Statue of Attis

Second half 2nd century AD
Medium-grained white marble

Discovered in 1885, during the construction of the Celio Military Hospital (Osedale Militare Celio). The statue, reduced to fragments, was reused as building meterial for later wall.

Capitoline Museums, Antiquarium, S 1080

This statue depicts a young shephard wearing a Phrygian cap. Next to him, on a rocky base, is a small bovine, flanked by the remains of a pendum, the crook that the young shephered held in his hand. Based on comparison whith a statue foound in Sarsina, the shephered has been recognized as Attis, a Phrygian divinity connected in myth and worship with Cybele, the Great Mother of rhe Gods.