The Lekythos of Myrrhine: Funerary and Honorific Commemoration of Priestesses in Ancient Athens

by Eugenia Michailidou

Hesperia, Volume 89, Issue 3
Page(s): 551-579
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.89.3.0551
Year: 2020
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ABSTRACT:

This article considers whether the grave stele of Myrrhine, the first priestess of the cult of Athena Nike on the Athenian Acropolis, belongs to the same Myrrhine pictured on a marble lekythos in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. After examining the dates of the monuments, the iconography of the lekythos, and its suitability for the representation of a priestess, this article argues that the lekythos and the stele both date to ca. 420 B.C. and commemorate the same historical personage. Finally, it analyzes the importance of the commemoration of Myrrhine within its historical context of the Peloponnesian War, particularly the period of the Peace of Nikias (421-415 B.C.).