SEPULCHRAL RELIEFS.
The Greek sepulchral reliefs are of several distinct types, each type having an independent origin and history, though occasionally the different types are blended one with another.
The early Attic examples which are assigned to a period before the Persian wars, have recently been collected by Conze (Die Attischen Grabreliefs, Part 1), and we are thus enabled to trace the rise of the different types in Attica, so far as the materials discovered allow. The earliest and simplest form of monument is the plain stone (στήλη), set up on a mound (τύμβος) to mark the place of the grave, and such a tomb is well known to Homer (Il. xi., 371, etc.)
Such a stone would naturally bear the name of the deceased, together with the name of his father, or of the persons who erected the monument. The earliest Attic examples are also surmounted by a simple ornament, especially the palmette between volutes, partly in relief, and partly in colour. The treatment of the palmette closely resembles that of the antefixal ornament of the Parthenon (No. 352). At an uncertain period in the fifth century the use of the acanthus-leaf ornament was introduced, and the decoration of the stelae became elaborate and beautiful. It has been thought that the acanthus was developed by the Greeks of Ionia, before the middle of the fifth century, and only made its way slowly in Athens (Furtwaengler, Coll. Sabouroff, i., p. 8), but it cannot be proved to have become common before it had been made familiar by the architecture of the Erechtheion, towards the close of the fifth century. The early Corinthian capital of the single column of the Temple at Phigaleia appears to be copied from a stelè with volutes and an acanthus.
The smooth surface of the stone below the crowning ornament was used, from an early time, to receive a representation of the deceased person, which was either painted or in relief, the relief being itself painted. Such portraits, in the case of men—and only men's portraits are certainly known to be preserved of the archaic period—take the form either of a simple standing figure, or of a figure engaged in some occupation taken from life. See the figures of the Discobolos and of the spear-thrower (Conze, pls. 5, 7), and as an example of the painted portrait see the stelè of Lyseas (Conze, pl. 1). The male portrait is often accompanied by a small figure of a youth riding or leading a horse. On a class of monuments described below (Nos. 750-757) it is not impossible that the figure of the horse may have some special reference to death, but in the early Attic reliefs it seems more likely that the horse indicates the favourite pursuits or the knightly rank of the dead person. Compare Roscher, Lexicon, p. 2584, and Aristotle, Constitution of Athens, chap. 7, ed. Kenyon, where the horse standing beside an archaic figure of Anthemion, son of Diphilos (Class. Rev. 1891, p. 108), is said to prove his knighthood (ἱππάς). (Cf. Journ. of Hellen. Studies, v. p. 114; Conze, p. 4; Nos. 1, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19.)
The female figures, of which only uncertain specimens survive, were simple portraits, usually seated, and sometimes accompanied by other members of the family, usually represented on a diminutive scale. (Cf. Conze, No. 20.)
In one early Attic example there is an actual representation of mourners as on Etruscan or Lycian tombs. But in general, allusions to death and mourning are but slightly indicated. (Cf. Conze, No. 19, pl. 11.)
Finally, there is a type of monument, which contains the representation of some animal more or less associated with the grave, such as the cock (Conze, No. 22, pl. 13) or the Sphinx (Conze, No. 16, pl. 10, fig. 1b).