Attic stela
- Gallery: Room 19
- Culture: Attic
- Made in: Athens
- Date: 420BC (circa)
- Object type: stela, gravestone, relief
- Materials: marble
- Museum number: 1805,0703.183
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
Before you stands an Athenian tombstone from around 420 BC, carved from pale, smooth marble. At its center sits an aged man draped in fabric, his right hand extended toward viewers. He holds a "shoemaker's last"—a tool used to shape footwear—marking him either as a cobbler or a commemorative figure. Beside him stand two small girls, much smaller in scale, suggesting they are his daughters or symbolic figures of mourning and remembrance.
Xanthippos is inscribed above in Greek, though his identity remains uncertain. Earlier theories once linked him to a famous general, but recent dating places this work firmly in the mid-5th century BC. Notice the fine details: the man’s posture, the texture of his clothing, and the delicate contours of the girls beside him reflect classical Greek relief techniques.
This artifact captures a personal story while serving as a glimpse into daily life and funerary traditions in classical Athens.
See it in person
Attic stela is on display in Room 19 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and take a photo of it to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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