Commentary Prepared by Dr. Julia Lenaghan, Ashmolean Museum

A 116
Nereid 909, from the Nereid Monument at Xanthos. London.

Under life-size statue of a Lycian water nymph with a water fowl at her feet. From the central intercolumniation of the north side of the temple-like grave monument of a Lycian dynast (probably Arbinas) at Xanthos. C. 390 BC

Marble
Statue
H 1.39 m, L. 75 cm, width 63 cm

From Xanthos in Lycia. Part of a funerary monument on a hill within the city’s Hellenistic walls. Found in 1842 on the north side of the terrace.
United Kingdom, London, British Museum, 909
c. 390 - 380 BC

Preservation:
The figure is missing its head, right arm from the elbow down, feet, sections of the overfold at the back and front, large part of the back of the himation. The following fragments have been reattached: the right arm at the middle of the sleeve; the left hand holding drapery; two large fragments of drapery at the left side; two fragments of drapery at the back; two small fragments of chiton folds at the back left. The left foot was either restored in antiquity or worked separately. There are three holes at and around the break for its attachment.

Description:
The statue depicts a young adult female dressed in a thin garment with a heavier a garment draped over it. The figure moves to its left and on the ground between its feet is a large water bird. The figure pushes off its weight-bearing right leg and steps to the left. The right leg bends slightly; the lower leg trails behind. The upper part of the left leg moves forward and to the left. The lower leg is perpendicular to the ground surface and turns to the left. The left foot would have pointed to the left and the heel would not have touched the ground. The torso of the body turns gently to the left. The right arm falls to the right side and the hand once held some material of the inner garment along the outside of the right thigh. The left arm is bent and raised. The upper arm moves down and to the left of the body and the forearm bends upward and extends further to the left. The hand grasps folds of the heavy outer garment. The figure wears a large thin tube-like garment that reaches its feet. The upper edge of the garment has been folded down and reaches just below the breasts. The crease of the fold at the front is joined to the crease of the fold at the back by buttons at the shoulders and upper arms. A band in the form of a horizontal figure 8 keeps the garment close to the upper body. Each arm is put through a loop of the 8 which criss-crosses at the back. At the front of the body the only a portion of the loops of the band would have appeared at the shoulders. This is the case at the right shoulder; the over garment conceals the strap at the left shoulder. Over the left shoulder and arm falls the end of a heavier garment. This covers the back of the statue. The disposition of the two garments at the back and sides of the body is typical to understand because of the confluence of the flowing drapery and the broken areas. The body in rapid motion to the left pushes through the inner garment which both flows back off the body and is pulled to the right of the body by the right hand. Over the body the inner garment sticks, as if it were wet, to the body. The material has virtually no volume even though the fine folds are layered on top of each other. The anatomy of the body is entirely visible; particularly evident are the small breasts, the curving lower edge of the rib cage, and the navel. The folds of the inner garment that fall off the body, for instance the folds that blow to the right of the left leg, become heavy and stick to themselves. The folds blowing from the left leg back between the legs are rendered in an almost calligraphic series of heavy parallel almost S shaped folds with deep cavities between them. The cloak is also rendered in thick heavy folds that contrast to the fine material that seems almost pasted on the body.

