CLASSICAL PERIOD, CIRCA LATE 4TH CENTURY B.C.

In 430 B.C., during the Peloponnesian War, a great plague swept through Athens. Wiping out almost 25% of the population, it lasted for three years. This catastrophic event was the impetus that re-started the production of grave stelae, allowing families to once more honour and mourn their dead with a physical monument, coming to an abrupt end in 317 B.C. when, once again, a law was passed prohibiting this ostentatious exercise of showing off wealth, which grave monuments had begen to symbolise.

Stelae became larger and wider, with not just the deceased depicted, but family members, pets and slaves. Pilasters either side and a triangular pediment, produced the effect of a small naiskos temple and carving became deeper, with some figures almost in the round. Normally the deceased was shown seated, with a popular scene being the dexiosis, or handshake, where a husband, wife or family member say goodbye to the departed. In the above example a female sits on a stool, a male figure, perhaps her husband, clasps her hand. Another male stands behind them, and a smaller girl, probably her maidservant, stands to the right, appearing to shyly peek around her shoulder, holding her mistress' pyxis which would have contained her jewellery. Although the stele is broken along the left hand lower edge, the top edge of the deceased's right foot can just be seen, which means that her feet would have been resting on a low footstool. See no. 321 in N.E. Kaltsas, Sculpture in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, for a scene of mistress seated on stool with footstool, and maidservant holding pyxis. For similar stele with four figures op.cit. nos 379, 391 and 395.

On the pediment there is an indistinguishable Greek inscription which would have given the name of the deceased.