The Moon God Mên

2nd-3rd century CE · Sculpture

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Harvard Art Museums

Cambridge, Estados Unidos

Pertence à coleção, mas de momento não está exposta.

Verificado: ontem
Neste estado desde: 27 de set. de 2026
Fonte: Os dados da própria coleção do museu

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About the sculpture

The moon god Mên holds his right arm out, clutching a pinecone. He wears a Phrygian cap over his wavy hair. The long cap, which ends in a point at the back, is decorated with incised lines and dots that may be a stylized representation of foliage. The border of the cap bears diagonal marks, possibly meant to represent a lining. Mên is depicted as a beardless youth. His eyes are deep-set in his oval face, and his mouth appears to be open. The points of the crescent moon seem to emerge from his shoulders; the rest of the crescent is not visible in the back. He wears a long, heavy cloak that covers his back with some horizontal and vertical marks to represent the drapery. The cloak comes over his shoulders, leaving his arms exposed, and is clasped at his breast with two raised spheres. Under the cloak, he wears a short, long-sleeved tunic, which is loosely draped above the belt.

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Below the curving horizontal line indicating the belt, the lower part of his garment falls in regular, vertical pleats to his knees. The ends of his sleeves are visible at the wrists (1). His extant hand, rendered with lines to indicate joints of the fingers and even fingernails, clutches a pine coin that is covered with hatchmarks. His left hand may have held a dish or other attribute. He stands frontally with his right leg locked. The knee is rendered and the top of a boot is visible before the break of the foot. The left knee is bent, with the foot moved back. The currently attached foot does not belong to this statuette. It wears a sandal that does not match the boot that the right foot would have worn (2).

Mên was a lunar deity worshipped in ancient Asia Minor (modern Turkey), who had a variety of roles, from god of healing to protector of tombs, and was also associated with fertility and the military (3). He is often shown with a crescent moon behind his shoulders and holding various attributes, sometimes a pinecone, although the precise meaning of this second attribute is not clear (4).

NOTES:

1. For representations of Mên in very similar attire, see Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae Men nos. 62-63, 68, and 76.

2. Although there are other images that depict Mên standing, most show him with one arm raised, holding a staff or thyrsos; see LIMC Men nos. 24-63 and 75-95. A few representations show him with both arms held at waist height, like the Harvard piece, or with one arm out and the other placed on the hip; these examples may have been based on the same original cult image; see LIMC Men nos. 64-66 (no. 65 is the Harvard piece) and 67-74.

3. See U. W. Hiesinger, “Three Images of the God Mên,” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 71 (1967): 303-10; and E. N. Lane, “Men: A Neglected Cult of Roman Asia Minor,” Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II.18.3 (Berlin, 1990): 2161-74.

4. See Hiesinger 1967 (supra 3) 304; and E. N. Lane, Corpus Monumentorum Religionis Dei Menis 3: Interpretations and Testimonia (Leiden, 1976) 104-105, for possible interpretations of the pinecone, including that was an offering, a symbol of his role as a fertility god, or an apotropaic symbol.

Lisa M. Anderson

Harvard Art Museums