Collection: Athens, National Archaeological Museum
Title: Grave monument of seated young woman with three other figures
Context: Probably from Athens
Findspot: Said to be from Athens (various locations--Ambelokipi, Patission, and the Piraios--have all been suggested)
Summary: Seated young woman with three other figures
Object Function: Funerary
Material: Marble
Sculpture Type: Stele, relief-decorated
Category: Single monument
Style: Late Classical
Technique: High relief
Original or Copy: Original
Date: ca. 340 BC
Dimensions: H. 1.80 m; W. 1.22 m
Scale: Life-size
Region: Attica
Period: Late Classical

Subject Description:

A young woman, seated profile to the right, on a cushioned stool (diphros), with her sandal-clad feet on a footstool, shakes hands with a tall female figure, standing in 3/4-view to the left, who is dressed similarly in a chiton and himation. She bows her head, which is covered (as is the rest of her body, wrapped in a chiton) by her himation. Behind her (carved in low relief) are a girl (a slave wearing a sleeved tunic and a sakkos), leaning her head on her left hand, and a bearded man, wearing a himation, who holds both hands on the left side of his chest, resting on a staff. Both of these figures are shown in near frontal view.

Clairmont suggests reasonably that the seated woman is the mother of Philino, who shakes hands with her, while her husband, Thoukritos, Philino's father, stands behind them.

Form & Style: Conze noted that the pediment (from the naiskos which originally enclosed this relief) was found in a private house, and preserved the names of the figures: only the second is well preserved.

Condition: Intact

Condition Description: Most of the relief is intact.

Material Description: "Pentelic" according to Clairmont

Inscription: The inscription on the architrave (now missing) was transcribed as follows:...] *I*E*R*G*O*U *E*I*T*E*A*I*O*S *F*I*L*I*N*W *Q*O*U*K*R*I*T*O*U *F*L*Y*E*W*S, naming a person from Eiteia (probably the seated woman) and Filino, daughter of Thoukritos, of Phlye.

Inscription Bibliography: IG II.2, 6012

Collection History: Karouzou reports that the relief was brought to the National Museum in 1889. Vierneisel-Schlörb has recently suggested that the architrave, and attached inscription, do not belong to this relief

Sources Used: Clairmont 1993, 4.104-105, cat. 4.431 (ill.); Karouzou 1968, 115-16

Other Bibliography: Vierneisel-Schlörb 1988, 42, n. 11, 53; Woodford 1986, 158, fig. 232; Vedder 1985, 38; Kokula 1984, 47; Lygkopoulos 1983, 52, no. 30; Fleischer 1983b, 36, with C 3, pl. 32; S. Karouzou, AM 96 (1981) 197 f.; Karouzou 1981, 87, pl. 106a-c; Schmaltz 1970, 59, 100; Frel 1969, no. 264; Braun 1966, 58, n. 2; Kabus-Jahn 1963, 13; Diepolder 1931, 50; Conze 1893-1922, no. 337, pl. 85; C. Waldstein, AJA 7 (1891) 17, pl. 2.