The clay pomegranate model MΘ 8211 was found in the cemetery in Sindos, Thessaloniki, inside a looted sarcophagus made of poros, where a young woman had been buried during the first half of the 5th century BC.

It is mold-made and originally it was painted red, of which color only traces survive today. It is of round shape and has a flower calyx consisting of four closed sepals.

The pomegranate, with its deep red color and the many juicy seeds it contains, was in ancient times a symbol of abundance, fertility, prosperity. Models of this fruit, made of various materials, were offered as votive offerings to female deities, such as Hera, Demeter and Kore, Athena, Artemis, and even Aphrodite. This fruit, however, was also associated with death. This is evident from its presence in tombs as a grave good, its depiction in grave reliefs and on white-ground lekythoi, but also from a series of myths. A typical example is the one narrated by the poet in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, according to whom, when Hades was forced by order of Zeus to let Persephone return to her mother, he first gave her a pomegranate to eat, and thus “tied” her with him with marriage ties. This fruit, then, was what kept Persephone close to Hades and consequently to the Underworld. The pomegranate retained some of the above symbolism in the following centuries.

Nowadays it appears to play an important role in various Greek customs, among which the most famous are perhaps those related to the, relevant due to the days, New Year’s Eve.

You can see the exhibit in the permanent exhibition "Macedonia from the 7th c. e.g. until late antiquity", showcase 26.

Height: 5.5 cm
Dating: 480-460 BC