Anytus, the Titan and nurturer of Despoina. Head of the Titan Anytus, from the Temple of Despoina at Lycosura, Arcadia
Head of titan Anytus, from the temple of Despoina at Lykosoura in Arkadia. National Archaeological Museum, Athens.
Anytus was one of the Titans of Greek mythology. He was the nurturer of Despoina, daughter of Demeter. According to Pausanias, Anytus is mentioned as a Titan and was honored with a statue in the sanctuary dedicated to Despoina near the Arcadian hill in Lycosura.
Head of titan Anytus, from the temple of Despoina at Lykosoura in Arkadia. National Archaeological Museum, Athens
In Arcadia, during the time of Pausanias, Anytus and Despoina were depicted with statues in a temple near Acacesium. This temple was located in Lycosura, a city where the worship of Anytus was especially significant. There stood the Temple of Despoina, dedicated to the chthonic pantheon that included Artemis, Demeter, and Despoina.
Το πάνθεον όπως εκτίθετο στην Αθήνα το 2018.
The statue of Anytus was part of a group of sculptures created by the artist Damophon around 180 BCE. These statues were acroliths—a composite made of different materials, with the head and limbs carved from local marble while the body was made of wood.
The bust of Anytus, measuring 74 centimeters in height, along with those of Artemis and Demeter, was discovered during excavations in the summer of 1889 and is currently exhibited at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens (inventory number NAMA 1736). Replicas of the original bust are housed at the Museum of Lycosura.
According to the descriptions by Pausanias in his work Description of Greece, written in the 2nd century CE, the statue of Artemis stood next to that of Demeter, while Anytus stood beside Despoina, dressed in warrior attire. The statue of Anytus is the most fragmented among those of the pantheon, but fragments of his clothing and parts of his limbs have been found.
Since Persephone, who is often identified or associated with Despoina, was nurtured by the Curetes, and Pausanias also mentions the Curetes in the relevant passage, Anytus—depicted as a man in armor standing next to Despoina at the sanctuary of Demeter and Despoina near Lycosura—is iconographically considered more as one of the Curetes. Therefore, there is an interpretation that Anytus was not merely a Titan but could also have been one of the Curetes, playing a protective and nurturing role similar to that of the Curetes in the upbringing of divine figures in mythology.
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