Earrings

Gold earrings with pairs of pendent Sphinxes modelled in the round, and discs set with garnets. The sphinxes step on a thin rectangular base. The earrings are made from several tiny metal sheets and were worn dangling from a fine wire loop which held the hook in place and was passed through the earlobe. Similar earrings with pendent winged figures (Nike, Siren, Eros, etc.) and disc set with a semiprecious stone are familiar throughout the Hellenistic world during the 3rd and 2nd c. BC. Their frequent discovery in graves permits the hypothesis that these beings were linked with beliefs about the transition of the soul to the Nether World, and allows their interpretation as "psychopompoi" (conductors of souls) who bore the soul as they winged their way over land and sea.