of the Siren theme are known; some (Foulc collection, Paris) preserve both candelabras; on other occasions, the model was used as a door knocker (examples in the National Gallery, Washington; the Berlin Museum; and the Palazzo Venezia Museum). This work was executed in the workshop of Severo Calzetta, known first as the "Master of the Dragons" and later as "Severus of Ravenna." His figures are distinguished by their abundant hair, schematic treatment of the muscles, and highly expressive hands. Triangular bases and square holes for inserting additional pieces with hand-made screws are common in his workshop. His foundry was undoubtedly one of the most prolific in Italy in the first half of the 16th century. This candelabra belonged to the Marquis of Salamanca, who amassed a significant collection of small bronzes during his business trips to Italy, which he sold to the Spanish State in 1873."

There are siren candlesticks from the same workshop in the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, and in the the Museo del Bargello.

I’m going to wrap up this post with a siren door knocker. While it’s not a candlestick, she’s also Italian, and an interesting example of this motif. Note that she doesn’t have arms, as she has wings instead:

Two tailed siren, door knocker. Italian, 16th century. National Gallery of Art.

She also has the siren’s traditional acanthus leaf skirt.

Sources

While I’ve written about the Scythian anguipede goddess, I haven’t made a post focusing on strictly ancient Scythian representations of this theme. Therefore, this post is on all the images of the tendril goddess I’ve researched so far, found in ancient Scythian territories.

Scythian goddess, 340-300 BC. Bronze pommel. Found: Alexandropol burial mound (Lugovaya Mogila)  Right bank of the Lower Dnieper, near Nikopol, Yekaterinoslav province, Russia.

Figure on left: MF Sumtsov Kharkiv Historical Museum. Figure on right: St Petersburg Hermitage Museum.

Possible Scythian vegetation goddess. Pendants from the Kul-Oba burial mound, Crimea, 4th century BCE.

Object said to be St Petersburg museum, but I can’t find it on their website. Image from this book: Williams, Dyfri, et al. Greek Gold: Jewelry of the Classical World. Abrams, 1994. Fig 85.

Drawing of the gold diadem from the Kul'-Oba burial mound, Kerch, Crimea. Info and image from Ustinov 2005.

Scythain ancestral goddess, 4th century BCE. Facing for a Horse's Frontlet. Found in Tsymbalka Barrow, Dnieper Area, Zaporozhye Region, formerly the Taurida Province Russia (now Ukraine). The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

Serpent legged goddess plaque, from the burial mound in Kul-Oba, near Kerch, Crimea, Ukraine. First half of the 4th century BCE. The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

Scythian goddess, silver plate from Kuban region, Maykop, Mariinskaya village. 2nd half of the 4th - beginning of the 3rd century BCE.  Full view of plate here. State Historical Museum, Moscow. 

Scythian goddess, silver or gold dish from the Chertomlyk burial mound, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine. Info from Laws 1961. Image from this website. Full post here.

Tendril limbed goddess, earrings from the Butory tumulus. Found in the Grigoriopol district in 1972.

“Sometimes the standard type of the tendril-limbed goddess evolved into a new pattern, of a still less human monster, for instance on earrings from the Butory tumulus" Info from Ustinov 2005. Photo from this news article (in Russian.)

Master / Mistress of Animals with tendril or snake legs. Cornice fragment from Chersonesus, Crimea. No precise date, listed as “Ancient Greek.” Info from Petrov and Makarevich 1963; photo from website dedicated to Kostsyushko’s Chersonesus reports. Full post here.

Scythian goddess, plaque. “On a plaque found during excavations of a burial mound near the village of Elizavetinskaya (second half of the 5th century – 4th century BC; (Fig. 1, 2) a woman without arms is depicted with a calathus on her head and two pairs of snake legs curved in a ring." Info and image from Petrov and Makarevich 1963. 

Scythian goddess, gold plaque, found in the village of Labinskaya. Info and image from Petrov and Makarevich 1963.

Ivory pendant from the Bol'shaya Bliznitsa tumulus. Info and image from Petrov and Makarevich 1963, and Ustinov 2005.

