AIUK12 no. 1 Funerary stele of Pantakles

Funerary stele of Pantakles

AIUK 12 (Great North Museum: Hancock) no. 1 Date: ca. 375-325 BC

Pantakles

Greek text

References:

AIUK 12 (Great North Museum: Hancock) no. 1 (Translated text) (AIUK) (AIO)

Translation by: Peter Liddel, Polly Low

AIO Images: 1 2 3

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Funerary

Findspot: Unknown (Attica?) (Great North Museum: Hancock Shefton 641)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This funerary monument ("stele") commemorates a man named Pantakles. Above the inscription a sunken panel contains the figure of a mourning siren. In ancient Greece, sirens were closely associated with mourning, and they were commonly depicted on Athenian funerary monuments when the deceased had suffered an unnatural or untimely death, particularly unmarried women and youths; our Pantakles may fall into the latter category. A further aspect of this stele verifies the youthful nature of the deceased: beneath the inscription there is a representation in relief of a loutrophoros, the upper part of which is preserved. In life this type of vessel was used in wedding ritual and on a funerary monument it signified that the deceased had died unmarried. The stele can be dated by the style of its sculpture and lettering to ca. 375-325 BC. For a fuller analysis of this monument see its first edition, AIUK 12 (Great North Museum: Hancock), no. 1. For further discussion of private Attic funerary monuments, see AIUK 3 (Cambridge), section 3, with video.

Added: 9 Apr 2020
Updated: 9 Apr 2020
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ID: AIO_1981