Funerary Stele of Xenias

3D Image

by Geoffrey Marchal
published on 15 January 2018

Funerary stele of Xenias, 3rd century BCE. Production of Western Greece, perhaps Palairos, Limestone. Musée du Cinquantenaire (Brussels, Belgium). Made with ReMake and ReCap Pro from AutoDesk.

Stele with two sirens and the inscription Xenias lonos, “Xenias, son of Ion”. The classic type sirens, half woman-half bird, hieratic, one hand raised towards the head as a sign of mourning, are placed on a pedestal or a platform. They hold the ribbons on either side of a tablet on which is inscribed the name of the deceased, Xenias. Below, in more subtle letters, the name of his father lon (genitive, lonos). The faces of the sirens seem to have been deliberately erased. Sirens were used as a funerary symbol since the classical period in Athens.

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