| Collection: | Athens, National Archaeological Museum |
| Title: | Relief with Eurykleia, Odysseus, and Penelope |
| Context: | From Thessaly |
| Findspot: | Found at Thessaly, Gonnoi |
| Summary: | Odysseus surprises his nurse, Eurykleia, while Penelope stands by her loom |
| Object Function: | Votive? |
| Material: | Marble |
| Sculpture Type: | Stele, relief-decorated |
| Category: | Single monument |
| Style: | Late Classical/Hellenistic |
| Technique: | Low relief |
| Original or Copy: | Original |
| Date: | ca. 350 BC - ca. 300 BC |
| Dimensions: | H. 0.73 m; W. 0.77 m |
| Scale: | Miniature (pictorial field) |
| Region: | Thessaly |
| Period: | Late Classical/Hellenistic |
Subject Description: At the center sits Odysseus, seated to the left; he wears his chlamys over a chitoniskos, and a pilos, or conical helmet. While his left foot rests over a circular basin (in which his feet will be washed?), he reaches his right hand out to touch a woman, probably the nurse Eurykleia, who bends toward him, profile to the right. She wears a himation over a chiton. Behind Ocysseus stands Penelope, wearing a chiton over a peplos (?), with her back to the viewer, but with her head turned profile to the left (towards the other figures). She raises her left hand to her loom (which is indicated in very low relief in the background), and holds her distaff in her upraised right hand.
Form & Style: The relief occupies a sunken rectangle on a rectangular plaque, so that a thin border frames it on the bottom and both sides; the top is framed with a simple shallow pedimental form. A rectangular extension at the bottom would have been socketed into the ground or into a base.
Condition: Intact
Condition Description: The frame is slightly chipped, and broken off on the left edge; the figures lack heads, but most other details are intact; the frame and relief surface has both sustained scratches and stains.
Sources Used: