Take a weeping Madonna,combine it with a simulacrum and dash of trompe l’oeil, then add a case of almost supernatural survival over some 3,000 years and a sidelight on the origins of the word syphilis, and there you have her –the ‘statue’ of Niobe.

According to some Greek myths, Niobe was the first woman –a kind of Hellenic Eve – whose descendants populated Greece. She can also make a good claim to be the grandmother of fortean phenomena. I first saw Niobe a few years ago when I was carrying out some archæological reconnaissance work near the Aegean coast of Turkey.