Winged goddess on a plaque from Chersonesos, Crimean peninsula. Photo from Artamonov 1961.

Image a of snake-legged creatures on the sides of Bosporan sarcophagi; plaque from a burial mound in Kul-Oba, Kerch, Crimea. Photo from Artamonov 1961.

Scythian anguiped goddess, terracotta plate. with an image of a female deity. Made in Crimea, Chersonesos Taurica necropolis. 1st century CE. State Historical Museum, Moscow. Full post here.

Winged, two tailed goddess, sarcophagus decoration, 1st-2nd CE. Northern Black Sea region, Panticapaeum site. Found in Kerch, Crimea. State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.

Snake legged goddess, plaster cast, 1st-2nd CE. Northern Black Sea Region, Nymphaeum necropolis. Found in Kerch, Crimea. State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. Compare this image with a similar figure in a Berlin museum.

Acroterion with a double-sided image of the goddess. 1st century BCE / 1st-2nd century CE. Limestone. Pantikapaion necropolis, the north side of Mount Mithridates, Kerch. Exhibit: Treasures of Crimea. The Return. Treasury of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine.

This list is by no means exhaustive. I apologise for the images I couldn’t find actual photographs of. While I can read menus in Ukrainian, I really struggle with Russian, and most of the sources for these are in Russian. Also, I only have so much patience to track things down.

I’ll definitely be returning to this subject again.

Sources

Ustinova, Yulia. "Snake-Limbed and Tendril-Limbed Goddesses in the Art and Mythology of the Mediterranean and Black Sea." Scythians and Greeks: Cultural Interaction in Scythia, Athens and the Early Roman Empire (Sixth Century B.C. - Fist Century A.D.). Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2005.

V. P. Petrov and M. L. Makarevich, 'Skifskaya Geneologycheskaya Legenda,' Sovjetskaya Arkheologia. (1963), 20-31. G. Pinza (Ed.), Materiali per la etnologia … (Скифская Генеалогическая Легенда,' Советская Археология)

Article available here, in Russian: https://arheologija.ru/petrov-makarevich-skifskaya-genealogicheskaya-legenda

Image also seen here: Ancient Iranian image of the Chronotope as represented by a secondary source: https://journals.indexcopernicus.com/api/file/viewByFileId/2158389

Zinchenko S.A. No.18 (2023)Zinchenko S.A. Tops with the image of a female deity from the Alexandropol burial mound: on the possibility of identification / personification of the character

Софья Зинченко uploaded a paper Навершия с изображением женского божества из Александропольского кургана: о возможности идентификации / персонификации персонажа by Софья Зинченко 2023

Link to her article online: http://www.historystudies.msu.ru/ojs2/index.php/ISIS/article/view/334/764

M.I. Artamonov Anthropomorphic deities in the religion of the Scythians. // ASGE. [Issue] 2. Scythian-Sarmatian time. L.: Publishing house of the State Hermitage. 1961. P. 57-87.

There’s three mosaics of two-tailed anguiped figures I want to compare, together, because the figures are all in the same place on the mosaics: in the corners of the mosaic.

Drawing on the left: Drawing of entire mosaic: Dunbabin, Katherine M. D. Mosaics of the Greek and Roman World. Cambridge University Press, 1999. On the right, LIMC, Tritones 77b.

The Vergina mosaic, in northern Greece, is one I’ve seen mentioned in a lot of academic writing about the snake-legged Scythian mother goddess. However, the other two are ones I haven’t seen mentioned as often: two-tailed Tritons and a two-tailed woman identified as a “water nymph” in a Turkish academic article about the Kadıoğlu mosaics. As all three mosaics have similar figures in their corners, I want to look at all of them together.

Scythian Vegetation Goddess. Floor mosaic of room E, in the ‘Oikos' (private apartment) of the palace at Aigai, second half of 4th century BC, Vergina, northern Greece.

The Scythian goddess in the Vergina mosaic and the Kadıoğlu water nymph are a little different: the figures in Vergina are clothed, wearing chitons, which curl up at the sides, and she has curling tails that end in vegetation. In contrast, the Kadıoğlu water nymph appears to be unclothed.

