Demeter

This is one of my favourites of the old style sculptures/statues.   Unfortunately its often overlooked in its elevated position on the Clydeport Building in Glasgow's Robertson street.

It is by Albert Hemstock Hodge and its meaning/origin is surrounded in mystery. There is a view that it could be Europa leading the Bull and there is a similar piece in Manitoba by Hodge which has this title.  There is also a suggestion that it relates to Glasgow's overseas cattle trade. 

A photograph of the original model has the simple caption 'Prosperity'..  But with a corn stock in her left hand and meadow grass in the space below the bull, it seems to confirm that the identity of the figure is Demeter the goddess of the harvest.