Gardner, Percy: Sculptured tombs of Hellas (London, 1896)

178

FAMILY GROUPS

and child. The likeness of these groups to those of the
sepulchral reliefs is striking.

The question which is the original in art, the domestic
interior or the offering at the tomb, is not an easy one. The
former class of scenes is Ionic, the latter Doric in character.
Both make their appearance on Attic works at about the same
time. It is a case like that of the meeting of two streams,
when it is impossible to say which is the main river and
which the tributary.

FIG. 69. DOMESTIC SCENE.

We have already observed (Chap. VIII) that a not unfre-
quent form of monument at Athens in the later period was
a flat slab (Tpdirega), in which were inserted one or more stone
lekythi adorned with reliefs. The reliefs are in such cases
ordinarily family groups ; and the juxtaposition of several of
these lekythi in museums has demonstrated some facts not
without interest. It appears that sometimes when a family
grave was acquired, and covered with a slab, a pair of marble
vases were inserted in it, the reliefs of both of which comprise