Discussion:
The ‘Nereid monument’ at Xanthos was excavated in the nineteenth century and subsequently transported to the British Museum. It is a funerary monument probably for the dynast Arbinas who is well known from the epigraphic record. From the record we know that Arbinas was responsible for building many monuments at Xanthos and the temple of Leto at Letoon, was aware of Hellenic culture, and probably died about 380 BC, a date that corresponds to that produced by stylistic analysis of the monument. The ‘Nereid monument’, made from local stone and marble, takes the form of a small peripteral temple. It features a tall podium decorated with two bands of relief (cf. cat.no. A 118). Above the podium are ionic columns (4 across the front, 6 on the sides) that support, one top of the other, an architrave decorated with relief, a pediment filled with sculpture, and sculpted acroteria. The building’s inner cella also featured figural decoration. Between the columns of the podium on three sides (north, east, and west) were under-life size young female figures in rapid motion accompanied by aquatic animals. These figures, deemed until recently to be Nereids, provided the monument its modern name. There is space for a total of 11 of these figures, though there appear to be fragments of more than eleven. The south stylobate, however, shows no indications that such figures were ever mounted on the south side. Because of the various animals- fish, dolphins, water birds, crabs, and shell fish- at their feet, the figures had long been generally assumed to be Nereids, daughters of the sea-god Nereus and sisters as well as companions of Thetis. In Greek art the Nereids were principally shown bringing arms to Achilles, riding dolphins, or part of a marine thiasus. They also came to be associated with accompanying the dead to the island of the blessed, the island of Leuke, Although the Xanthos ‘Nereid’ figures were without visual parallels in Greek art, their role as companions of the heroic dead seemed appropriate for the Xanthos monument. Recently, however, T. Robinson has proposed to identify them as similar divinities but divinities from the Lycian mythological repertoire. Given the locale of the monument and the non-Greek iconography, this would be more suitable. He points out that in the tri-lingual inscription from the Letoön, local female water divinities, Eliyãna, are translated into Greek as nymphae. These Eliyãna attended Leto, who had replaced a local Anatolian mother goddess and to whom the dynast Arbinas had built a temple. As a devoted servant of Leto, it would be understandable that Arbinas would be accompanied by her other devoted servants. Whether Eliyãna or Nereids, the main concept is similar—a divine escort for a heroic, more than mortal figure. ‘Nereid 909’ in the British Museum, found on the north side, was assuredly fixed (its join to the stylobate is secure) to the central intercolumniation of the north (a long) side of the monument. The figure has always attracted attention because it is dressed differently than all of the other ‘Nereids’. It wears a fine sleeved inner garment, has an overfall without a visible belt, and uses a figure 8 cord around the arms and upper body to hold the garment in place. Its unique dress and prominent central position had caused scholars to identify it as Thetis or even the dynast’s wife. In light of Robinson’s compelling proposal these identifications are probably best discarded. The figure may perhaps have represented a particular Lycian Eliyãna about whom we are entirely ignorant. Technically the figure has been identified as belonging to the sculpture created by the workshop labelled M I. Most of the Nereids were made by this workshop which is thought to have been a Greek workshop rather than a local workshop. Stylistically the large billowing parallel folds between the legs of Nereid 909 are visible in contemporary Greek sculptures (the Dexileos monument, Nike 312 from the Agora, and acroteria from the Asklepeion in Epidauros). J. Lenaghan

Bibliography:
A.H. Smith, A Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum II (London 1900) 33-35, no. 909, pl. 4 catalogue entry
M.J. Bousquet, "Arbinas, dynaste de Xanthos" (CRAI 1975) 138-152 presentation of inscriptions pertinent to Arbinas
W. A. P. Childs and P. Demargne, Fouilles de Xanthos VIII : Le Monument des Néréides, Le décor sculpté (Paris 1989) 125-126, 270-277, pls.84.3, 89-92 catalogue entry, illustrations, discussion of meaning of Nereids, suggests that this statue is Thetis
L. Todisco, Scultura greca del IV secolo (Milan 1993) 55-56, fig. 70 illustration, bibliography, and brief discussion
T. Robinson, "The Neried Monument at Xanthos or the Eliyãna monument at Arñna" (OxfJA 14 1995) 355-359 identifies the ‘Nereids’ as local Lycian divinities, the Eliyãna
B. S. Ridgway, Fourth-Century Styles in Greek Sculpture (London 1997) 78-79, 84-86, pl. 20, ill. 11 discussion of the ‘Nereid Monument’, summarizes research to date and provides bibliography