The Greek Cemetery

Grave Markers

Attic Pentelic Marble Lekythos ca. 375-350 b.c. Attic Pentelic Marble Hydria-Loutrophoros ca. 375-350 b.c.

Left Attic Pentelic Marble Lekythos
ca. 375-350 BC
MS 5709
This inscribed stone piece belongs to a relatively common type of Attic late 5th or 4th century BC grave marker (the foot and upper neck are missing). Such monuments echoed the smaller terracotta vases that played such an important role in the conduct of the actual funeral rites. The girl Melitta, interpreted as the deceased, clasps her father's hand in a gesture of farewell calleddexiosis. Her father, Pythokles, sits on a chair. Kleostrate, either the mother or the sister of Melitta, stands behind him. She gazes pensively at Melitta.
H. 83.0; Dia. 37.0 cm. UM neg. S8-46894. (larger version)
Right Attic Pentelic Marble Hydria-Loutrophoros
ca. 375-350 BC
MS 5710
The shape of this stone grave marker is based on the three-handled terracotta water vessel traditionally used to supply purification water for funerals. The handles are now missing. The vase depicts a couple bidding their young daughter Malthake farewell. A stele of the same Malthake in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art was probably the principal monument set over her grave, leaving our hydria-loutrophoros to serve as her secondary memorial. The grave site was probably the district of Markopoulos in Attica recorded in the epitaph on the Metropolitan's stele.
H. 81.0; Dia. 34.0 cm. UM neg. S8-46897. (larger version)


Religion Death
Banquets Cemetery
The Ancient Greek World Index