Hellenistic

Limestone pediment from a funerary stele (shaft)

In the center two women stand tearing their hair in mourning. They are flanked by lions and diminutive figures that may represent a Master of the Animals, known in Near Eastern art, or else the Egyptian god Bes. An inscription on the lower edge reads: "I am Aristokretes, my brothers set [this] down in memory of good deeds that I once did well." WebPub GR 2012 Cesnola: 13 1/2 × 48 × 5 1/2 in., 129 lb. (34.3 × 121.9 cm)

Date

299 - 100 BC

Accession No.

74.51.2317

Collection

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Provenance

Said to be from the necropolis of Golgoi, Cyprus

References

Hall, Isaac H. 1874. "Cypriote Inscriptions of the Di Cesnola Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art." Journal of the American Oriental Society, 10: nos. 16, 31, p. 211, 215, pls. IV, VIII.Cesnola, Luigi Palma di. 1885. A Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Vol. 1. pl. LXXXV.563, Boston: James R. Osgood and Company.Cesnola, Luigi Palma di. 1903. A Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Vol. 3. pl. CXXXVII, Boston: James R. Osgood and Company.Myres, John L. 1914. Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus. no. 1857, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Masson, Olivier. 1961. Les Inscriptions Chypriotes Syllabiques: Recueil Critique et Commenté. no. 261, pl. XLVI.1, Paris: E. de Boccard.Masson, Olivier. 1971. "Kypriaka IX: Recherches sur les antiquités de Golgoi." Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, 95(1): p. 316, fig. 6.Karageorghis, Vassos, Joan Mertens, and Marice E. Rose. 2000. Ancient Art from Cyprus: The Cesnola Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 350, p. 220, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Hermary, Antoine and Joan R. Mertens. 2013. The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art : Stone Sculpture. no. 482, pp. 346-47, Online Publication, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.