Grave relief of Silenis
The grave relief of Silenis is a classic Attic work of art from the middle of the 4th century BC. It is exhibited today in the Altes Museum and belongs to the Berlin Collection of Antiquities . A plaster cast is in the Academic Art Museum in Bonn.
The relief found in the attic is framed by a naiskos that is flatter than the figures. In front of the ante of naiskos stands the young deceased on the right, and on the left a little girl who is identified with her short hair and gesture as a servant. The roof is marked by a brick edge. On the roof, in the place of the usual acroterion, there was a relief depicting a siren striking his head and chest in mourning gestures. On the right edge of the roof stood a sphinx , on the left a Loutrophoros . The lowest part of the relief has broken away.
All three roof figures are closely related to the grave cult, sirens and lutrophores were generally only depicted on young deceased women who were still unmarried. The lutrophore symbolizes the never-ending wedding, as the vessel played a role in the ritual premarital ablution. The child servant also supports the assumption that the deceased was a very young woman. The name of the deceased is carved on the narrow architrave bar: Σιληνὶς Μυίσκου Βοιωτία. Silenis came from Boeotia and was not a citizen of Athens . Silenis wears a high belted chiton with a long flap and cross straps across the chest. With her left hand she holds her falling cloak, with her right she reaches into a box that her servant is holding out to her and takes out a bandage or a veil to hold her long hair that falls over her back. But the absent gaze of Silenis, who is now preparing to become the bride of Hades, makes this activity no longer seem important. Death tore the girl from life, what followed was no longer important.
literature
- Max Kunze : Grave relief of Silenis , in: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Prussian cultural property. Antikensammlung (Ed.): The Antikensammlung in the Pergamon Museum and in Charlottenburg . von Zabern, Mainz 1992, p. 113f. ISBN 3-8053-1187-7
Individual evidence
- ↑ Inventory number Berlin SK 1492 (K40)
- ^ Grave relief of Silenis (Collection of Antiquities at the University of Bonn) in the Arachne archaeological database
Coordinates: 52 ° 31 '15 " N , 13 ° 23' 47" E