La tomba 10 della necropoli nord-orientale di Tebe

A child tile-grave (t. 10) found in the recently discovered northeastern cemetery of Thebes (1999-2001) suggests the complex relationship between the offering of terracotta figures within burials and their semantic value. Except of the terracotta figurines, the grave offerings of this early Hellenistic grave include a few vases, small bronzes, including a strigil and a large bone astragalus. The figurines are the product of the same workshop. The subjects include theatrical characters (three masks based characters of the Middle and New Comedy and an actor with the typical phallic dress of the Ancient Comedy), and various figurines of naked male children with various attributes such as the diptych and the stylus. This association confirms the important role played by social and religious drama in the Greek culture and in the paideia of the children as shown by the ancient literary sources.