The Kadıoğlu Mosaics, the Çaycuma District, near Kadıoğlu Village, about 45 km from the center of Zonguldak. Turkey. Roman period, ca 250-260 CE. 

However, aside from their near-identical pose— both women face forward, both have two tails they hold— one of the Kadıoğlu water nymphs appears to have the same type of headgear, a calathus, on her head. I find is fascinating how similar these images are, as the Vergina mosaics date from the end of the 4th century BCE, while the , the Kadıoğlu mosaics are much later, from Roman times, around 250-260 CE.

The two-tailed Tritons are from around the same time period as the Kadıoğlu mosaics, in the 2nd century CE. This one is also from the the Maritime Bathhouse at Ostia, in modern day Italy. Aside from the two tails, they’re pretty different: clearly male, and holding clubs and playing a conch as a horn, all things that Triton is frequently shown doing in ancient art. I wrote more about two-tailed Tritons here, with other examples of Tritons in mosaics.

I’m not suggesting that these figures are directly related, given the time period and geographic distances separating them. However, they are an interesting parallel to one another.

Above: Kadıoğlu mosaics, Turkey. I couldn't find a good photo of the entire mosaic, unfortunately.

For another ancient mosaic with two tailed critters, see this post.

Sources

Kadıoğlu mosaics:

Eraslan, Şehnaz. “Zonguldak Kadıoğlu Mozaiğindeki Maskların İkonografik Değerlendirmesi”. Journal of Mosaic Research, sy. 15, 2022, ss. 105-18, doi:10.26658/jmr.1143769.

Iconothèque de l’hybride humano végétal

http://cipl-cloud45.segi.ulg.ac.be/diphues/diphues_main.aspx

Vergina mosaics:

Ustinova, Yulia. "Snake-Limbed and Tendril-Limbed Goddesses in the Art and Mythology of the Mediterranean and Black Sea." Scythians and Greeks: Cultural Interaction in Scythia, Athens and the Early Roman Empire (Sixth Century B.C. - Fist Century A.D.). Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2005. Page 70.

Triton mosaic:

ERASLAN, Şehnaz. “Oceanus, Tethys and Thalssa Figures in the Light of Antioch and Zeugma Mosaics.” Journal of International Social Research, vol. 8, no. 37, 2015, p. 454. 

This blog is all of my research on the complex origins of the two tailed siren, the double tailed mermaid made famous by Starbucks. Oh, but she's so much more than a corporate logo!

The source for that logo is a 15th century printer’s mark, designed by German scholar Nicolaus Marschalk, but her history is much more complex than that. I explore her unusual pose here. I explain why I think single-tailed mermaids and two-tailed sirens are different in these posts.

This imagery likely has roots in ancient goddess imagery, particularly the unveiling goddess. The two tailed siren’s ancestors were the ancient Near East motifs of the Master of Animals and Mistress of Animals. The earliest version of the two tailed siren is from Luristan, dating from about 800 BCE. Mistress of Animal imagery is connected to Artemis depicted as Potnia Theron, which I explore in these posts.

The snake legged or tendril goddess was first popularized in ancient Scythian art. The Mistress and Master of Beasts imagery is related to the Scythian ancestral goddess from what’s now Ukraine and southern Russia. Some Scythian snake-legged deity imagery is clearly male or nonbinary.

Scythian ancestral goddess imagery can be found in Greece, in Olynthus and Vergina; in Bulgaria; and several examples in Turkey. She also is shown in Hellenistic vase painting and decorative art. She likely influenced Etruscan art, as in this lovely gold jewellery.

The Etruscan Typhon is related to Scylla, the Homeric monster who is often shown with two tails in ancient art. Typhon also likely influenced the snake legged Greek Giants. Sometimes the images get confused with each other, like with the fish-tailed Giants which combine Triton-like fish tails with Giants fighting; and Boreas shown with two snake legs, who looks like Typhon.

Two tailed Tritons are a thing in Greek and Roman art, and there's a few rare examples of two tailed "tritonesses," here and here. The Gorgons and Medusa are rarely shown with snake legs, and have connections to the Mistress of Animals and Potnia Theron. Two tailed figures appear in ancient Roman grotesques.

