Getty Museum

Scarab with Achilles Arming

Date

520–510 B.C.

Medium

Scarab: cornelian; ring: gold

Culture

Etruscan

Department

Jewelry

Institution

Getty Museum

An engraved scarab gem is set on a gold swivel made of two wires, one twisted and one straight, which terminate as discs with lion masks. The scene shows the arming of the Greek hero Achilles (Achle in Etruscan), who stoops at right to fasten on a greave over his shin. He wears a crested Corinthian helmet and a bronze corselet. The undergarment is shown by loops over his thighs and buttocks. Facing him in the center is the god of metalworking, Hephaistos (Sethlans), bearded and bare-headed, holding a pair of spears vertically and a shield with a flying bird blazon. He wears a knee-length tunic. Hephaistos' feet and toes are angled backwards, indicating his lameness. Behind him, Achilles’ mother Thetis (Thethis), who commissioned the god to make her son’s extraordinary armor, advances to the right, raising her right hand in a greeting and resting her left hand on her hip. She wears a chiton, himation, and a head scarf. At the bottom the figures stand on a cross-hatched exergue; the engraved scene is framed by a line and dot border. This gem is attributed to the Master of the Boston Dionysos, named for a gem in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The engraver, who was responsible for a group of eight or so stylistically similar intaglios, is the earliest and most accomplished Etruscan gem-carver. Although none have been found in an archaeological context, stylistically his work dates to the late 6th and early 5th centuries B.C.

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