Explore Ancient Anatolia

Relief at Sebasteion: Ancient Aphrodisias School of Sculpture ... A heavily wrapped baby Dionysos is handed from one nymph to another for suckling. A bearded Silenos gestures excitedly with his arms and taps his foot as though singing or about to dance. The scene is set at nearby Nysa in the Meander valley, where Zeus had his gifted child Dionysos, born to him by Semele, brought up in the wilds out of view of his wife Hera. - Museum of Aphrodisias, Turkey.

Relief at Sebasteion: Ancient Aphrodisias School of Sculpture ... A prancing woodland nymph leads drunken Dionysos who supports himself languidly on a small satyr. This is an image of Dionysian enjoyment and pleasure, hellenistic in style and fluently designed. - Museum of Aphrodisias, Turkey.

Relief at Sebasteion: Ancient Aphrodisias School of Sculpture ... The nude and classically styled young god wears only a helmet and held a spear (missing) in one hand and a shield in the other. At left stands his cuirass, and at the upper right corner hangs his sword. Ares was the god of war and was not later defaced by Christians probably because he so closely resembles a young emperor. - Museum of Aphrodisias, Turkey.

Photo: Hittite god-king Ura-Tarhunzas, (Talmi-Teshub) statue in limestone, from Aslantepe Malatya (Lions’ Hill), eighth century BC, in the museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara, Turkey.