HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 2ND CENTURY B.C.

This large oval gem, vibrant green in color, features the bust of a woman with long loose locks falling over her shoulders. While her head is in profile, the bust, nude but for a hint of drapery, is in three-quarter back view. The type, known from a number of surviving examples, was previously identified as the Nereid Galene by Furtwängler. It was thought the goddess was depicted swimming, and thus connected to an epigram by Addaios from his Anthologia Graeca (9.544), which mentions that her image was cut onto an Indian beryl by the artist Tryphon because the stone’s blue color was appropriate for her as the personification of the calm sea (see pp. 89-90 in D. Plantzos, Hellenistic Engraved Gems). Boardman has challenged this interpretation, as some examples have the addition of a crescent moon, thus depicting the moon goddess Selene setting over the horizon rather than Galene swimming (see p. 32 in Engraved Gems, The Ionides Collection). For the type, see nos. 475-510 in Plantzos, op. cit.