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Museum of Classical Archaeology Databases

Grave Stele of Pollis the Soldier

This gravestone commemorates a Greek foot soldier (hoplite). It shows the typical tall and narrow shape popular in Archaic times, but the poise of the figure and the foreshortened shield indicate a growing sophistication of carving, especially given the shallow nature of the relief. The inscription uses letters from the alphabets of both Athens and Corinth

Number: 
619
Location of Original: 

Getty Museum, Malibu, USA

Size: 
1.56 x 0.42m
Accession: 

Transferred from the Museum für Abgüsse Klassischer Bildwerke, Munich, 29-30 October 1991

References: 

J Paul Getty Museum: Handbook of the Antiquities Collection, 18

Date: 
c.480 BCE
Inscription: 

I speak, I Pollis, the dear son of Asopichos, not having died a coward with the wounds of the tattooers, yes myself

Provenance: 

Thought to be from Megara. In the Munich Art Market around 1991; in the Getty Museum by 1995

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