Stele of Staphhilos

[Duncan Head]

Seems I posted this link http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=406277&partId=1&searchText=sculpture before though I have no recollection...

I agree with Peter that this is more likely to be an assemblage of typical weapons than a portrait of one soldier. And the link with the Pontic battles is not certain anyway - Nick Sekunda makes it in the academic version of his Romanized Hellenistic Infantry book, but the BM as linked to by Peter doesn't venture a date, and the carving is said to have been found in Athens or Marathon. It could be part of a commemoration of almost anything.

Tangentially, there is http://www.romanhideout.com/news/2004/kathimerini20041209.asp on the finding of a trophy from the Pontic defeat at Orchomenus. But zooming in on the picture, all I can see is what looks like a sword atop an oval shield, on the fragment in the foreground.

[Patrick Waterson]

Inconclusive, then.  A pity, as a bow+sword+shield combination would explain the battlefield behaviour of the Pontic archers.

[Duncan Head]

Here's another Bosporan with thyreos and bow: the right-hand figure of the three at http://warfare.netau.net/Ancient/Bosporan-Terracotta_statuettes.htm, the nude guy, seems to have a gorytos in his left hand.

[Swampster]

Is that not a sword hilt just over his left hand? I think the rest may be the folds of a cloak. A Galatian perhaps?

If it is a bow case, I'd suspect that the nudity might point to a divine portrayal.

[Patrick Waterson]

Hard to tell, but it looks to me as if the said figure is holding what is left of either a broken bow or what may be a broken sword held left-handed.

Would a left-handed swordsman be unusual?

The figure does seem to have a shoulder-strap for something, perhaps a gorytos quiver?

[Duncan Head]

Hmm, that's the second posting of mine that's disappeared within a couple of days. In this case, it may be that I was trying to update simultaneously with Patrick's post?

Anyway: Zooming in and looking from various angles, I am fairly sure I can see a rectangular outline, central pattern, and open "mouth". It still looks like a bow-case to me.

Divinity? Maybe. It certainly looks a bit different from anything else Bosporan I have seen.