sirene

Funerary statue of a siren in Pentelic marble, found in the Necropolis of Ceramics at Athens. The siren laments the dead, wings folded, playing on a tortoiseshell lyre. The right hand, which would have held the plectrum, is missing. The strings, probably made of bronze, would have been attached to the holes which can be seen in the body of the instrument. The plumage and other parts would have been picked out in colour. The statue flanked the stele of the Athenian warrior Dexileo who fell in combat in 394/393 BC (Work of 370BC, National Archeological Museum, Athens).