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SEATTLE—The so-called “snake goddess” depicted on a piece of pottery found in the early twentieth century in the Athenian agora has possibly been identified as Demeter, the Greek goddess of the harvest, by Michael Laughy of Washington and Lee University. “She got mixed up in that road gravel, presumably obtained near the site of her original shrine,” he said at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America. Small terracotta votives, consistent with those known to have been offered to Demeter, have also been found in the landfill, which was presumably moved in the seventh century B.C.
