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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
Pentelic marble. Total height, 113 cm. Height of body, 96 cm. Of figured space, 47 cm. Circumference round the bottom of figured space, 116·5 cm.
The upper part of the neck and the whole of the handle are missing.
This beautiful marble grave lekythos, which I have received kind permission to publish from Dr. Kastriotis and M. Stais, is now in the National Museum of Athens (No. 2584). It was discovered in the year 1904 in the house of Spiliotis near the σφαγεῖα on the left bank of the Ilisos.
The vase itself is considerably broken, and the surface of the marble is unfortunately a good deal damaged, but in spite of this, at the first glance, one is struck by the beauty of the whole composition of the relief which covers more than half of the body of the lekythos. This relief is interesting also for its subject matter, which, as far as I am aware, has no exact parallel; a somewhat unusual fact, for on the whole there is not very much variation in the scenes and motives represented on the Greek grave reliefs.
1 Other marble lekythoi with a similar technique are No. 810 Ath. Nat. Mus.; Conze, Attische Grab-Reliefs, Taf. ccxiii. No. 1059; also Conze, No. 294, Taf. lxx.
2 Ath. Nat. Mus. 738 Kavvadias, and Conze, 1151.
3 Conze, 840, and of. Ath. Mitth. 1885, p. 240, note 1.
4 Berlin Catalogue, No. 737, and Furtwangler, Coll. Sabouroff, Bd. i. Taf. xix.
5 Conze, Bd. i. No. 68. Taf. xxx. and Brunn-Bruckmann, Denkmäler, No. 436.
6 Cf. for example, Ath. Nat. Mus. No. 1064, Lekythos of Metrodora, Philia, Mys and Meles, and many others.
7 See Furtwängler, Coll. Sabouroff, stele of Mynno, Taf. xix. and Text.
8 Kavvadias, No. 794, and Conze, ii.2 Taf. clxxxvi.
9 Kavvadias, No. 898, and Conze, ii.2, Taf. ccviii.
10 Gerhard, Griechische Vasenbilder, Bd. ii. Taf. cclxxv.
11 Gerhard, Bd. ii. Taf. cclxxviii.
12 See Furtwängler, in Roscher's, Lexikon, Bd. i. p. 378Google Scholar.
13 Furtwängler, , Eros in der Vasenmalerei pp. 14 and 15Google Scholar.
14 Müller-Wieseler Denkmäler alter Kunst, Bd. ii. Taf. 24, note 257.
15 Ibid. note 258a; see B. M., Coins, Lycaonia, etc. pp. xliii., and 113Google Scholar.
16 Mon. d. I. i. 8 and B. M. Vases, iii. No. 440.
17 For the latest list of such inscriptions see Tillyard, , in B.S.A. xi. pp. 67Google Scholar f.
18 E.g. Demosthenes, , Unbuild. 28 and 57Google Scholar.
19 See Furtwängler, Introd. to Collection Sabouroff, p. 29.
20 See Becker's, Charikles, iii. Excurs zur 9Google Scholarten Scene.
21 See Curtius, E., Geschichte der Stadt Athen, p. 204Google Scholar.
22 See Furtwängler, Coll. Sabouroff, Text and Plates, 15, 16, and 17.
23 Kavvadias, No. 716; Conze, Bd. i. Taf. lxix. No. 293.
