• r2-134-10
    Stele of Matis, Manisa 390, overview. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
  • r2-134-20
    Stele of Matis, Manisa 390, detail of relief panel. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)

Stele of Matis

Date
mid-3rd C. BC, Hellenistic
Museum
Manisa, Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum, 390
Museum Inventory No.
390
Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
Manisa 390
Material
Marble, Stone
Object Type
Sculpture
Sculpture Type
Funerary Relief, Human Figure
Inscription Text
		Ματις μέμ μοι τοὔνομ᾿ ἔφυ, πατρὶς δὲ Κελαιναί.
		    Ἀνδρομένης δὲ πόσις τεῦξ᾿ ἔπι σῆμα τόδε,
		ὧι καὶ φιτύσασα λίπον τρεῖς παῖδας ἐν οἴκωι
	4	    θηλυτέρην τε μίαν, τοὺς ἔλιπον φθιμένα.
Inscription Translation
Matis was my name, Kelainai my country. Andromenes my husband prepared for me this monument. I have borne to him and left in my house three sons and one daughter whom I, dying, have left behind.
Inscription Comment
Site
Sardis
Findspot
Found in spring of 1958 by a farmer, ca. one km. W of the modern bridge over the Pactolus River, ca. 20 S of the Izmir-Salihli highway.
Description

The stele is tall and rectangular, tapering slightly toward the top. It is crowned by a pediment with three acroteria, the center one of which bears traces of a palmette; the two at the sides were not carved. On the face of the shaft is a recessed relief panel and a four-line inscription.

At the foot of the shaft is a roughly chiseled piece which would have been inserted into a stone base.

The relief panel shows a seated woman, Matis, at the r., taking something from a box which is held by a small standing girl at the l. Matis is seated on a chair with bull-hoof feet; a pillow-cushion is pressed to the back by her weight. Her feet rest on a footstool with folded lion legs for feet. She wears a cloak which, draped over her head, falls down her l. shoulder and arm. It does not cover the r. shoulder, but falls across her lap, where she clutches it with her l. hand. Underneath she wears a high-belted peplos. Her body is in three-quarter view, the head in profile. The small girl holding the open box at the l. stands up against the l. edge of the relief panel, which is indicated as a pillar with a simple capital. (The corresponding one at the r. was not completed.) Her hair is bound up, and she wears a long, transparent garment.

Although somewhat provincial in execution, and showing a certain awkwardness (such as the way in which Matis and her chair seem to recede in different directions), the stele is rooted in the Attic tradition. Both the style of carving and the inscription point to a date in the mid-3rd C. B.C.

Condition
Local marble. Preserved almost in entirety, although with some minor chipping. Acroterion at r. partly broken, one at l. broken and repaired. Some damage to top of central acroterion. Heavy incrustation on much of stele.
Dimensions
H. 1.56; W. at bottom 0.51, at top 0.49; H. of shaft 1.20; Th. at bottom 0.19, at top 0.17; H. of letters of inscription 0.008-0.015. Recessed relief panel: H. 0.45; W . 0.37; D of recession 0.02.
Comments
For later and cruder examples, cf. Fıratlı, Stèles, nos. 169, 170, p. 25, 107, pls. XLII, XLIII.
See Also
See also: M14, No. 688.
Bibliography
Published: Hanfmann-Polatkan-Robert, Sepulchral Stele, 49ff., pls. 9-10, on which I have drawn for description and stylistic analysis; for the inscription, see ibid., 53ff., pl. 9, fig. 2. Hanfmann, Letters, 48, fig. 29; Hanfmann, Croesus, 59, fig. 121.
Author
NHR