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.