Representations of Masked Figures: A Comparative Study and an Interpretative Approach to their Cult-Use and Meaning

This note is a condensed version of a forthcoming study to appear in Popular religion and ritual in Prehistoric and ancient Greece and the east Mediterranean, edited by G. Vavouranakis, K. Kopanias, K. Kanellopoulos and Y. Papadatos, Oxbow, 2017. It focuses on handmade figurines of the Classical period with mold-made, mask-like faces that were brought to light at the Cave of the Nymphs in Lechova, Corinthia. An examination of their iconographic characteristics in relation to other representations of similar iconography, as well as literary sources mentioning the use of masks in ritual, shed light on their use in initiation rites.