IG II(2) 6999: Sepulchral Stele
Modern Publication(s): Strong 1 (editio princeps); IG II(2) 6999; SEG 45.187; Clairmont, CAT 3.369c
Brief description: Funerary stele with three figures.
Scholl (1995b) identifies Epigenes as the poet of Middle comedy, PCV V 165-169 F 1-8. He further suggests that Epigenes is the poet or actor on the uninscribed gravestone Clairmont, CAT 1.400, also in Lyme Park, as CAT 1.400 was ‘probably found in the same place’.
Attributes
Inscription Type: Funerary inscription
Object Type: Stele
Material: Marble
Original Location: Athens
Provenance: Athens, outside the walls, on the road to Thebes (Scholl 1995b).
Date: Initially dated to c.420 BC (Strong); later dated to c.350-340 BC, on the style of the relief sculpture (Scholl 1995b).
Dimensions: “The height from the lower edge of the frame to the akroterion (now broken) is 4ft 10½ in.; the width of the actual stele, across the pilasters is 2ft 10¼ in.; the extreme width of the pediment is 2ft 11¼ ins.” (Strong)
Layout: A single line of text “below the akroterion, along the architrave” (Strong).
Writing: Inscribed.
Condition: The left akroterion is missing, as is the lower left-hand corner of the relief with the legs of the stool. There are minor nicks all over. The faces of all three people – particularly that of the seated Melisto - appear to have been damaged deliberately (Scholl 1995a).
Decoration: “The two principal figures project slightly beyond the framing pilasters. … Melisto, daughter of Hegestratos… sits to the spectator’s left, on a cushioned chair without back, leaning against the pilaster, her sandaled feet resting on a footstool. …She wears the thin Ionic chiton with sleeves, under the thicker sleeveless Doric chiton, and over the whole the ample cloak of himation, one end of which she holds up with the fingers of her left hand. With her right hand she clasps the right of her husband Epigenes, who stands facing her, seen in three quarters by the spectator. He is a bearded personage of mature age; his costume is that of the ordinary Athenian citizen, namely the cloak draped over the left shoulder, leaving right shoulder and breast bare…. His left arm and hand hang quietly at his side. … Behind these two figures, and in much lower relief, stands a third – a female attendant carrying what must be her mistress’s jewel casket. Her head is shown in profile; her hair is cut short and she wears the sleeveless chiton, without any upper garment.” (Strong)
Collection
Location: Lyme Park: above the fireplace recessed into the east wall of the library.
Collector(s): Collected by Mr Thomas Legh “during his stay in Athens in 1812” (Strong).
Date collected: 1812.
Accession or catalogue number: TBC
Bibliography
C. Clairmont, Classical Attic Tombstones (Kilchberg, 1993-95) 3.369c.
A. Scholl, Die antiken Skulpturen in Farnborough Hall sowie in Althorp House, Blenheim Palace, Lyme Park und Penrice Castle (Mainz, 1995a), no. L1.
A. Scholl, ‘Nicht Aristophanes, Sondern Epigenes: das Lyme-Park-Relief und die Darstellung von Dichtern und Schauspielern auf Attischen Grabdenkmälern,’ JDAI 110 (1995b) 213-238.
J. Rothwell, Lyme Park House and Garden (London, 1988) 21-22.
E. Strong, ‘Three sculptured stelai in the possession of Lord Newton at Lyme Park,’ JHS 23 (1903), 356-359, no. 1.
C. C. Vermeule, ‘Notes on a new edition of Michaelis: Ancient Marbles in Great Britain,’ AJA 59 (1955), 129-150, 142.
