Unlike the scenes depicted on vases, where the interaction of the characters and the figurative context often guide the interpretation, terracotta figurines are in their majority generic, isolated figures, without iconographic context: therefore their identification is most often difficult. The coroplastic production of the archaic period, including a large part of the 5th c., is widely dominated by four commonplace iconographic types, with no identifying characteristics: the enthroned woman, the standing girl or kore, the banqueter or symposiast, types to which must be added the female protomai. Although it has never been argued, the traditional identification of these types with deities remains largely predominant. But this supposes the polysemy of the images or the absence of intrinsic meaning. However, the finding contexts (mostly sanctuaries of female deities and graves of aôroi), the comparisons with more explicit images in other media (stone sculpture and reliefs, vase painting), the correct interpretation of the general attitude (standing, seated or reclining) and of generic attributes until now neglected or misinterpreted (headdresses, flowers and fruits, dove...), lead to recognizing in these terracottas conventional representations of mortals in their various family status: parthenos, nymphe and gyne for the feminine types, the citizen head of the oikos and the citizen in the making for the male types. This identification suggests a coherent meaning and function for these terracottas in both contexts, votive and funerary. By dedicating the statuette in the sanctuary, the dedicator placed the status to which he accessed under the protection of the divinity. By placing these statuettes in the tombs of the young dead, they were given the fulfilment of life of which death had deprived them.