The Dodwell Stele
'Records of your virtue, Theophile, will never pass unoticed, modest and excellent and industrious, possessing every virtue.'
σῆς ἀρετῆς μνημ<εῖ>α, | Θεοφίλη, οὔποτε λήσει, | σώφρων καὶ χρηστὴ καὶ | ἐργάτις πᾶσαν ἔχουσα | ἀρετήν
Carved from a single piece of marble this large gravestone originally featured a decorated architectural pediment above the farewell scene. The figure to the left is completely preserved and sits on a klismos chair, while the figure to the right grasps her right hand. The inscription is badly worn and the marble is discoloured in numerous places. The epitaph records the many virtues of Theophile in a rough metrical arrangement.
Edward Dowdell, the Irish Grand Tourist, discovered the stone in the Piraeus necropolis in the summer of 1805. In his 1819 Classical and Topographical Tour through Greece, Dodwell records the scene, ‘In the sepulchre of a female named Theophile, we found only some broken terra cotta vases, and a fragmented bas-relief of white marble, representing two females.’
Dodwell sold the piece to The Most Honourable Sir Howe Peter Browne, KP PC, 2nd Marquess of Sligo, and the object remained in the family collection for several generations. In 1958 The Most Honourable Denis Edward Browne, 10th Marquess of Sligo, sold the gravestone at Christies to a private collector. It was recently acquired from Charles Ede Ltd. Antiquities by the RD Milns Antiquities Museum, to mark the Museum’s 50th Anniversary. The provenance of this important object can therefore, be traced from its discovery to its new home in 2014.