183-192

The great grieving woman of the Sacred Way

• Καράγιωργα-Σταθακοπούλου,  Θεοδώρα

The relief M 2218 in the Archaeological Collection of Athens (III Ephorate of Antiquities) is the extreme right part of the representation on an imposing funerary naiskos that adorned the cemetery on the north side of the Sacred Way, in the area of the ancient deme of Hermos (modern municipality of Aigaleo). It is one of the last expensive grave monuments before the passing of the law prohibiting them in Attica. Basic stylistic features of the late 4th c. BC can be recognised at once in the cubic structure of the female figure depicted and its concomitant isolation in space, the slender proportions of the body, the degree to which the dress has become independent of the body, and the interest taken in the material existence of the clothes. The combination of the delicate, light himation and the heavy, lavishly draped chiton is an innovation, and the visual character of their sculpture foreshadows Hellenistic practice. This is a work of great artistic value: its sub ject is unique, particularly the way in which the figure and the stance of the aristocratic woman in the representation give expression to her grief and endurance in the face of the finality of separation and the impossibility of reuniting the living with their deceased loved relatives. The distant dead person on whom the grieving woman’s gaze is fixed may possibly have been one of her daughters at her wedding, or another, mature woman, just as majestic as the one depicted. It is not impossible, however, that it was a son, if the naiskos was not of the usual, Doric type but was an Ionic one and had more than two figures in the representation.

• History and Archaeology

• Αρχαιολογία
• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)
• Archaeology and art

Περιέχει εικόνες, Το άρθρο περιέχεται στο τεύχος: Μέρος Α'-Μελέτες