Votive Relief with Banquet Scene

A bearded, semi-draped man reclines on a couch, leaning with his left elbow on two pillows. In his left hand, he holds a phiale (libation bowl) and gestures towards his wife with his right. She sits at the foot of the couch with her feet resting on a foot stool. She wears a himation over a long chiton and her hair in a sakkos, and perhaps holds a fillet between her raised hands. An enslaved attendant stands, nude, at the foot of the couch, carrying a jug and a rhyton (drinking horn) with a ram's head, with which to bring wine from the large krater behind him. In front of the couch is a table with ritual cakes. In the top left corner of the relief, there is a horse's head in profile above a ledge.

This relief belongs to a category known as "Totenmahl" (literally, 'Feast of the Dead') that repeat the same basic iconography seen here. These reliefs served as votives and were associated with hero cults: the horse is a typical indicator of heroized status, as well as of wealth.