ARCHAIC PERIOD, CIRCA LATE 6TH CENTURY B.C.

Beginning in the second quarter of the 6th century B.C., the Greeks adopted the scarab beetle form for their seals. The inspiration came from Near Eastern rather than Egyptian sources, since many have a carinated back in the manner found on some Phoenician examples, a feature not seen on Egyptian beetles. For the Greeks, the scarab had no religious significance but must still have been considered exotic (see Boardman, Archaic Greek Gems, p. 169).

The subject of a figure shouldering a ram is typically associated with Hermes (Hermes Kriophoros), as seen on sculpture in bronze, marble and terracotta and on vases of the 6th and 5th centuries B.C. (see G. Siebert, "Hermes," in LIMC, vol. V, nos. 272-294). The running youth on this gem may depict a shepherd or a preparation for sacrifice, perhaps to Hermes. The subject was known to A. Furtwängler from an impression of a now-lost Archaic Greek gem (Die antiken Gemmen, pl. XV, 15). For the pose compare also the youth shouldering a goat on another lost gem (Furtwängler, op. cit., pl. VIII, 16) and Herakles shouldering the lion on a rock crystal scaraboid in the Bibliothèque nationale, Paris (Boardman, Archaic Greek Gems, no. 295). Sangiorgi considered the present scarab Western Greek, perhaps from Taranto (ancient Taras) in South Italy.