185a-c,f,g).
This grave monument is the most complete example of its type to have survived from the Archaic period. Fragments were acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1911, 1921, 1936, 1938, and 1951. The fragment with the girl's head, here in a plaster copy, was acquired in 1903 by the Berlin Museum; the fragment with the youth's right forearm, also a plaster cast here, is in the National Museum, Athens. The capital and crowning sphinx are plaster casts of the originals, which are in the Metropolitan Museum. Athletics were an important aspect of every boy's education. The youth on the shaft is shown as an athlete. The aryballos suspended from his wrist contained the oil used as a cleanser after exercise. He holds a pomegranate, a fruit associated with both fecundity and death, perhaps indicating that he reached puberty before his death. The girl, presumably a younger sister, holds a flower. This exceptionally lavish monument, which stands more than thirteen feet high, must have been erected by one of the wealthiest aristocratic families. Some scholars have restored the name of the youth in the inscription as Megakles, a name associated with the powerful clan of the Alkmeonidai, who opposed the tyrant Peisistratos during most of the second half of the sixth century B.C. The tombs of aristocratic families were sometimes desecrated and destroyed as a result of that conflict, and this stele may well have been among those pillaged. .
This piece has the column of a Greek style but the figures on the front and the sphinx on the top look very much like Egyptian style. The feet were place on in front of the other in a very rigid position. The sphinx on the top of the column was a mold and the actual piece was in a case next to the column so you could get a better feeling for the details in the face and wings.
4. Terracotta Larnax (chest shaped coffin).
Mid 13th century B.C.
Minoan, Late Minoan.
