Tomb of King Kybernis
- Audio guide stop: 237
- Gallery: Room 15
- Culture: Classical Greek; Achaemenid
- Made in: Lycia (historic)
- Date: 480BC-470BC
- Object type: tomb
- Materials: marble
- Museum number: 1848,1020.1.4
- 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 is a sculpted panel from the "Harpy Tomb," a monumental Classical Greek tomb from Lycia in the mid-5th century BCE. The panel, carved in large-grained marble, depicts a standing young man offering a plumed helmet to a seated figure. The youth wears military attire—cuirass, greaves, and a short chiton—which suggests a soldier, while the seated man, dressed in an Ionic chiton and flowing mantle, may be a ruler.
The seated figure is flanked by rich detailing: a shield at the young man’s feet, a bird-shaped sword hilt, and a small quadruped, likely a bear, under the stool. These details reflect the intricate workmanship and symbolic depth of Lycian funerary art.
Carved in limestone and marble, the tomb once crowned a tall sepulchral tower in Xanthus—now modern-day southwestern Turkey. Though weathered, the panel’s graceful drapery, expressive faces, and careful attention to folds and contours reveal the refined Hellenic style of the time. This tomb offers rare insight into the artistic and cultural legacy of Lycia—long part of the Greek world, yet distinct in its own right.
See it in person
Tomb of King Kybernis is on display in Room 15 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and type its audio guide stop number, 237, from the gallery label, or take a photo of it, to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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