377-390

A funerary relief stele from Kalymnos with a depiction of a nursing mother

• Μποσνάκης,  Δημήτρης

The relief scene on a funerary stele from Kalymnos turned over to the authorities presents particular iconographie interest, given that it depicts a three-person composition with a seated nursing mother at its center.The typological analysis is followed by some brief remarks on the later inscription carved on the régula of the stele, where the name of the deceased is written: Philthon (Φίλθον) (from the aspiration of Philton [Φίλτον]).The iconographie analysis of the scene follows, with emphasis on the rare subject of nursing. Two typological parallels on funerary monuments are noted, one earlier (third quarter of the 5th c. BC, from Kondaia in Thessaly) and one Late Hellenistic example (from Kos). The view is expressed that the rarity of the depiction of this subject, which in eastern cultures (Egyptian, Assyrian, Hittite) was popular and entailed direct symbolism connected with rebirth, was owed precisely to this difference in religious beliefs. The concept of rebirth in Greece is found chiefly in the mystery cults, and did not express the prevailing religious sentiment. In cases where the subject is depicted, as on funerary steles, it conveys the widely-held belief that the dead mother could not easily find consolation in her grave. Through his choice of the motif of nursing, the artist appears to have been satisfying the mother’s concern for her young infant in the eyes of her relatives. Iconographie and stylistic comparisons show that this stele, one of only a few funerary steles found on Kalymnos, belongs to the so-called “Attic koine” and dates to around the mid-4th c. BC.

• History and Archaeology
• Arts

• Αρχαιολογία
• Archaeology and art

Ευχάριστοι θερμά τους φίλους Άγγελο Ματθαίο και Klaus Hallof για τις επιγραφικές υποδείξεις τους., Περιέχει εικόνες, συντομογραφίες και βιβλιογραφία, Το άρθρο περιέχεται στο τεύχος: Μέρος Α'-Μελέτες