Upper part of a grave stele: seated sphinx (sphinx and capital)

While in Egyptian art the sphinx, a symbol of royal power, was typically a recumbent male lion with a human head, in the Greek conception it was a hybrid creature with a feline body, wings, and a female head. In Classical mythology the sphinx was a nuisance and a predator, but in art she often took on a more beneficent role as a heraldic and protective symbol, especially at temples and tombs. Here the sphinx acts as a tomb guardian, perched atop a capital-like ornament that probably crowned a tall rectangular stele decorated in relief with a figure of the deceased and set on an inscribed base. Such monuments were erected in the region around Athens by aristocratic families, often to commemorate youths who met with an early death. For reasons now obscure, most of these grave monuments were destroyed soon after they were made; this fragmentary sculpture has the fresh surface of a work buried not long after its creation. Particularly remarkable is the extensive pre-servation of polychrome painted decoration. Although most stone sculpture was painted in antiquity, colors as vivid as these rarely survive to the present.The lithe body of the sphinx is vibrant with potential motion: her tail curls over her haunches, and her wings rise in stylized curves, echoing the volutes of the ornamental support. Her head, now missing, would have turned to face the viewer, displaying the features of a young woman. The carving is precise and crisp, with the details of the breast feathers, wings, and hair, as well as the geometric and floral motifs on the support, carved in delicate relief and brought out with color: black for the hair; green, black, red, and blue for the feathers; red and black for the designs on the support.