Funeral Stele of Aristomache in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, October 2009

Funeral Stele of Aristomache
Greek, late Classical or early Hellenistic period
About 330-320 BC
Marble

# 66.971

Aristomache, identified here by the inscription above her head, holds a doll-like figure in her right hand. Terracotta figurines were commonly offered as votive at Greek sanctuaries; its inclusion here emphasizes Aristomache's piety. The sorrowful mood is heightened by the figures in the architrave (the ornamental band that frames the rectangular space): a mournful siren (a mythical bird thought to provoke solace) and a seated sphinx , a creature that guarded tombs. Only slight traces of the sphinx remain.

Text from the MFA label.