Title
Funerary stele with two figures (dexiosis) (a)
Content
I.D. no: 21221
Dimensions: Max. H. 49 cm; Max. W. 32 cm; Max. Th. 7 cm.
Material: Fine-grain striated greyish-white marble
Provenance: Unknown, probably imported and eventually donated to the Museum Department in the early decades of the 20th century
Current location: National Museum of Archaeology, Reserve Collection
Condition:
Large flat flakes have disfigured the architectural frame of the scene, including most of the triangular pediment and the right section of the arch moulding and its supporting column. Both human figures have lost the details of their facial features while the right figure has part of the chest missing. Virtually all the surfaces of the marble are worn, in parts more than in others. As a result only parts of the Greek inscription on the base of the scene can be deciphered. The slab has a plain surface on the reverse and an extended peg at the bottom for insertion in the ground. Ashby could still see traces of blue paint on the background of the pediment.
Description:
The scene, cut in low relief, is set within an architectural feature originally consisting of two pilasters (or columns) with their respective capitals supporting a semi-circular arch and a triangular pediment above it. Two human figures occupy the scene. The female figure on the left sits in profile on a draped and cushioned stool (diphros) with her feet resting on a low footstool. She wears a chiton and a himation which also serves to cover her head. She extends her right hand to hold that of another figure (probably a lady) standing frontally on the right, also draped in chiton and himation which covers its head.
Discussion:
The scene is a familiar one, the farewell gesture of holding hands between two persons, the dexiosis.[1] Here it acquires a personalised trait from the inscription, now very worn, incised in three lines on the left side of the lower panel, beneath the seated figure. The typology of the stele and the inscription qualify this relief as a funerary one. The iconography of the scene in this and in the following stele (ID no 21222) narrows our focus down to the dexiosis between a seated woman and a standing human figure (either male or female). Numerous stelae of this type, in considerably reduced sizes, have been retrieved from the Cycladic islands, mostly the small island of Rhenea next to Delos, whose characteristics of both iconography and style, as well as the lettering of their inscriptions date them to their maximal period of production from 167/166 to 69 BC.[2]
The corpus of funerary stele from Rhenea published by Couilloud[3] offers close similarities between them and our stele in the shape of the object,[4] the form of the framing niche with pilasters and arch,[5] the motif of the dexiosis between a seated person and a standing one,[6] as well as the peculiar iconographic details of the furniture and the drapery.[7] In the majority of cases the represented dexiosisis between figures of different sexes; sometimes between two males; in only a few stelae it takes place between two women, as in our example.[8]
The inscription is very worn and has not been satisfactorily deciphered. As noted by Ashby,[9] it seems to carry formulas frequently used in similar funerary inscriptions, such as the name of the departed person and their patronymic, accompanied by the Greek epithet chreste (“good”) and greeting chaire (“farewell”). The location of the inscription on the left side suggests that the departed is the seated lady on the left.
Bibliography: (previous publications of item):
Ashby 1915: 78-79, no 21(reads parts of the Greek inscription); Zammit 1931: 15: in his description of the contents of the ground floor of the old Valletta Museum, he merely states “a few Greek sepulchral slabs stand at the further end of the bench”; Bonanno 1971: 104-07, no 21.
[1] The literature on the dexiosis theme is vast and varied. Here I am embracing its funerary interpretation of expression of sorrow for the demise of a relative or a close friend since it is safe to assume the cemeterial provenance of this and the other stele with the same subject (ID no 21222). A number of variations on the theme are discussed in Johansen 1951: 33-40, 44-48, 155-56 and figs 16-20, 23-25, 79. This and other prior bibliography, albeit limited to Attica in the Classical age, in Clairmont 1993-1995; Estrin 2023.
[2] Staïs 1910: 197-216, nos 1248, 1256-57, 1293-94, 1313, 1317; Klaffenbach 1964.
[3] Couilloud 1974. To this fundamental work, one should add the stelae published later by Galliazzo 1976: 62-64, 78-80 and others published later by herself under the same name (Couilloud 1975) and under her new name (Le Dinahet 2019).
[4] See, for example, Couilloud 1974: nos. 1, 3, 6, 9, 10 14, 17, 22, 23, 25.
[5] Couilloud 1974: nos 3, 5, 6, 10, 11, 22, 23, 24, 27, 32, 36.
[6] Couilloud 1974: nos 1-92. But the dexiosis motif had a much wider diffusion in the cosmopolitan Hellenistic world, even beyond the Aegean and similar expressions of the motif occur as far south as the main urban centres of Egypt, even if in stone, rather than in marble (e.g. Schmidt 2003: Cat. nos 12, 13, 29).
[7] To cite a few examples, Couilloud 1974: nos. 3, 5, 6, 8, 14, 22, 25, 46.
[8] Couilloud 1974: 54, nos 34, 35. Moreover, nos 65, 66, 78, 83 have also figures of servants, represented in miniature size, that do not appear in the two Maltese versions.
[9] Ashby 1915: 78-79. For the inscription see also Klaffenbach 1964: passim.