Getty Museum

Box with Relief-decorated Lid

Date

350–310 B.C.

Medium

Bronze

Culture

Greek

Department

Implements

Institution

Getty Museum

With its short plain legs and side rectangles, this box imitates the construction of wooden chests. It may have held jewelry or other small precious items. Two pegs on the front side correspond to two on the edge of the hinged lid, and must have been used for ties to hold the container shut. A separately-made repoussé relief adorns the lid. It depicts an old, bearded Silenus – a half-human, half-animal companion of Dionysus – sitting before a gnarled tree within a rocky landscape. He grasps a thyrsus, a large staff associated with the god of wine, in his right hand.

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