DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14547#0039
VI.
Let us return to the parting of the ways to Eleusis and Pi-
raeus, in front of the Tritopatreion. By 450 B. C, the great
funeral mounds must have been studded with tombstones.
The graves to which they belonged were embedded in the low-
er reaches of the barrows. One of them, a marble sarcopha- Plate
gus, contained a curious group of terracottas, made shortly 24a
before 450: a female bust and four separate arms with the
fingers spread out in what seems to be a magic gesture. They
are apparently charms to protect the dead. A neighboring
grave contained the elaborate furniture of a limestone sar-
cophagus described above (P. 21). And both were enclosed Plate
within a family lot established about 400 B. C. This is a vast 27
rectangular structure of sun-dried brick, with a southern front
of fine poros blocks. To secure sufficient space for their
new monument, its builders cut ruthlessly into two neighbor-
ing tumuli. After the soil from what remained of these had
been washed down into the great new enclosure for a couple of
generations, raising its surface by several feet, a marble al-
tarlike tombstone was placed on top, around 350 B. C. It bears
the name of Hipparete, granddaughter of Alcibiades, the
brilliant and ill-starred Athenian politician of the late fifth
century. It is tempting and plausible to recognize his grave in
the rich burial with the great bronze bowl, Plate 24b.
The scanty series of funeral stelce datable from about
480 to 420 B. C. shows a predilection for a broader and shorter
type, differing essentially from the tall, narrow, tapering slabs
of the sixth century. This was a fruitful change; it led, to-
wards the end of the fifth century, to the wonderful renascence
which distinguished Attic funeral reliefs for three genera-
tions. The Oberlaender excavations have produced two out-
standing specimens of the initial stage of this splendid devel-
opment.
Let us return to the parting of the ways to Eleusis and Pi-
raeus, in front of the Tritopatreion. By 450 B. C, the great
funeral mounds must have been studded with tombstones.
The graves to which they belonged were embedded in the low-
er reaches of the barrows. One of them, a marble sarcopha- Plate
gus, contained a curious group of terracottas, made shortly 24a
before 450: a female bust and four separate arms with the
fingers spread out in what seems to be a magic gesture. They
are apparently charms to protect the dead. A neighboring
grave contained the elaborate furniture of a limestone sar-
cophagus described above (P. 21). And both were enclosed Plate
within a family lot established about 400 B. C. This is a vast 27
rectangular structure of sun-dried brick, with a southern front
of fine poros blocks. To secure sufficient space for their
new monument, its builders cut ruthlessly into two neighbor-
ing tumuli. After the soil from what remained of these had
been washed down into the great new enclosure for a couple of
generations, raising its surface by several feet, a marble al-
tarlike tombstone was placed on top, around 350 B. C. It bears
the name of Hipparete, granddaughter of Alcibiades, the
brilliant and ill-starred Athenian politician of the late fifth
century. It is tempting and plausible to recognize his grave in
the rich burial with the great bronze bowl, Plate 24b.
The scanty series of funeral stelce datable from about
480 to 420 B. C. shows a predilection for a broader and shorter
type, differing essentially from the tall, narrow, tapering slabs
of the sixth century. This was a fruitful change; it led, to-
wards the end of the fifth century, to the wonderful renascence
which distinguished Attic funeral reliefs for three genera-
tions. The Oberlaender excavations have produced two out-
standing specimens of the initial stage of this splendid devel-
opment.