AIUK2 no. 10 Funerary monument. Python of Oinoe and Philte

Funerary monument. Python of Oinoe and Philte

AIUK 2 (BSA) no. 10 Date: c. mid-4th cent. BC

Πύθων Δημοκήδος Ο ἰ ν α ῖ ο ς vac. Φίλτη

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Translated text

References:

AIUK 2 (BSA) no. 10 (Translated text) (AIUK) (AIO)

IG II² 6982 (PHI)

Conze III no. 1582

Clairmont, CAT 2.319b (ph.)

Lambert, BSA Inscriptions E4

Translation by: Stephen Lambert

AIO Images: 1 2

Monument type: Stele

Inscription type: Funerary

Findspot: Athens, Odos Phidiou, next to German Institute (BSA E4)

Transliterations on Places on

[1] This funerary monument belongs in a pair with IG II² 12221, as can be seen to good effect in their current position either side of the fireplace in the entrance hall to the British School at Athens. The anthemia (flowery decoration at the top) are of broadly similar design and the lettering is so similar that we may probably infer that the cutter was identical. The stelai were also found together in central Athens. Almost certainly, therefore, they are contemporary or near contemporary products of the same workshop, albeit that on IG II² 12221 the persons named are depicted in relief, while on this one they were originally shown in paint, which has since worn away (for a study of some other painted Attic funerary monuments of this period see R. Posamentir, Bemalte attische Grabstelen klassischer Zeit, 2006). The two stelai may well derive from the same funerary enclosure (peribolos), in which the stelai probably formed part of an ensemble of family monuments of different types.

The man’s nomenclature, as was usual, included both father’s name and demotic, marking him as an Athenian citizen (we do not know whether his deme was the Oinoe in north-east Attica in Aiantis or in north-west Attica in Hippothontis. He may also have had a residence in the city). All three women, not unusually, are designated by names alone. The persons named may all have belonged to the same family, though their names give no hint of this. None of them can be identified with or as related to anyone attested elsewhere. Most likely they belonged to the more or less affluent citizen “middle class” typically represented on this type of funerary monument (cf. D. Marchiandi, I periboli funerari nell’ Attica classica: lo specchio di una “borghesia”, 2011).

These two monuments probably date from around the mid-4th century. They are typical of the figurative types of funerary monument that were characteristic of Athens from the late 5th century until Demetrios of Phaleron’s funerary legislation, under which figurative monuments disappeared, to be replaced mostly by simple undecorated columnar grave markers (columellae) inscribed with the name of the deceased. Figurative monuments re-emerged at the end of the 1st century BC, and are studied by von Moock. There are several examples in the BSA dating to this later period: the classicizing SEG 50.254; IG II² 9691; IG II² 7713. The relief on IG II² 12221 depicts a scene in which a standing Myttope shakes hands with a seated Myrrhine (dexiosis). Dexiosis is portrayed in around half of all classical stelai depicting multiple figures, and was a signifier of human intimacy, usually within the family (oikos), rather than specifically of greeting or farewell, as is the gesture of unveiling, anakalypsis, which Myttope also performs (Scholl, 164-167, 169-170). Sometimes it is apparent which of those named and/or depicted on a funerary monument is the deceased, but in a case such as this it is impossible to tell with confidence and may in a sense have been beside the point, which seems to have been to project an ideal of harmonious family relations, including both the living and the dead. It is similarly impossible to pin down the relationship between the two women named on IG II² 12221. Comparison of apparent ages in the images is not necessarily a reliable indicator, as to an extent relief sculpture was clearly bought “off the peg” rather than bespoke to order and the apparent ages of the figures in the reliefs may not reflect life; but to judge by appearances the women seem to be of similar age and might perhaps have been sisters. Probably the man and woman on this stele represent husband and wife, though in this case we can not tell how they were represented in the painting that will originally have filled the space under their names, or which of them was deceased at the time the monument was initially commissioned. For further discussion of private Attic funerary monuments, see AIUK 3 (Cambridge), section 3. For more detail on this monument see AIUK 2 (BSA) no. 10.

Added: 30 Apr 2018
Updated: 13 Jun 2024
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