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Tarantine Greek Relief with a Fighting Arimasp Skythian, Southern Italy, 350 - 300 B.C.
J. Paul Getty Museum.
Title: Relief with a Fighting Arimasp
Artist/Maker: Unknown
Culture: Greek (South Italian, Tarantine)
Place: Tarentum (Taras), South Italy (Place Created)
Date: 350 - 300 B.C.
Medium: Terracotta with yellowish slip and foil gilding
Object Number: 71.AD.221
Dimensions: 6.5 × 8 cm (2 9/16 × 3 1/8 in.)
The figure is portrayed in profile facing proper right, with a sword held in his right hand over his head, and a pelta (crescent shield) resting on the ground covering his left arm. He is about to strike an adversary, probably a griffin. His right leg is bent and thrust forward while the left kneels on the ground; is abdomen is inclined backward. He wears a Phrygian cap, a short chiton belted under the chest, and a chlamys that, following the warrior’s motions, is lifting to one side, forming a series of fluted folds. Reliefs of Arimasps, members of a Scythian tribe of one-eyed men who were constantly at war with griffins, typically ornamented Tarentine sarcophagi.
Source: The J. Paul Getty Trust