elingregory | Chance finds

Throwing this open to discussion :D

I was poking around a museum ethics list today and came on a website about looting. That was interesting enough but one of the looted items and its description really caught my eye. They had pieced two separate fragments from two separate collections and come up with an almost whole object. It is listed as a 4th century BC grave stele made somewhere in Attica and showing a family group of father, mother and youth. Once I had a good look at it I thought "Oh no it isn't". Have a look and see what you think [clicking should make it bigger in a new window if I did the html properly]:

I know what I think about it - I think what we're being shown is the start of an officially-sanctioned-by-family erastes eromenos relationship. The figure to our right that they say is a woman is clearly bare chested under a himation which makes it male. His hand is on the young man's shoulder implying possession of some kind but there also appears to be some folds of cloth. A proud father holding a discarded chiton? Possibly a trainer - the youth is carrying a scraper and oil bottle for after his exercise and with those muscles he's bound to be an athlete. He's also holding a leveret - a common gift to a lad by a hopeful suitor - and his dog is showing a good deal of interest in it. The soldier's right hand is empty - possibly having just given the hare to the youth - but his left is holding a spear and supporting the big circular shield of the hoplite infantryman. The central figure, a beautiful nude youth has his head modestly tilted but seems very confident that he is the centre of attention.

Most interesting of all, the soldier and the youth have names - Menon and Kleobolos. There would probably have been another name over the other figure but sadly that part of the slab is missing.

I'm sighing her. I think that's probably the most beautiful thing I've seen today.