Hellenistic Relief Molds from the Athenian Agora

By (author) Claireve Grandjouan

Book cover: Hellenistic Relief Molds from the Athenian Agora

Extent: 86 pages

Publisher: American School of Classical Studies at Athens

Subjects: Classical Studies, Mediterranean Archaeology

Series: Hesperia Supplement

Series volume number: 23

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(November 1989)

ISBN: 9780876615232

8.46 x 10.98 inches

Price: $49.95

In stock

Situated on the shores of the Argolic Gulf, only a few miles away from the much later prehistoric sites of Mycenae, Tiryns, and Midea, Lerna is one of the key building blocks in our understanding of Greek archaeology. This guide to Lerna is illustrated with many plans and black and white photos.


Over 100 clay molds found between 1931 and 1977 in the fills within the three great Hellenistic stoas that once lined the Agora (the Middle Stoa, the Stoa of Attalos, and the South Stoa) are published in this book. While the repertory of images that could have been cast using them, comprising 25 subjects, is relatively conventional, the large size (up to 30 x 60 cm) makes their function a puzzle. The author concludes that they must have been for the casting of cheap funerary substitutes at a time when a decree of Demetrios of Phaleron prohibited the building of costly burial monuments in Athens. After the author’s death in 1982, this volume was edited by Eileen Markson and Susan I. Rotroff.

  • By (author) Claireve Grandjouan