Queen Mother Head (Uhunmwu elao oghe ly'oba)

"The Queen Mother Idia heads represent a revolutionary moment in Benin art—where a woman's political power became immortalized in brass. The iron inlays in her forehead marks aren't mere decoration; they're metallic tears, ritual conduits connecting her spiritual authority to the living Oba through sacrificial offerings."

— Paula Girshick Ben-Amos, *Art, Innovation, and Politics in 18th-Century Benin* (1999), p. 72.