Stele funerarie di età romana da Tanagra con raffigurazione di personaggi legati alla sfera religiosa

THE FUNERARY STELAI OF ROMAN PERIOD FROM TANAGRA WITH REPRESENTATION OF PERSONS ASSOCIATED TO THE RELIGIOUS SPHERE A great number of funerary stelai, dating from the Hellenistic to the Roman times and bearing relief representations have been found in the area of ancient Boeotia. The author, responsible for the publication of a Corpus of these stelai, presents in this paper six of them from Tanagra, stored in the Schimatari Museum. They are dated to the first and second centuries A.D. The inscriptions do not reveal the social status of the dead, but the funerary iconography reveals their religious beliefs. Neikaro (figs. 1-2) and Stratoneiki (figs. 4-5) are represented in the dress of Isis, Doro (figs. 8-9) and Zoso (fig. 10) as Mainads, while the male (fig. 11) and female figure (fig. 12) on the two other stelai are shown holding in their left hand a caduceus. The deceased wished thus to be preserved for posterity in association with the most important cults of the ancient city of Tanagra: egyptian gods, Dionysos and Hermes. The funerary stelai of Nikaro and Stratoneiki were made in Athens, the rest by local workshops.