Engraved Scarab with Bes Fighting a Lion (Front)

This scarab depicts the Egyptian god, Bes, fighting a lion, which rears on its back legs to claw his chest and thigh. Bes is shown naked but for a plumed headdress and an animal skin, only the tail of which is represented.

Greek gem carving changed dramatically in form, materials, and technique in the-mid 500s B.C. One of these changes was the introduction of the scarab, with its back carved like a beetle and its flat surface an intaglio. They were usually pierced and worn either as a pendant or attached to a metal hoop and worn as a ring, with the beetle side facing out and the intaglio surface resting against the finger. When serving as a seal, the ring was removed, the scarab swiveled, and the intaglio design was pressed into soft clay or wax to identify and secure property. This example is set on a gold swivel with globule terminals and in a hoop composed of beaded wire, plaited wire and granule triangles.

The scarab form originally derived from Egypt, where it had been used for seals and amulets for centuries. Certain features of Greek scarabs, however, such as the form of the beetle and the hatching around the intaglio motif, show the influence of Phoenician models, which the Greeks probably saw on Cyprus. This gem, together with its setting, is identical to another found in a tomb at Ialysos in Rhodes suggesting a possible East Greek origin.