Did ancient Greeks trick-or-treat? Or is this statue depicting some ghoulish myth about a headless man, going about with his cut-off head in hand?
Neither.
This is not a Halloween statue, but the figurine of an actor. The head in his hand is simply a mask – that of the role he was playing. His own head is missing because sometime in its 2000-odd-year history it got broken.
Dating from 4th – 3rd century BCE, the small terracotta figurine was found in Corinth. Today it is in the city’s Museum.
Note: As I’ve said before, Greeks don’t celebrate Halloween. But I just couldn’t help myself contributing just a bit. After all, no one is immune to globalisation.
Aristotle, Greek tourist guide 