The snake-legged figure also spread east, in Indian art with two tailed merman, in Pakistan, and in Afghanistan. There's also the elusive Gnostic Abraxas, a figure with a rooster's head and snake legs.

However, Scylla and the Scythian goddess are the likeliest links from ancient art to Renaissance European art. Here's all my posts exploring Scylla's imagery.

There's a gap in how common two tailed goddess imagery is, from roughly 400 CE to 1000 CE, which I explore in these posts about Coptic, Celtic, and Pictish examples of two tailed figures.

Likely influenced by both the Scythian goddess and the two tailed Scylla, two tailed sirens in Romanesque church art spread the image across Europe: in mosaics, frescoes in Italy, in Sweden & Denmark, in Hungary, and in stone sculpture in Poland. She appears occasionally in medieval bestiaries, Hebrew manuscripts, and Christian manuscripts, as well as on coins. Two tailed sirens are rare in Irish art, as I explore in these posts.

In the Renaissance, she was extremely popular: in European architecture & interior details, Renaissance art, including woodcuts, printer's marks, world maps, emblems, fortune telling books, as an eternity symbol, a symbol of flattery, in alchemy texts, political cartoons, as a Zodiac symbol, and decorative art, including floor tiles and ceiling tiles, and in decorative drawings.

The two tailed siren continued to be popular into the 1700 and 1800s, such as in Cretan embroidery and pendants from Naples in the 1880s.

Her classic ear-to-fin pose has survived to modern art and contemporary art; and in pop art and culture.

Olokun is a fish-legged god from Benin, Nigeria, and his imagery is something I'll be exploring explore further, as there's also two tailed mermaids in Yoruba art. There’s some parallel but unrelated imagery in the Native art of North America, such as the Haida's Tchimose.

All images on this blog are for educational purposes only.

I've done my best to properly credit all artists & source all images to museums, galleries, or publications. If I've made a mistake, please let me know.

For "side swimmers" or mermaids with two tails, not in the classic pose, see this post.

 In the complicated family tree of the twin-tailed siren, there’s a mythical figure with snake legs I want to discuss: the Gorgons, sisters of Medusa, in ancient art.

While I think that the Gorgon was influenced by images of snake-legged deities, instead of influencing the images herself, I think these depictions of her are worth mentioning.

Gorgons are the collective name for the three sisters— Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa— who could turn men to stone with their gaze. While we now likely think of a young, angry woman when we hear this snake-haired character’s name, their first depictions in ancient art were very different than how they were later imagined by artists. In ancient times, Medusa and the other Gorgon sisters were often shown with grotesque, leering faces, a tongue lolling out of their mouths, and often with wings.

Both the images above are from the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. On the left, a Bronze sheet in the shape of a Gorgon’s head (gorgoneion.) From the Acropolis of Athens. About 500 BCE. On the right, black figured skyphos. The Gorgon Medusa, beheaded, between her sisters, Steno and Euryale. In the manner of the CHC Group. From Boeotia. About 500 BCE. Info from museum display.

The bronze handle in the British Museum shows a typical Gorgon image, with a lolling tongue and a leer— but instead of legs, two snakes that curl upward in a style very similar to the twin-tailed siren. Two similar handles were found in the Trebeništa necropolis in Macedonia. All three images date to around 500 BCE. Images from Nikos Chausidis, The Eschatological Function of Gold Foil Funerary Jewelry in the Late Archaic Necropolises of Macedonia

As I said, I think this Gorgon was influenced by other snake-legged beings, like Typhon and the Scythian ancestral goddess. There’s only a handful of Gorgons with snake legs, and since snakes are part of her iconography, it makes sense that ancient craftsmen occasionally added snake legs to Gorgon images.

Aside from snake hair, some early images of the Gorgons show them with two snakes protruding from their necks, such as in the Eleusis amphora, daring to 670 BCE. The drawing is from Iconography of the Gorgon in Early Greek Art: from Foreign Fiend to Local Legend Kyra Tejero. 

