Tombstone of Sosibios, the hero (Volos Λ237)

Sosibios, a cavalry man, dressed in a chitoniskos (knee-length dress) and a chlamys (cloak) stands frontally, in an open-air setting, holding the reins of a horse. On the right a tree with thick green foliage, from whose trunk a snake coils towards the man. A herm is painted on the lower part of the left pilaster.

The snake (a chthonic symbol) and the characterization of the deceased as a hero in the genitive in the epitaph are typical of later Hellenistic tombstones and reveal the aspiration for a privileged afterlife for the dead.

© HMCS, EFA Magnesias, photos: G. Verri