DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9187#0203
i6o
ATHENS AND GREECE. PORTRAITS
young girls holding dolls. The specimen engraved (Fig. 63)
is from the tomb of one Aristomache r. Aristomache is about
thirteen or fourteen years old ; the undeveloped breast shows her
not to have attained full womanhood. Her head, gently bent,
is turned towards a little figure, no doubt intended for a terra-
cotta statuette, which she holds in her right hand. This
statuette might perhaps represent a deity; but the comparison
of other reliefs 2, where a doll is certainly represented, makes us
disposed to see one here also. Greek girls were allowed dolls
until they married, when they often dedicated them, with balls
and other girlish toys, to some female deity 3. The presence
of the doll, then, shows that Aristomache has not yet taken
a husband and laid aside infants of terra-cotta for those
of flesh.
Finally, we engrave (Fig. 64) a characteristic figure of
a priestess of Isis 4, from a tomb on which she appears, probably
in company of her parents, but they have been broken away.
In the stiff and formal dress of her calling she advances, bearing
in her hands the sistrum and vase of the goddess who, of all the
deities, was most closely associated with the future life. To her
patronage and protection her priestess trusts for a prosperous
voyage past the dangers of the last voyage, and a happy
resting-place in Hades. The letters of the name, Alexandra,
show that the monument belongs to the Roman age, though
it is by no means wanting in charm.
This figure is characteristic of the late age of Attic reliefs,
but parallels to it at an earlier period are not wanting. For
example, an Athenian tomb of the fourth century 6 shows us
a lady seated, to whom a young girl brings a tympanum or
1 Journ. Hell. Sticd. vi. pi. B.
2 Such as Friedrichs-Wolters Gipsabgiisse, No. 1024: Arch. Zeitung, 1871,
pl- 53-
3 Anthol. Palat. vi. 280. 4 Athens Cat. No. 1196,
6 C. A. G. pl. xxxvii.
ATHENS AND GREECE. PORTRAITS
young girls holding dolls. The specimen engraved (Fig. 63)
is from the tomb of one Aristomache r. Aristomache is about
thirteen or fourteen years old ; the undeveloped breast shows her
not to have attained full womanhood. Her head, gently bent,
is turned towards a little figure, no doubt intended for a terra-
cotta statuette, which she holds in her right hand. This
statuette might perhaps represent a deity; but the comparison
of other reliefs 2, where a doll is certainly represented, makes us
disposed to see one here also. Greek girls were allowed dolls
until they married, when they often dedicated them, with balls
and other girlish toys, to some female deity 3. The presence
of the doll, then, shows that Aristomache has not yet taken
a husband and laid aside infants of terra-cotta for those
of flesh.
Finally, we engrave (Fig. 64) a characteristic figure of
a priestess of Isis 4, from a tomb on which she appears, probably
in company of her parents, but they have been broken away.
In the stiff and formal dress of her calling she advances, bearing
in her hands the sistrum and vase of the goddess who, of all the
deities, was most closely associated with the future life. To her
patronage and protection her priestess trusts for a prosperous
voyage past the dangers of the last voyage, and a happy
resting-place in Hades. The letters of the name, Alexandra,
show that the monument belongs to the Roman age, though
it is by no means wanting in charm.
This figure is characteristic of the late age of Attic reliefs,
but parallels to it at an earlier period are not wanting. For
example, an Athenian tomb of the fourth century 6 shows us
a lady seated, to whom a young girl brings a tympanum or
1 Journ. Hell. Sticd. vi. pi. B.
2 Such as Friedrichs-Wolters Gipsabgiisse, No. 1024: Arch. Zeitung, 1871,
pl- 53-
3 Anthol. Palat. vi. 280. 4 Athens Cat. No. 1196,
6 C. A. G. pl. xxxvii.