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Lot Essay
This naturalistically-modelled cuirass back-plate, which has received significant scholarly attention, is important not only for the engraved images on the shoulders and the later dedicatory inscription incised below, but also for the central perforation, indicating that it was re-purposed either as a battlefield trophy or temple offering. Preserved along the edges are small perforations, likely for attachment loops that would have joined the back-plate to the breast-plate or for attachment of a lining. At the shoulder blades are two opposing heads in profile, each wearing a Phrygian helmet with a serrated edge (a griffin crest), with long wavy hair falling along their necks. These have been identified as depicting either Amazons, Arimasps or perhaps more likely, the Dioskouroi. All would be appropriate for adding apotropaic powers to the warrior’s back: Amazons were fierce mythological female warriors; Arimasps were a legendary people of the far north, famous for battling the griffins who guarded a horde of gold; and the Dioskouroi, Castor and Polydeuces, were revered as symbols of strength, bravery and military prowess. Incised across the middle of the back is a Greek inscription in Doric dialect, reading, “to Athena, spoils from the enemy.” It has been suggested that the letterforms date to circa 325 B.C., confirming that the inscription was added approximately 50 years after the cuirass was made (see Zimmerman, 1987, p. 70).
Classical Greek anatomical cuirasses, as opposed to their later Roman counterparts, only rarely received figural decoration. The only other known example is from Laos, now in the Museo Nazionale, Reggio Calabria, which features a protome of Pan on the front and one of a satyr on the back (no. 266II in Carratelli, op. cit.). Likewise, only very few examples have survived with dedicatory inscriptions: three 7th century B.C. examples from Crete; one 4th century example from Apulia; and one 3rd century B.C. example in Latin (see Zimmerman, op. cit., 1987, p. 71).
Classical Greek anatomical cuirasses, as opposed to their later Roman counterparts, only rarely received figural decoration. The only other known example is from Laos, now in the Museo Nazionale, Reggio Calabria, which features a protome of Pan on the front and one of a satyr on the back (no. 266II in Carratelli, op. cit.). Likewise, only very few examples have survived with dedicatory inscriptions: three 7th century B.C. examples from Crete; one 4th century example from Apulia; and one 3rd century B.C. example in Latin (see Zimmerman, op. cit., 1987, p. 71).