A STELE FROM DREROS

The stele was found during the excavation conducted by the French Archaeological School in Dreros in 1932. It was placed in a secondary use as a step in the stone staircase at the south end of the city agora.

The stele (H. 0.73 m-0.74 m, w. 0.25-0.27 m, th. 0.19 m) is made of a black local stone. Its facade is decorated in a very low relief, structured in three vertical zones, each separated by a ground line.

In the center of the upper zone is depicted a bird with open wings and on the right corner is a walking man holding a peculiar object in his right hand that looks like a thunderbolt. In the middle zone a male figure in left profile with wings on his shoulder and legs seems to fly by, holding a quadruped in his right hand and wearing a ring on his left. In the lower zone was placed the engraved contour of a gorgoneion.

The depiction is interpreted as Jupiter with a thunderbolt and an eagle in the upper zone, with Perseus flying in the middle towards a sacred place as indicated by the winged sphinx on the altar in front of him. Perseus has been identified as the winged figure because of his role as a protector of the initiation rites of the adolescents of Dreros, which, as evidenced by the Drerian oath and the miniature bronze weapon offerings, took place in the city of Dreros. The stele is dated to the beginning of the 5th century BC.