A small statue of a Gorgon has similar snakes on her neck (which honestly remind me a bit of Frankenstein’s bolts.) Image from Chausidis, Nikos. (2022). Nikos Chausidis, Luristan standards - iconography, semiotics and purpose (English translation from Macedonian Igor Eftimovski). Skopje: Center for prehistoric research, 2022. pp. 864.

Sometimes the Gorgons are shown with two snakes for a belt. The Artemis Temple of Corfu is a good example of this, with a Gorgon on a pediment with twin snakes around her waist. (image via Dr K on Wikipedia.)

I do want to give some additional context to the images of snake-legged Gorgons. There are Gorgons similar to ancient depictions of Artemis in her Mistress of Animals or Potnia Theron form. The Mistress of the Beasts is an ancient female deity who was both a protector of animals and a mother goddess. This puts the Gorgons as perhaps a distant cousin to the Scythian ancestral goddess, whose imagery was likely inspired directly from ancient, near-east depictions of the Mistress of Animals.

Two images that show the Gorgon-Artemis connection are these plates. Both women with wings, facing front, holding birds off to the side— but the Gorgon image has her typical leer and open mouth, while the Artemis / Potnia Theron image has a regular, young woman’s face.

Left: Pottery plate showing a winged goddess with a gorgon's head wearing a split skirt and holding a bird in each hand. About 600 BCE, Kos, Greece. Image via British Museum.

Right:

A plate depicting Potnia Theron with a woman’s head, 675-600 BCE. Mykonos Museum, Greece. Image from Wikipedia, taken by Zde.

Several respected researches and academics make the connection between the Gorgons and the Mistress of Beasts. Jane Harrison calls this Gorgon the “Erinys-side of the Great Mother” in Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion.

When writing about the snake-legged Gorgon handles, Igor Eftimovski wrote “the snake-legged Gorgons were probably viewed by the locals as a representation of their primordial mythical mother-goddess” linking the Gorgons to the Scythian ancestral goddess. My own thoughts: since images of Scythian ancestral goddess was commonly found in graves, as were the kraters with the snake-legged Gorgon handles, this gives further evidence for the Gorgon's connections to the primordial Scythian ancestral goddess.

On a chariot plaque from the mid 6th century, a Potnia Theron with a Gorgon-like face squats while flanked by two animals.

Finally, there is a rare figure of a Gorgon with a single snake-tail or fish tail, on a bronze shield from Olympia, about 550-500 BCE. While an intriguing image, she is definitely an outlier, as she’s the only Gorgon from ancient art with a single tail that I've seen. Image via Wikipedia, Nanosanchez.

There is also a depiction of Medusa with the classic Scythian ancestral goddess pose: two curling vines arches out to her sides, which she holds aloft. This pediment is from the Temple of Hadrian, Ephesus, in Turkey, from 138 AD, and doesn’t have the earlier Gorgon’s grotesque facial expression.

Image via Wikipedia.

While these depictions of the Gorgons and Medusa are fascinating, and give her an ancient connection to the Mistress of Beasts, I still think that the snake-legged Gorgon imagery was influenced by other tendril-limbed goddesses. Especially as the Medusa on the Temple of Hadrian is separated by over 600 years from the Gorgon krater handles.

Sources

For the ancient connections between Gorgons / Medusa and Artemis / Mistress of Beasts, see:

Medusa, Apollo, and the Great Mother Author(s): A. L. Frothingham. American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1911), pp. 349-377.

Harrison, Jane Ellen. Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion. Cambridge University Press, 1908.

"The Origin and Function of the Gorgon-Head," by Thalia Phillies Howe, from American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 58, No. 3 (Jul., 1954), pp. 209-221.

LAZAROU, Anna & Liritzis, Ioannis. (2022). GORGONEION AND GORGON-MEDUSA: A CRITICAL RESEARCH REVIEW. JOURNAL OF ANCIENT HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY. 9. 10.14795/j.v9i1.741.

For more information on the snake-legged Gorgon handles, see:

Gaunt, Jasper. (2018). Two krateres lakonikoi? The Dedications of Phanodikos son of Hermokrates of Prokonessos and of Phalaris tyrant of Acragas.  (Note: this article doesn't have any actual pics of the handles, but does talk about them.)

