Ataecina

Atecina is an Iberian goddess who was venerated primarily in the southeast of Spain and Portugal, before the Roman era. Later, during the Roman Empire, she was assimilated with Proserpina and Tanit, and then, possibly with Saint Lucy.

Her sacred animal is the goat, and she is linked to death and rebirth; as a result, altars and votive offerings like small goats have been found in her honor near of mines—as gateways to the underworld and her domain—as well as, she was associated with fertility and the earth's springtime renewal.

To create her, I drew inspiration from one of my absolute favorite sculptures, the Lady of Baza. Revisiting this figure is always a pleasure, though I also incorporated elements from other "Ladies" (Damas íberas) such as the diadem-style of the Lady of Cerro de los Santos and the vase-shaped pendants of the Lady of Elche, and other female representations, like the twisted braids found on various Iberian sphinxes.

I took the liberty of giving her goat horns. Goat horns are really cool and creates a connection to Cernunnos, one of the most popular Celtic gods.

Furthermore, mythology allows me more creative freedom than working on heritage projects does. Even so, I wanted to reflect the current visual appearance of these "Ladies": carved in limestone with their original polychromy largely lost to time.

I decided make a textured model who raminds to iberain sculpture, but in my usual modeling style; I’d also like to make it 3D-printable in the near future ☺️