Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (5.1886-1890)

DISCOVEEIES IX THE ATTIC DEME OF IRAKI A,

1888.

SCULPTURE.
STELE OF A WARRIOR/

[ Plate IX.]

In clearing away the mass of rubbish which had collected in the
interior of the church, the workmen, at a depth of twenty centimeters,
came upon what was apparently a long marble slab, broken into three
pieces, forming the threshold between the narthex and the main body
of the church. Upon turning over one of the three fragments, it was
found to be sculptured ; and, when the other fragments had been care-
fully taken out and fitted to the first, there appeared a relief which
evoked the in voluntary exclamation, ""Warrior of Marathon!" The
material is Pentelic marble. The total height of the slab (of which the
upper extremity is wanting), inclusive of the base or Kpr\ir'i<i, is 1.72
met.; height of icpTyiris alone, 0.1G5 m.; leaving 1.55 m. for the relief
proper. The width of the Kp-qiris is 0.485 m.; width of stele at top,
0.41 m.; showing a diminution of 0.075 m. The thickness of the slab
is 0.12 m.; highest relief, 0.055 m.; lowest relief, 0.01 m.; width of
rim about the relief, 0.01. "Wanting in the figure itself arc : the head
above the neck, the right hand, and pieces of each leg just above the
knee. The small fragment which fits in at the waist is not lost, but
could not be found at the time the photograph was taken. The Kpijiri^
bears four finely cut rosettes, but no inscription.

The resemblance of this stele to the "Warrior of Marathon," or
"Stele of Aristion," as it is more correctly called, now in the Central
Museum at Athens, is very striking ; and for purposes of comparison
a reproduction of this well-known monument is here given.1 The

*1 wish to make acknowledgment of my indebtedness to Dr. Charles Waldstein
for assistance in the preparation of this paper, especially in the detailed archaeo-
logical and artistic comparison between the Ikarian stele and that of Aristion.

1 Kekule, Die antiken Bildwerke im Thcseion at Allien, where are collected the refer-
ences to all reproductions and descriptions up to date (1SC9). Of the colored reprodue-

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