‘Melian Reliefs’ in the collection of the British School at Athens

Abstract

In the collection of the Museum of the British School at Athens two specimens of the so-called ‘Melian Reliefs’ have been discovered. Sphinxes are already known in this class of reliefs, but these two furnish a new iconographical type: the isolated crouching sphinx. A similar type is very well attested among the widespread Corinthian terracotta-reliefs which are, however, clearly to be distinguished from our ‘Melian’ class.At an iconographical level, a short study related to the gender of Greek sphinxes is able to demonstrate that male sphinxes were not foreign to Greek perception. The two new female sphinxes presented here furnish the first examples of sickle-shaped wings known within the class of ‘Melian Reliefs’.