Nikos. Chausidis, The Eschatological Function of Gold Foil Funerary Jewelry in the Late Archaic Necropolises of Macedonia

Eftimovski, Igor. (2022). The Mistress of Dogs and warrior initiation at archaic Trebenishte. Vjesnik Arheološkog muzeja u Zagrebu. 55. 215-229. 10.52064/vamz.55.2.3.

For links on the Gorgon to Potnia Theron imagery, the chariot shield in particular, see:

While I have more research I want to post about the iconography of Scylla, and how she's likely related to the two tailed siren, today we're just going to admire her. Here's all the images I've found of two tailed Scyllas on Etruscan urns.

A note: keep in mind, that these may not all be images of Scylla herself. Some are clearly male; others may be a different character. I'll address these ideas in an upcoming post. The main takeaway here: after the Scythian ancestral goddess, Scylla is the most common two tailed being in ancient art with this distinctive pose.

Scylla, Etruscan grave stele, Giardini Margherita cemetery, Bologna. She holds two clubs or sticks in her hands, has dogs around her was it, and her tails end in animal heads.

Two tailed Scylla, Etruscan urn. 3rd-2nd century BCE. Lourve museum. This Scylla's tails end in serpent heads, and she has dogs around her waist.

Two tailed Scylla and Cerberus, Tomb of the Reliefs, end of the 4th-beginning of the 3rd century BCE. She holds an oar. Banditaccia Necropolis, Cerveteri, Italy. Image via Wikipedia.

Two tailed Scylla with wings, holding two anchors. She has an acanthus leaf skirt, but no dogs are her waist. National Archeological Museum, Florence. 300 BCE. My photo.

Two tailed Scylla, holding two anchors. First half of the 2nd century BCE. National Archeology Museum, Siena, Italy. Photo by Sailko, Wikipedia. Info from Goring.

Scylla urn, Etruscan, late 3rd century BCE. She has wings, an acanthus leaf skirt, and no dogs around her waist. Boston Museum.

Scylla with two tails, Etruscan urn, Perugia, end of the 2nd century BCE. Civic Archaeological Museum of Bologna. Full post here.

Scylla, two tailed with wings and holding an oar, club, or sword. She has an acanthus leaf skirt, eyes on her wings, and no dogs.The Museo Etrusco Guarnacci, Volterra. Necropolis of Portone. Photo by Sailko, Wikipedia.

Two tailed Scylla, Chiusi, 2nd century BCE. She has an acanthus leaf skirt, no dogs, and swings an oar. Nicholas Collection, Chau Chak Wing Museum Australia. 

Two tailed Scylla holding an oar, Etruscan cinerary urn. National Archeological Museum, Florence. My photograph.

Two tailed Scylla, 200 BCE-100 BCE Etruscan urn, Siena, Italy. She swings an oar or club, and has two men, possibly Odysseues’ crew, in her tails. British Museum.

Two tailed Scylla with oar, 2nd century BCE, National Museum, Palermo, Sicily, Italy. From Sach's article.

Scylla, Etruscan urn, 300 - 100 BCE. British Museum. 

Scylla with two tails, Etruscsn urn, Medelhavsmuseet, Stockholm. Ca 170-160 BCE.

Two tailed Scylla, Etruscan urn. Castellano area, ca. 200-190 BCE, Florence. Photo via Sailko, Wikipedia.

Two tailed Scylla on an Estruscan urn, museo archeologico nazionale dell’umbria, Perugia. Photo by Sailko, Wikipedia.

Scylla with two tails, Etruscan urn, Sant’Appiano Museum, Antiquarium (Archaeological museum in Sant'Appiano, Italy.) In her hands, she could be holding anchors or an oar, but the statue is damaged. Full post here.

Two tailed Scylla, Etruscan cinerary urn, National Archeological Museum, Florence. This “Scylla” is likely male. My photograph.

Two tailed Scylla, Etruscan urn. National Archeology Museum, Siena, Italy. Photo by Sailko.

Two tailed Scylla, holding an oar. National Archeology Museum, Siena, Italy. Photo by Sailko. 

