Horse and Rider
3723, Horse and Rider, Archaic Period; c. 550 B.C.
Culture: Greek
Material: terracotta
Dimensions: h. 4 1/8 in 10.3 cm
A seemingly legless rider merges as one with his horse in this Archaic Greek terracotta figure. Freud uses horseback riding as a metaphor for the ego riding the forces of the id, and surely would have found this object interesting. Figures of this type, manufactured in Boeotia in the sixth century B.C., were common grave goods, meant to comfort the dead. Horses and horsemen were especially popular, perhaps to attest to the war or hunting skills of the deceased.