Juno crowned with an indented diadem, usually called Stephane.

Juno crowned with an indented diadem.

Bust of Juno crowned with an indented diadem which is elevated above her forhead; the hair parted in the midle, and flowing in regular tresses across the forehead, till it falls, behind the ears, to the shoulder below.

The head-dress is a modification of that usual in delineations of Juno, as may be seen by a careful examination of many coins on which she is represented.

It is usually called stephane or stephanos. On coins of Plataea we find it represented as rising high above the head, but flat at the top and unadorned; on those of Argos, Crotona, and Pandosia in Bruttium, as rising but little above the head, but richly adorned with chasing of floral ans other designs; while on those of Elis, themselves among the most beautiful specimens of ancient numismatic art, the stephane is narrow, and forms a belt round the head, so that the hair is seen clearly above it.

This belt is often embellished by chasings of honeysuckle and other patterns. Originally, however, it is likely that this head-dress was in all cases nothing more than a circular disc of metal. The origin of this type is probably oriental, the turred head-dress being common on the regal and autonomous coins of Syria; while there is a remarkable illustration of it in one of the latest of the sculptures from Koyunjik, on which is an Assyrian queen seated with the king under trellis-work of vines, and wearing a peculiar form of embattled diadem, which exhibits the earliest illustration of this form of headdress, ebing, in all probability, not later than B.C. 640.

Source: A description of the collection of ancient Marbles in the British Museum by Combe Taylor, London 1861.

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