Bearded two tailed Scylla, holding an oar. Etruscan urn, 260-220 BCE. Turin Archeology Museum, Italy. Photo via Peter on Flickr.

Two tailed Scylla, Etruscan urn, Rosavecchia, Tuscania, ca. 3rd-2nd century BCE. This Scylla is hoisting a boulder, an unusual weapon for them, as Scylla usually wields an oar. Photo by Sailko.

Two tailed Scylla, Etruscan urn. Photo via Peter on Flickr.

Two tailed Scylla, Perugia, necropolis of Palazzone. From Körte's book.

Two tailed Scylla, Perugia, Villa Monti. From Körte's book.

Two tailed Scylla holding an oar, National Etruscan Museum, Rome. My photograph.

Scylla with Centaurs, Etruscan urn. Drawing from Jane Harrison’s “Myths of the Odyssey,” page 365.

Sources

Archaeological Studies Author(s): G. W. Elderkin Source: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 21, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1917), pp. 397-408. Section “Scenes from the Odyssey on an Etruscan grave stele.” Figure 2.

Sachs, Eleanor B. "Some Notes on a Twelfth-Century Bishop’s Mitre in the Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Bulletin of the Needle and Bobbin Club 61 1 & 2 (1978): 69. 

Körte, Gustav [Editor]; Brunn, Heinrich von  [Editor]; Körte, Gustav  [Editor] I rilievi delle urne etrusche (Band 3) Berlin, 1916.

Harrison, Jane Ellen. Myths of the Odyssey in Art and Literature. London: Rivingtons, 1882.

René Lalique was a noted French Art Nouveau jewellery designer, designing and producing a number of lovely pieces. Let’s admire some of his images of two tailed sirens, both with their tails spread in the siren’s centuries-old style, some with their tails together.

Two tailed siren on a diadem with opals, about 1901, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.

She’s carrying a large opal, perhaps retrieved from the ocean depths. In her two tails, curved in the traditional style going back centuries, she holds two opals carved with fish. Her hail trails back to support the wearer’s own hair. Information and image from Nuvo Magazine.

Siren with two fish tails, enamel and carved crystal pendent, 1902-1912. She’s ducking her head, perhaps in protection, and her two tails start below her shapely thighs. Her wavy hair is shorter than most sirens.

(The information I got is from art auction websites, making it difficult to date this exactly.)

Two sirens, opal and gold pendant. These two sirens swim together, their tails merging into one. The opals could suggest bubbles or sea foam. From a blog titled “The magnificence of Rene Lalique” by Ceramics and Pottery Arts and Resources, which has a lot of lovely images of his work.

Tonight, we’re looking at an image of the Scythian snake-legged goddess from Ivanovskaya:

I’m pretty sure this the front and back of the same artefact. Front is from Chausidis; left is from Stoyanov. I like her, as she’s similar to this commonly posted image of the Scythian goddess:

Serpent legged goddess plaque, from the burial mound in Kul-Oba, near Kerch, Crimea, Ukraine. First half of the 4th century BCE. The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

But I’m posting because I want to talk about a new Artemis and Scythian goddess connection. In Stoyanov’s article, he writes that hand-held masks were used in the cult of Artemis Orphia, as several hundred masks were sound in a Sparta temple dedicated to Artemis.

Since she’s is holding a what could be interpreted as a satyr mask, there’s a likely connection to the cult of Artemis Orphia. 

I’m a bit excited about this, as Artemis and the Scythian goddess are also linked at the Temple of Artemis Leukophryene at Magnesia, as well as being visually similar in iconography.

From the Artemis Leukophryene at Magnesia, modern day Turkey, about 220 BCE. In the Staatliche Museum zu Berlin.

I have no idea why the Russian museum has a photo of this artefact from the back.

I would write more, but the museum had photos of russian soldiers on the main page, and I lost some friends in Ukraine in the war, so now I’m feeling a little down.

Sources

Nikos Chausidis, Luristan standards - iconography, semiotics and purpose (English translation from Macedonian Igor Eftimovski). Skopje: Center for prehistoric research, 2022. Image B14-8.