A GREEK AMETHYST RING STONE
A GREEK AMETHYST RING STONE

HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 3RD-2ND CENTURY B.C.

Details
A GREEK AMETHYST RING STONE
hellenistic period, circa 3rd-2nd century b.c.
The oval gem convex on top and bottom, engraved with a figure of Melpomene wearing a high-belted peplos with a himation wrapped around her body and over her right shoulder, holding a tragic mask in one hand and an inverted parazonium (sword) in the other, standing on a short ground line, set in a 19th century gold ring
Size 7

Lot Essay

Melpomene, the muse of tragedy, is a comparatively rare subject on gems. For a fine example in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University, see no. 350 in Boardman and Vollenweider, Catalogue of the Engraved Gems and Finger Rings, I, Greek and Etruscan.