This stele, or marker stone, is carved in low relief and shows the deceased young man in profile. He is named in the inscription at the bottom as Aristion. His armour suggests that he was a heavy-infantryman or hoplite.
Hoplites were the ordinary soldiers in Greek armies. Aristion has all the equipment of the hoplite except the round shield and bronze helmet: protective shin guards, called greaves, on his legs, protective body armour, and a spear, as well as the felt skull-cap to cushion the helmet. Hoplites had to provide all their equipment and armour themselves when they were required to fight for their city-state
Athens National museum 29
Presented by Oscar Browning to the Fitzwilliam in October 1876. Transferred to the Museum in 1884
Lippold: Griechische Plastik, 84 (n.6), pl. 27.2
Johansen: the Attic Grave Reliefs of the Classical Period (1951), fig.52
Richter: Archaic Attic Gravestones (1934), 99, fig.93
Walston: Catalogue of Casts in the Museum of Classical Archaeology (1889), 16, no.43
Reporter: 19 June 1885, 891, no.37
Stewart: Greek Sculpture, pls. 145-6
Inscription: IG I(3), 1256
The work of Aristokles
Of Aristion
Found at Velanideza near Marathon in Attica
