Ceramic head on a marble vase, replica of the preserved head of a terracotta figurine of the goddess Athena from Egypt (3rd century). The iconographic type of the original, as indicated by completely preserved examples, harks back to Hellenistic creations of monumental art. In the Roman period, the cult of Athena was widespread in Egypt with the encouragement of the emperors, many of whose coins bear various iconographic types of the goddess on the reverse.