Smith, Arthur H. [Editor]; British Museum <London> / Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities [Editor]: Catalogue of sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities (Band 1) (London, 1892)

THE SEPULCHRAL BANQUET.

333

bably his wife. She holds her veil with her left hand.
Behind the woman stands Hermes Psychopompos, about
to conduct her shade to Hades. He has petasos, talaria,
chlamys and caduceus. On the right is another male
figure standing, with folded hands, and beyond is what
appears to be an altar. The altar is rectangular, and is
surmounted by a conical object, round which a serpent is
twined. By the side of the altar is the mutilated figure
of a boy. On the extreme left behind Hermes is a sun-
dial, to which his hand is pointing. At the side of the
chair stands a draped female attendant of diminutive
stature. This figure is much defaced, and the lower part
is broken away. The head of this figure has been broken
off, and the faces and general surface of all the figures are
much eaten away by exposure to weather. This relief
occupies about a third of the circle of the pedestal, the
remainder being ornamented by festoons of ivy suspended
between three bulls' heads. In the centre of the top of
the pedestal is a round hole, as if to receive a dowel, and
the surface of the marble seems prepared for a joint. The
whole may have served as a pedestal for a statue.—Ob-
tained from Greece by the fourth Earl of Aberdeen, and
presented by the fifth Earl of Aberdeen, 1861.

Greek marble ; height, 3 feet 7 inches ; diameter, 2 feet 9 inches
Guide to Graeco-Boman Sculptures, Part II., No. 75.

RELIEFS REPRESENTING THE SEPUL-
CHRAL BANQUET.

For a discussion of the interpretation of this class of
reliefs, see above, p. 298.

Cast of a sepulchral relief, sometimes known as the
" Death of Socrates." A man, bearded, reclines on a
couch, with a bowl in his right hand, held out as if to