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A Lydian Funerary Banquet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Nancy Hirschland Ramage
Nancy Hirschland Ramage
Affiliation:
Cornell University
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Extract

The funerary banquet, a frequent theme in ancient sculpture and painting, has been thoroughly studied in recent years. The addition to the corpus of a newly discovered grave stele from Sardis (Pl. XIIIa) is of particular interest because it is a demonstrably local piece of work, with a Lydian inscription carved above a figured relief.

The piece was found in the summer of 1977 by villagers and was reportedly discovered in the east bank of the Pactolus river bed, to the south of the area “Pactolus Cliff”. The slab, which is of local whitish marble, tapers slightly toward the top. Its height is 0·41 m., its width at the bottom is 0·30 m., and its approximate original width at the top was 0·26 m. There is no border at the edge of the stone, but a small ledge protrudes at the bottom of the relief stone. The back has been left rough and unfinished.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anatolian Studies , Volume 29 , December 1979 , pp. 91 - 95
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute at Ankara 1979

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References

1 Dentzer, J. M., “Reliefs au ‘banquet’ dans l'Asie Mineure du Ve siècle avant J.-C.”, RArch. (1969) fasc. 2, pp. 195–224Google Scholar; Dentzer, J. M., “Aux Origines de l'iconographie du banquet couché”, RArch (1971) pp. 215–258Google Scholar; Thönges-Stringaris, R. N., “Das griechische Totenmahl”, Ath. Mitt. LXXX (1965) pp. 1–99Google Scholar; Akurgal, E., “Griechisch-Persische Reliefs aus Daskyleion”, Iranica Antiqua VI (1966), pp. 147–156Google Scholar; Dolunay, N., Istanbul Arkeoloji Müzeleri Yillıgı XIII–XIV (1966) pp. 97 ff.Google Scholar; Borchhardt, J., “Epichorische, Gräko-Persisch beeinflusste Reliefs in Kilikien”, Ist. Mitt. XVIII (1968) pp. 161–211Google Scholar (complete bibliography to 1968 on pp. 162–163); Hanfmann, G. M. A., “The new stelae from Daskyleion”, BASOR CLXXXIV (1966) pp. 7–13Google Scholar; Möbius, H., “Zu den Stelen von Daskyleion”, AA (1971) pp. 442–455Google Scholar; Fehr, B., Orientalische und griechische Gelage (Bonn 1971Google Scholar); Hanfmann, G. M. A., “A pediment of the Persian era from Sardis”, Mélanges Mansel (Ankara 1974) pp. 289–302Google Scholar; Akurgal, E., “Zur Datierung der Grabstelen aus Daskyleion”, Mélanges Mansel (Ankara 1974) pp. 967–970Google Scholar.

2 Sardis inventory numbers: No Ex 77.15; IN 77.8. I wish to thank C. H. Greenewalt, jr. for the opportunity to publish this piece. Notice of its discovery has appeared previously in Greenewalt, C. H. jr, “Sardis, 1977”, TAD, 1978Google Scholar; idem, “The 20th campaign at Sardis (1977)”, BASOR 232; and Mellink, M. J., “Archaeology in Asia Minor”, AJA LXXXII (1978), 329–330Google Scholar, fig. 9.

3 Gusmani, R., “Lydische Epigraphik”, Kadmos XVIII. 1 (1979), pp. 76–79Google Scholar.

4 Ca. W 150–250/S 650 on the Sardis grid. See G. M. Hanfmann, A. and Waldbaum, Jane C., A Survey of Sardis and the Major Monuments Outside the City Walls (Report 1) (Cambridge, Mass. 1975) fig. 1Google Scholar.

5 Other dimensions: thickness of slab at top: 0·08 m.; at bottom: 0·12 m.

6 For two pillows, cf. the funeral banquet scene on a stele from Daskyleion, Dentzer, J. M., RArch. (1969) fig. 2Google Scholar; Akurgal, E., IrAnt VI (1966) pl. XXXVI, XXXVIIGoogle Scholar; Pfühl, E., Möbius, H., Die ostgriechischen Grabreliefs (Mainz 1977) no. 4, pl. 2Google Scholar; and see also the Satrap Sarcophagus, Kleeman, I., Der Satrapen-Sarkophag aus Sidon (Ist. Forsch. XX) (Berlin 1958) pl. 1bGoogle Scholar; pl. 13–17; for a folded cushion, cf. a pediment from Sardis, Hanfmann, G. M. A. and Ramage, N. H., Sculpture from Sardis (Report 2) (Cambridge, Mass. 1978) no. 18, fig. 72, p. 56 fGoogle Scholar. with other references. Since there is apparently no missing portion at the edge of the stone, the sculptor seems to have intended to show two separate pillows.

7 Cf. Thönges-Stringaris, R. N., Ath. Mitt. LXXX (1965) pl. 16.1Google Scholar.

8 Although the more common arrangement is for the mantle to go over the head of the lady, there is not the slightest trace here of a potentially missing portion of drapery falling from her head to her left hand.

9 Dentzer, J. M., RArch. (1969) p. 204Google Scholar.

10 The profile view, and placement at the left edge, pressed up against the kliné, is exactly paralleled by the servant in the funeral banquet scene on the stele from Daskyleion (for references see above, fn. 1 and 6).

