ATTRIBUTED TO THE SPHINX AND YOUTH GROUP I, ARCHAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 550-525 B.C.

The plain beetle has a carinated ridge dividing the elytra. The underside is engraved with the opposing foreparts of a winged sphinx and a winged lion, all enclosed within a hatched border. The treatment of the sphinx’s head and wing is very close in style to that of a sphinx carrying a youth on two scarabs from Orvieto, now in the Bibliothèque nationale, Paris, the subject of which gives its name to the group (see J. Boardman, Archaic Greek Gems, nos. 122 and 124).