Three models extracted from archaeological molds from Failaka Island in Kuwait  


 Failaka Island is located in the northwestern corner of the Arabian Gulf and, today, forms part of the State of Kuwait. In ancient times, it was one of the major cities in a multipolar region known in Mesopotamian sources as Dilmun. This city took on a Hellenistic character during the time of the Greek Empire, founded by Seleucus I Nicator following the death of Alexander the Great. This character is evident in numerous pieces of archaeological evidence uncovered by surveys and excavations in the last decades of the twentieth century, including a large collection of sculptures distinguished by their purely classical Greek style. This collection includes pieces that have achieved widespread fame, as well as others that are now almost forgotten, including three female sculptures that unfortunately arrived in fragmentary form.

The most important Greek antiquities of Failaka were found in an area located in the southwestern part of the island, known as "Saad and Saeed," after Tell Saad and Tell Saeed. From Tell Saad, artifacts dating back to the Bronze Age were unearthed, while at Tell Saeed, the ruins of a fortified castle containing two temples were found. In a low corner extending between the two hills, close to the coast, the ruins of a house consisting of 12 rooms appeared. One of these rooms was found to have been used as a blacksmith's workshop, as evidenced by brick molds left over from this workshop. Some of these molds preserved their relatively original composition, and soft clay was poured into them, producing nearly complete models, including one approximately 9 centimeters long, representing a female figure missing her head and right arm.

This woman wears a long, loose garment whose undulating folds reveal her body's joints in a realistic, sensual manner, in keeping with an artistic style that formed the basis of classical Greek aesthetics. These folds flow over the chest, wrap around the pelvis, and fall to the soles of the feet, opening around the legs, forming a curved mass resembling a mermaid's tail. This loose mass reveals a movement represented by the left leg moving forward and the right leg firmly behind it. This graceful movement is paralleled by another swaying movement, represented by the left arm rising slightly at the waist. This figure appears to embody a feminine archetype enshrined in the lexicon of classical Greek art: the goddess Nike, whom the Romans called Victoria, meaning goddess of victory.

The goddess Nike is a powerful presence in the Greek world, as well as in Asia Minor and the Near East. Her statues in these regions are countless, the most famous of which is a massive statue that came from the Greek island of Samothrace in the second half of the nineteenth century. It was brought into the Louvre Museum and has become one of the museum's most famous pieces. The Failaka statue resembles this colossal statue in its composition, except for the absence of the two large wings that characterize Nike of Samothrace. These wings accompany this goddess in her many diverse forms and types and constitute two of her many symbols, including the victory signs she usually carries, the most common of which are the wreath, the palm frond, and the scepter.

Another female statue emerged from the Failaka Museum, extracted from one of the molds discovered in the workshop attached to this museum. The Kuwaiti government published a picture of this statue on a postcard in the late 1950s as part of a collection of cards dedicated to the Failaka legacy. Only the lower half of this statue, approximately 26.5 centimeters long, remains. It depicts an elaborate women's garment, its folds wrapping with amazing delicacy around the pelvic joints and legs visible from behind the fabric. It is difficult to determine the identity of this firmly erect female figure. Perhaps she embodies a model known in Greek art as "Kora," meaning young girl. This is also the name by which the young Persephone, daughter of Zeus and Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and harvest, was known, as was hypothesized upon the discovery of this statue.

In contrast, we come across a different female figure, also featured on a similar postcard. This one has completely lost its head and arms, leaving only the upper body, which appears here completely naked, with a prominent breast, its features prominent in a pose reminiscent of the goddess Aphrodite, “the mistress of foam,” who emerged from the sea and “swam toward Cythera, the inspiring island, then reached Cyprus, beset by waves.” There, she emerged from the water, a woman “of splendor and modesty,” as Hesiod recounted in the eighth century BC. “They call her Aphrodite,” the Greek poet added, “because she was created from Cythera, Cytheraean because she came from Cythera, and Cyprian because she was born in Cyprus, surrounded by waves.”