11 For similar mantle, see Hanfmann and Ramage (above, fn. 6) no. 233, p. 157, fig. 403 and references therein.

12 Strommenger, E., The Art of Mesopotamia (London 1964) fig. 241Google Scholar; Barnett, R. D. and Lorenzini, A., Assyrian Sculpture in the British Museum (Toronto 1975) pl. 169–70Google Scholar. See Dentzer, J. M., RArch. (1971) pp. 215–258Google Scholar for an important discussion of the iconography and social implications of the relief.

13 Thönges-Stringaris, R. N.Ath. Mitt. LXXX (1965) p. 16Google Scholar. For an exception in the Attic tradition, cf. the Satrap Sarcophagus (Kleeman, above, fn. 6) where the wife sits on a separate chair at the end of the bed.

14 Akurgal, E., IrAnt VI (1966) p. 153Google Scholar.

15 Friis-Johansen, J., The Attic Grave Reliefs of the Classical Period (Copenhagen 1951) passimGoogle Scholar.

16 G. M. A. Hanfmann pointed out the similarity of pose to Asklepios and Penelope. For relation to Asklepios, cf. Hausmann, U., Kunst und Heiligtum: Untersuchungen zu den griechischen Asklepios Reliefs (Potsdam 1948) pp. 111 ff.Google Scholar; Lippold, G., “Heilende Schlange” Studies Presented to D. M. Robinson I (St. Louis 1951) pp. 648 ffGoogle Scholar. For Penelope type, see Robertson, M., A History of Greek Art (Cambridge 1975) p. 209 fGoogle Scholar. and bibliography, p. 651 f. For relationship of the pose of the reclining banqueter to that of river gods see Gais, R. M., “Some problems of river-god iconography”, AJA LXXXII (1978), 362 ffGoogle Scholar.

17 Hanfmann and Ramage (above, fn. 6) no. 7, panel B, p. 46. fig. 34, and Hanfmann, , Croesus to Constantine (Ann Arbor 1975) fig. 24Google Scholar.

18 See above, fn. 12.

19 Tilia, Ann Britt, Restorations at Persepolis and other sites of Fars (Rome 1972), figs. 3, 6 ff., 18Google Scholar.

20 Akurgal (above, fn. 14) thought that the lady seated on the bed of the Daskyleion funeral banquet scene (ibid. pl. XXXVI, XXXVII) was holding such a flower in her left hand, but Dentzer., (RArch. (1969) p. 203Google Scholar) rightly points out that she holds a cup.

21 Smith, A. H., A Catalogue of Greek Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities (London 1900) 31Google Scholar; Lethaby, W. R., “The Nereid monument reexamined”, JHS 35 (1915) pp. 217–218CrossRefGoogle Scholar. This type of flower also had been adopted for sculpture and vase-painting in mainland Greece in the 6th century: cf. the Laconian relief in Berlin, Friis-Johansen (above, fn. 15) fig. 35; and cf. a vase by the Andokides Painter, Arias, P., Hirmer, M., Shefton, B. B., A History of Greek Vase Painting (London 1961) fig. 86Google Scholar.

22 Kyrieleis, H., Throne und Klinen (JdAI Ergänzungsheft XXIV) (Berlin 1969) p. 33, fig. 7Google Scholar; pl. I.

23 Ibid., pl. 7.3 (Urartean); pl. 8.2, pl. 9.1–3 (Persian). Kyrieleis' discussion of the type is on pp. 84–91.

24 Cf. an earlier relief from Ödemiş (near the Lydian town of Hypaepa), where the kliné, also covered by a cloth, has the same bulge at the top of the legs: Dentzer, J. M., RArch. (1969) fig. 1Google Scholar; Akurgal, E., IrAnt VI (1966) pl. XXXIX.3Google Scholar; Möbius, H., AA (1971) fig. 5aGoogle Scholar; E. Pfühl and H. Möbius (above, fn. 6) no. 6, pl. 2.

25 Hanfmann, G. M. A., Mélanges Mansel (above, fn. 1) pp. 289–302Google Scholar; Hanfmann and Ramage (above, fn. 6) no. 18, fig. 72–74, p. 56 f. with other references.

26 For Persepolis reliefs: Amandry, P., “Toreutique achémenide”, Antike Kunst II (1959) pl. 20.1, 20.2Google Scholar; for bronze examples, ibid., pl. 20.3, 23.1.

27 Porada, E., The Art of Ancient Iran: PreIslamic Cultures (New York 1965) pl. 49, p. 166Google Scholar; Amandry, op. cit., pl. 24–25; he suggests that one of the rhyta on the Persian relief (his pl. 20.1) may also be round-bottomed.

28 See above, fn. 6 and 25. The similarity of our stele to the Daskyleion stele may be explained by a Persian influence common to both, and by the fact that Daskyleion seems to have been a Lydian administrative centre before it became Persian. For similarities in earlier sculpture, see Hanfmann and Ramage (above, fn. 6) pp. 19, 25.

29 Similarly awkward passages appear in Etruscan scenes: cf. De Marinis, S., La tipologia del banchetto nell'arte etrusca archaica (Rome 1961Google Scholar).

30 Gusmani, R., “Lydische Epigraphik”, Kadmos XVIII. 1 (1979), pp. 76–79Google Scholar.

31 See above, fn. 25.

32 Hanfmann and Ramage (above, fn. 6) no. 234, pp. 157–158, fig. 404 and refs. therein. Add also Pfühl and Möbius (fn. 6) no. 76, pl. 19.

33 Hanfmann and Ramage, no. 234 bis, p. 158.